The Jimmy Garoppolo injury was not caused by Steven Nelson

We all want to forget the Jimmy Garoppolo injury suffered against the Kansas City Chiefs, but the problem is, we’re going to be revisiting it throughout the rest of the San Francisco 49ers’ season. If that MRI isn’t anything good, a lot of “what could have been” will be in our minds for the rest of the year.

If you haven’t seen it, the play was a simple scramble of Garoppolo taking off down the sidelines and then colliding with Chiefs defender Steven Nelson. At first, the hit looked like a concussion where Garoppolo lowered his shoulder and attempted to make a sideline stand with Nelson. That wasn’t the case.

The one thing that’s important is identifying that this was in no way caused by Nelson. First glance of the injury made several (including members of the Niners Nation staff) to criticize Garoppolo for not stepping out of bounds sooner to avoid the hit. Garoppolo instead had his knee buckle and that set up the collision. If he was or wasn’t stepping out of bounds, we may never know, but that is what held him there as a sitting duck.

Having not suffered the injury myself, but having family members who have, I’ve been told that you feel it *pop* and you are almost petrified for a brief moment before the inability to support your weight puts you on the ground. From the looks of the below video that is exactly what happened: Garoppolo suffered the injury and was stunned—leaving the opening for Nelson to clock him. Again we may never know what Garoppolo was planning with a cut back inside, but I’m going off what I’ve been told about the injury.

This wouldn’t be something to bring up in a post, but I know that we always can hold grudges against players for what can be dirty hits or things that compromise seasons. I just wanted to clarify that this had absolutely nothing to do with Nelson’s hit. He did nothing wrong. Like the McKinnon injury, this is just a case of bad luck.