The Pro Football Focus team spends about 50 hours reviewing each NFL game. During the extensive process, it evaluates and grades each player's performance. Its process goes beyond statistics and gives fans a more accurate picture of how well (or poorly) individuals played. That's why when someone from the site discusses a particular player, it's worth a listen.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had an impressive five-game outing to end last season. It was even more impressive when you consider that he didn't even join the team until the mid-season point and then had to take a crash course to learn the playbook. Garoppolo must be a fast learner. In his five starts with the 49ers last season, he averaged 308.4 yards per game while completing 67 percent of his pass attempts.
Using the statistics from his five games to project a full 16-game season gives you 4,934 passing yards – assuming his numbers remained sustainable. That would have ranked first among quarterbacks in passing yards last season, and his completion percentage would have ranked fifth. Is his 2017 performance sustainable though?
Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus joined us on the latest 49ers Webzone No Huddle Podcast and discussed the San Francisco quarterback.
"What he did (in those final five starts last year) was so good that you just kind of think, just by the law of averages, it's probably not that sustainable," Monson said. "You've probably got to see some kind of dropoff because he was phenomenal.
"Particularly, the game I think that really stood out as being incredible is when he just carved up that Jacksonville Jaguars defense. A team that was heading to the playoffs, a team whose defense was looking like the best in the league, Garoppolo took it to pieces like it was nothing (while) leading a team that couldn't win a game before he got in there (Note: they had just one win).
"I think he will definitely be a very good quarterback. He probably will see some ups and downs just because he hasn't really had the downs yet but he does seem to have this thing that a lot of quarterbacks have, which is: when you see some of these guys when they first get on the field, and you just know almost instantly.
"Everybody's waiting. You need to wait a certain amount of games before you say, 'Ok, we've finally seen enough. It's probably going to stay at this level.' But you almost recognize it immediately.
"You know, Tom Brady obviously came in and was good from the onset. Tony Romo had that thing where he came from nowhere, was phenomenal in his first action. Obviously, Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott. These guys seem to get it right from the get-go. Garoppolo has looked like that from the outset. From every opportunity that he's had, he's looked fantastic, and the only caution has been, 'Yeah, but it's only been two games (before joining the 49ers). Ok, yeah, it's only been five games (with the 49ers).' At some point, it's been enough games, and we probably know for sure that he is actually that good. He can play."
You can listen to the entire interview with Monson below. You can also find it, along with all of our previous episodes, on our dedicated podcast page, iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud.