With the 2018 season months away, the San Francisco 49ers will have a lot of momentum going from their five straight wins to close out the season. Those wins would no doubt have not been possible had the 49ers not had quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo under center. And Garoppolo has Tom Brady to thank for someone to emulate as he became what he was.
Who else did that? Steve Young watching Joe Montana. SF Gate 49ers reporter Eric Branch got some great quotes from the 49ers hall of famer comparing their own sideline observance to Jimmy Garoppolo’s career. From the article:
“Now the expectations are huge, and that’s good,” Young said. “He knows how good you have to be. He’s watched it - so that’s nice. It’s not going to be ‘Oh, Jimmy, the expectations are too high.’ He’s like ‘No, I know how good you have to be. You can expect me to do whatever you want, but I know how good I have to be. I’ve witnessed it.’ It just makes a huge difference. A lot of players don’t have any idea how hard the job is; what really good looks like. And Jimmy’s watched it for four years.”
While Young and Garoppolo’s circumstances are different, both at least learned under two people considered the best quarterbacks of all time. The difference is, Young was handed the keys, while Garoppolo was jettisoned elsewhere. Later on in Branch’s article Young thought Garoppolo had the harder job to go through with:
“It’s so hard to come into a team that’s not winning, in midseason, with new coaches and new plays, and just start winning games,” Young said. “That’s just so hard to do. You can try to diminish it, but why would you? You’ve got a 1-10 team that goes 5-0. Jimmy did so much just to stop the madness.”
The one thing everyone is waiting on is when teams get film on Jimmy Garoppolo and put a book together on every nuance he has. If Garoppolo can adjust to that, he’ll be one of the best quarterbacks in the league. There have been exceptions but some of the best quarterbacks were taken with the intentions to learn and replace a hall of famer. Aaron Rodgers, Steve Young, and now Jimmy Garoppolo.
If anyone knows what Garoppolo has gone through, Young definitely has.