While the Faithful may be divided about their feelings for Jimmy Garoppolo, one thing has been made abundantly clear: The 49ers themselves are not. Garoppolo is almost universally beloved inside that locker room.
So, with Raheem Mostert seemingly calling his former quarterback’s passing ability into question this week, Levin Black and I got to wondering on today’s Gold Standard podcast. Will the Niners use those comments to rally around their quarterback?
Mostert himself tried to put the toothpaste back in the tube on KNBR this week, especially regarding his “We have a quarterback that can actually sling it” comment. When asked specifically why he used the word “actually” in that comment, here was Raheem’s explanation.
“That was just the way I phrased it. That’s how I talk being a... I call myself a little bit of a beach bum. I love surfing, and that’s just how I speak. It was nothing more, nothing less.”
That doesn’t exactly clear things up. I’m not even quite sure what that means. I’ve never heard the word “actually” associated with surfers or beach bums, and I also don’t remember Raheem using that word in weird places in any of his media sessions while he was with the 49ers.
He was asked specifically what makes Miami’s offense more dynamic than San Francisco’s offense, and he said what he said. He didn’t praise Mike McDaniel or the incredible speed at wide receiver. Instead, he pointed to a difference at one specific position. He didn’t even use his own quarterback’s name. He just said, “we have a quarterback than can actually sling it.”
Regardless, what matters is how the 49ers themselves take it this week. Professional athletes are famous for taking even the smallest of slights, both real or imagined, and turning them into extra motivation for a given game. We’ve already seen proof that players on both sides of the ball are aware of the comments.
After all, we’ve seen core members of this 49ers team rally around Jimmy Garoppolo before. Just last year, almost every skill position player went out of his way to have Jimmy’s back. Even Christian McCaffrey, who has been with the team for about ten minutes, has praised his quarterback.
Even without Mostert’s comments, there were already a lot of juicy storylines for this week’s game. A former member of the 49ers calling out their starting quarterback could be just the extra motivation this offense needs to get rolling again.
Other topics in today’s show:
- Thank you for all the support this year (1:19)
- Who has the advantage: McDaniel or Shanahan? (3:03)
- Is the Dolphins’ offense overrated? (6:15)
- How McDaniel will attack Hufanga (8:20)
- The Niners’ linebackers will be tested (10:05)
- The goal for DeMeco Ryans is to make the Dolphins one-dimensional (11:23)
- Will CMC’s injuries affect Jimmy Garoppolo’s effectiveness? (18:38)
- The 49ers passing attack against McDaniel (23:45)
- How to attack the Dolphins' defense (26:04)
- The potential playoff path for the 49ers (30:42)
- Don’t overreact to a loss from the Niners (41:22)
- Will Jimmy be limited by his banged up knee? (43:10)
- Final score predictions (46:32)
- How Levin gets away with cooking full steaks at work (49:44)
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