Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has made the San Francisco 49ers relevant again. In a city where expectations surrounding the Oakland Raiders dominated sports talk before the start of the season, the 49ers are now the hot topic.
Garoppolo has started the last three games for the 49ers after a short time entrenched in a crash course learning head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. During his three starts, Garoppolo has completed 77 of his 113 pass attempts for 1,008 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. Against Tennessee this past Sunday, he passed for a single-game career-high 381 yards, a touchdown, and a passer rating of 106.8.
The 49ers appear to have a franchise quarterback to build around finally, and they head into the offseason with one of the most significant salary cap surpluses in the league.
Just how impressive has Garoppolo been in his three starts? 49ers.com senior reporter Joe Fann joined the "No Huddle" podcast this week and shared his thoughts on the 49ers' exciting new quarterback.
"He's been amazing," Fann said. "I think one tweet I saw on Sunday after they beat the Titans was -- it was from Evan Silva of Rotoworld. He said it took Matt Ryan one year to master Kyle Shanahan's offense with Julio Jones as his number one receiver. It took Garoppolo one month with Marquise Goodwin as his number one receiver."
Below is the tweet which Fann referred to.
It took Matt Ryan a year of struggles to master Kyle Shan's O with Julio at WR1. It took Jimmy Garoppolo less than a month with Marquise Goodwin.
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) December 18, 2017
It's a fascinating statement because some were wondering why Garoppolo was not inserted into the offense sooner. It wasn't until an injury to rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard that Garoppolo got his opportunity.
Ryan struggled in his first year working within Shanahan's offense while Garoppolo has impressed after less than a month and done so while working with a lot less around him.
"That was really telling," Fann continued. "That's not to say that Garoppolo's a finished product. He's going to have his bad games. You saw Marquise Goodwin saved him from a couple of interceptions. This guy's a risk taker. He's going to have some bad games, some two, three interceptions games. But the thing I like about him is he's confident in his decisions, he trusts what he sees, and he's willing to take that chance in order to make a play, and you've seen it pay off quite a few times over these last three weeks."
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