Quarterback rankings in the entire NFL are somewhat useless when looking at competition for the San Francisco 49ers.Sure Tom Brady is up there, but the only time he’s going to play the 49ers in 2018 is if they wind up in the Super Bowl (and don’t say it won’t happen, we all know with Jimmy Garoppolo anything is possible).
So let’s keep things local. NFL Network analysts Shaun O’Hara and David Carr recently ranked the quarterbacks of the NFC West. They ranked them as follows:
4: Sam Bradford (Arizona Cardinals)
3: Jimmy Garoppolo (San Francisco 49ers)
2: Jared Goff (Los Angeles Rams)
1: Russell Wilson (Seattle Seahawks)
Bradford was about what you’d expect. Carr had this to say:
“Talent-wise and accuracy-wise, he’s been off the charts. The issue has been his health.”
Moving onto Jimmy Garoppolo, O’Hera took the reigns with this:
“Not a huge sample size, but I really like his accuracy and I like his understanding of the defense and how he works the offense.”
Jared Goff and Wilson were more play breakdowns than anything else so quoting an explanation is a bit unnecessary.
That said, I actually agree with this assessment. In the words of Ric Flair, “To be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man.” Wilson has shown time and time again some great stuff while Jared Goff really came into his own in 2017. Sure we can all use the argument that 2017 was a fluke for Goff, but it’s a bit shallow to say that while praising Garoppolo’s five starts of awesomeness. Goff had a great 2017 and Garoppolo only had a strong five games. It’s the truth, unfortunately. I do think these rankings will change mid-season once Jimmy G has declared his dominance on the NFL and the world at large, but for now these seem pretty accurate.
Goff has a larger sample size and Wilson has a Super Bowl ring. This list seems pretty accurate. At least for now.
If you’re objective (and yes, I mean OBJECTIVE) where do you rank the NFC West quarterbacks?