San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan's buddy, Chris Simms, continues his ranking of the top 40 NFL quarterbacks and has 19 signal-callers listed above Jimmy Garoppolo. Well, at least that puts the 49ers quarterback in the top half of Simms' list.
Simms discussed his placement of Garoppolo at No. 20.
"Jimmy Garoppolo, where do I start?" Simms said on the Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast. "I think I'm going to start with the things I like. First off, incredible quick-release, love his ability to throw accurate throws with cock-eyed feet and feet all over the place in the thrash of the pocket. I mean, he's really good at that. He really is."
Simms also compliments Garoppolo's movement in the pocket and ability to find gaps to throw through. Of course, he did have some negatives too.
"There's some times -- there's some head-scratching decision-making," Simms added. "There's lack of big-time power throws. If you watch Garopporlo and the 49ers, a lot of the throws are right down in the middle of the field, where I want to go."
Simms notes that those are easier high-percentage throws, saying that a high school quarterback is capable of making them, so they don't exactly impress him.
"The number one detractor, for me, is (Garoppolo is) not a phenomenal athlete," Simms continues. "He's not going to run for you and get first downs. He's a below-average down-the-field thrower or power thrower. That's what bothers me.
"As quick as his release is, and how he doesn't have to step into throws to make throws, when it comes time for, 'Hey, the pocket's clean, and there's a 20-yard out-route, and I need you to step on the pedal a little bit,' man, the ball can flutter, it can not get there, it gets batted down. And it's a lot of times because he throws the ball flat-footed instead of getting his feel underneath him or getting a hitch-step involved.
"Those are some of the problems that lead to his negative plays on the field."
Simms goes on to speculate that Garoppolo's deficiencies force Shanahan to be more creative in trying to get the football deeper down the field.
Added Simms: "Listen, the 49ers obviously ... obviously ... a little something there as far as they didn't love Jimmy Garoppolo's play from last year, or they wouldn't have flirted with the Tom Brady conversation. John Lynch has come out and said that they thought about it. Well, they thought about it because they thought, I would think, that Brady is better than Jimmy Garoppolo, at this point. ... I think that speaks volumes in itself, the fact that they were thinking about that."
Simms also noted that Garoppolo did show last season that he can deliver the football in clutch moments.
"I think people have got to get the Super Bowl out of there head," he said. "I know that was not good. I get it. But man, Seattle in Week 17, the Rams the week before that. He had two 3rd-and-16s that he completes to help them win that game. There's a number of games the year, even the regular-season loss to the Seahawks at home, he drives them down late to get back the lead, and the game goes into overtime and all that.
"I do think there's a clutch factor that Garoppolo has that I can honestly sit here and say too is better than some of the guys that we have just behind him. I don't think he's rattled by any situation, and I don't think he's even rattled by the Super Bowl loss last year."
We don't yet know the names of all 19 quarterbacks Simms lists above Garoppolo. The NBC Sports analyst has only revealed Nos. 19 through 40 so far. Who was the quarterback just ahead of Garoppolo at No. 19? It was Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders. So Garoppolo is sandwiched between Carr at No. 19 and Baker Mayfield of the Cleveland Browns at No. 21.
You can listen to the entire conversation below. The portion about Garoppolo begins at about the 33:45 mark.
ESPN held a fantasy-football style draft this week, with each team required to select a quarterback with one of its four selections. Fourteen quarterbacks were selected ahead of the 49ers' Garoppolo, who went No. 19 overall to the Chicago Bears.