The phrase “good enough to win” frequently gets thrown around during a football season, particularly with the San Francisco 49ers organization the last few seasons. In Week 2 against the Eagles, the offense struggled early before gaining a little momentum before halftime and ultimately scoring 17 points. In today’s Oh, Hey There Podcast, Leo Luna and Javier Vega wondered if it’s fair to expect more out of Jimmy Garoppolo.
“There should be a certain standard when you are starting over the third overall pick,” Luna said, “When that standard is not met, in a win or a loss, there should be criticism. Because eventually, you’re going to reach a point to where that standard is not met and instead of a win against a Jalen Hurts Eagles team, it’s going to end up being a loss. Does yesterday’s performance beat the Rams, beat the Seahawks, or beat the Cardinals? I will go on record and say no. Jimmy Garoppolo, with [Sunday’s] performance, does not beat those three teams.”
The competition certainly ticks up a notch over the next three weeks with the Packers at home, the Seahawks at home, and a road game in Arizona. The next chunk of the season will definitely tell us more about this team than the first two games.
Is it fair to criticize a quarterback after a win? Certainly, Jimmy’s play couldn’t have been that bad if the team was still able to get the victory, right?
For Vega, the issues come more from what didn’t happen on the field as opposed to what did:
“There are times in this game where Kyle Shanahan dials it up - Cover 2 beaters, Cover 3 beaters - and Jimmy cannot hit these throws. These are the NFL type of throws that a 26 million dollar quarterback should be making. Consistently. What I mean by consistently, I mean six out of ten. Seven out of ten. Those are the throws you have to make, and he’s hitting them two or three times out of ten. That’s not going to get the job done against better teams.”
As Javi noted during the show, Garoppolo did have a great throw before halftime, but outside of that, he completed three passes over fifteen yards against Philadelphia.
Kyle Posey recently offered his take on the quarterback situation here and here and thinks Shanahan prefers the veteran presence of Garoppolo. However, in today’s show, Javi and Leo took the opposite approach.
There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground in 49ers fandom. You’re either fine sticking with Jimmy Garoppolo, or you’re frustrated with the inconsistency and are willing to roll the dice on the upside of a rookie quarterback.
Other topics in this episode
- The improved pass blocking from the 49ers so far in 2021
- Jimmie Ward and Jaquiski Tartt’s greatness at stopping explosive plays
- Why Deommodore Lenoir is the real deal
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