Jeff Wilson Jr. in April signed his one-year tender with the San Francisco 49ers, and the running back sounds excited to get back to work with his quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo.
Much of the blame for the 49ers' fourth-quarter collapse and heartbreaking defeat in Super Bowl LIV has fallen squarely on Garoppolo's shoulders. Fair or not, that's often going to be the case for NFL quarterbacks. There was some flirtation on San Francisco's part this offseason with the idea of bringing in future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.
In the end, head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch agreed that such a move would not be in the 49ers' best long-term interests and that Garoppolo could be their quarterback of the future.
Wilson in February told Steve Wyche of NFL Network that the criticism of his quarterback, and even Shanahan, was unfair.
"Both of those guys got to the Super Bowl," Wilson told Wyche. "With all the criticism (this season saying) they'll be 4-10, they won't win this amount of games, they won't do this, won't do this, but we got to the biggest stage there is. No matter if we win, lost, or tied in that game, they got there."
In March, Wilson was among those to show support for Garoppolo amid the bombardment of Brady-to-49ers speculation.
"It's ludicrous," Wilson told Jose Luis Sanchez III of Sports Illustrated. "He just took us all the way to the Super Bowl, great season, 14 wins. I mean there's not a lot of quarterbacks that's even in this league that just had a season like that. And then you go from that season taking a team all the way to the Super Bowl, to talks of being traded."
Akash Anavarathan of Fourth and Nine had an opportunity this week to catch up with Wilson (h/t to Alex Didion of NBC Sports Bay Area). The running back's opinion of Garoppolo hasn't changed in the last few months.
Wilson was asked how he feels about his quarterback.
"The same as I've always felt about him," Wilson responded. "I'm ready to get back, and get back in tune with him, just his voice and just to see his smile, tell you jokes, tell everybody what's up, and just see him be the leader that he is.
"He's back for a reason, and I knew he'd be back. He's a great quarterback. He's a great leader. And I'm ready to play with him and ride back with him to the Super Bowl."