San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch joined Good Morning Football on Wednesday and shared why the team committed to Jimmy Garoppolo as its franchise quarterback despite just five starts in head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense – and his undefeated December wasn't the only factor in the decision.
Shanahan had already studied Garoppolo coming out of Eastern Illinois. The 49ers head coach was the offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns at the time and pushed to draft Garoppolo. Cleveland went with Johnny Manziel instead.
Lynch and Shanahan already knew that Garoppolo's ability to throw the football was undeniable.
"He's got an incredibly efficient and quick release," Lynch said. "He's one of those guys we hear so much about. The ability to process information quickly, he does that extremely well, and he throws the ball extremely accurately. His talent, we all knew about that."
Through five starts with the 49ers, Garoppolo showed he could win in Shanahan's system despite a crash course learning the offense. His play elevated the players around him. However, it wasn't the statistics or victories that made the 49ers commit to Garoppolo. Although, those probably helped.
"I think what we've been most pleased and encouraged (with), and what led us, after a short sample size, to commit to Jimmy is I think the teammate he is," Lynch continued. "I spoke earlier about work. When your best players are leading the charge in terms of that work ethic, that's a great thing. I think that's been Jimmy since Day 1 here. He came, he had to learn a new offense, and he was relentless in his pursuit to learn it. Tough deal to do that mid-season.
"The other thing I think we saw is he's an excellent teammate. His guys really like him. When you're the franchise quarterback, the face of a franchise, you're not just one of the guys. But he has an ability to be just one of the guys. He's constantly with these guys. Whether it's in the facility (or) out of the facility, he's leading the charge in terms of the way they work, and we've been thrilled with him.
"I think Jimmy knows as well as anyone ... he's got so much to prove in terms of who he is as a quarterback. We're all aware of that. But we believed in him enough to make him our quarterback, and we're really pleased to have done that."