Michael Robinson spent his first four NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and then his final four with the division foe Seattle Seahawks playing running back and fullback. Right now, he is an analyst for NFL Network. The 2006 fourth-round draft pick by San Francisco joined the "Murph & Mac" show on KNBR from Radio Row in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Friday to discuss quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo leading his former team.
"I'll tell you one thing, that 49er team with Jimmy G, and with the run game, and what Shanahan has going on, it looks promising and it looks like they're going to be a very, very much improved team next year," Robinson said. "They look exciting. I can't wait to watch them."
Robinson loved what he saw from Garoppolo over the course of the 49ers' final five games of the season, which were all victories. While praising the quarterback, he made an interesting comparison to a former 49ers signal-caller.
"Jimmy G is legit," Robinson said. "You can tell he learned a lot from [Patriots QB] Tom Brady. I'll tell you one thing. When you watch him throw, look at his hips. His feet always are in a correct throwing position. He has a very, very quick release. He has the juice, right? It just seems like when he's going, the team plays better.
"I'll tell you one thing. You look at all his stats, his five games, and you look at Colin Kaepernick's last five games, they're almost identical. But yet, the narrative, just because of some of the things that went on surrounding Colin, the narrative is different."
While Robinson referenced the final five games for each player, which was 2016 for Kaepernick and 2017 for Garoppolo, he probably meant their last six games. Below is a comparison of those numbers.
What do you make of this? pic.twitter.com/8bR9zw4r9O
— Jimmy Spencer (@JimmySpencerUN) January 11, 2018
While there are differences with some of the numbers, both quarterback's passer ratings are exactly the same.
"But Jimmy G, he's going to be a star in this league, so I hope you guys lock him up for a very long time, which I'm sure you're in the process of doing because he is a stud in this league," Robinson continued.
Since Robinson played for both the 49ers and the Seahawks, his perspective on the rivalry, which used to be among the best in the league, is fascinating. He was asked which team hated the other more?
"When I played for both of those teams, the teams seemed to be kind of built similar," Robinson said. "You had [Jim] Harbaugh building a tough, strong team and Pete Carroll building a tough, strong team out in Seattle. I can't say who hated each other more. I didn't even see it as a hate. Actually, I looked at it as both of these teams are pretty, pretty similar. If you put them in the same room, they probably leave the room as homeboys, as homies. I just didn't look at it that way.
"I looked at it as a healthy respect on the football field. And man, those games were fun because you knew exactly what you were going to get and you knew it was going to be tough. You knew those games were going to be hard-nosed and you were going to be sore on Monday."
You can listen to the entire interview below.