We are enjoying a theme week at SB Nation this week, celebrating NFL records. Some of our team sites are talking about records that will never be broken, while others are discussing records that defined an era.
SB Nation NFL tweeted out asking people what record they would like to see broken this year. There are plenty of big ones, but I think there is one in particular we would like to see fall this season. Quarterback wins is not a real stat in my mind, but Ben Roethlisberger currently holds the record for most consecutive wins by a quarterback to start his career. He had 15 consecutive wins after he made his starting debut in 2004, seeing the streak end with a 41-27 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC title game.
Jimmy Garoppolo enters the 2018 season having won his first seven career starts. That was split over two seasons between the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers, but he has the seven straight wins under his belt. Is it possible we see the 49ers win eight straight out of the gate this season?
Garoppolo & Co. face a tough schedule out of the gate. The first four weeks include a road game at Minnesota, a home game against Detroit, and then road games against Kansas City and the Los Angeles Chargers. Garoppolo needs nine straight wins to surpass Roethlisberger, but those first four games are the toughest stretch of the 49ers season.
After those four games, the next five include:
vs. Arizona
@ Green Bay
vs. Los Angeles Rams
@ Arizona
vs. Oakland
The Packers road game and the home game against the Rams are the toughest of that set of five. Of course, we don’t know how Sam Bradford and/or Josh Rosen will look for the Cardinals, and we don’t know how the Raiders will bounce back, if at all, under Jon Gruden. There are big question marks for both teams, but we won’t really know what to make of them until we see them in action. Those are three seemingly winnable games for now, but we’ll see what things like look a quarter of the way into the season.
Odds are pretty slim Garoppolo sets the record, but it’s not like any of those first nine games is entirely unwinnable. I’m skeptical the 49ers come out of that opening set 4-0, but if they did, expectations were climb considerably!