Much of the media seems content with placing much of the blame for the San Francisco 49ers' loss in Super Bowl LIV on quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. That comes with the position, I suppose. Several teammates have come to Garoppolo's defense this offseason, including fullback Kyle Juszczyk. They believe in their quarterback and seemingly have no doubts that he is one of the primary reasons for the 49ers' success last offseason.
Looking at his statistics, Garoppolo had an impressive 2019 campaign. He completed 69.1 percent of his pass attempts for 3,978 yards with 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions through 16 regular-season starts. Only two 49ers quarterbacks (Steve Young, Jeff Garcia) have passed for more yards in a single season.
It was his lack of production in the team's first two postseason games, however, and the Super Bowl LIV collapse that the media has latched onto for its source of criticism.
Garoppolo has blocked the outside noise, according to Juszczyk.
"He seems to have handled it the way Jimmy has handled everything," Juszczyk told reporters on Tuesday via a video press conference. "He's exactly the same guy that he always is in these meetings. You haven't seen any crazy media lash-outs from him, or him be down on himself, or anything like that. It's just Jim.
"He comes to work every day, works his butt off, has the same demeanor every day. The outside noise, it truly doesn't seem to affect him."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said in April that he doesn't believe we've seen the best from Garoppolo yet.
"Jimmy had a real good year last year," Shanahan said. "I expect him to continue to get better. I don't think he's achieved his ceiling yet. Last year was his first year ever going through a full season as a quarterback. He hadn't played longer than five games, I think, in a year prior to that."
General manager John Lynch also praised Garoppolo earlier this month.
"His physical skills are—I really believe—are elite," Lynch said. "I believe they're extremely underrated. He's one of the great natural throwers in this league, I believe, and I'm just excited to see it continue to grow.
"He's got to put the work in. I think the thing that's so exciting is he knows that there's a ton of room for improvement, and he embraces that."
