The football was in the air, and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders had seemingly beaten the coverage. With less than two minutes left in Super Bowl LIV, it looked like the San Francisco 49ers would score, retake the lead, and earn the franchise's sixth championship.
The ball sailed just beyond Sanders' grasp.
That play ended up fueling the offseason narrative surrounding Jimmy Garoppolo, who threw the pass. It's what his critics remembered about the quarterback as they pushed him down rankings and discussed a potential marriage between the Niners and Tom Brady.
"The Niners signal-caller led his offense to the highest percentage of explosive pass plays of 20 plus yards (18.8%) last season," wrote Wilcots, "and his 90.9 passing grade on passes thrown at least 20 yards in the air downfield ranked 11th out of 33 qualifiers. Again, his 27.8% negatively graded throw rate on those deep passes was the third-lowest among all quarterbacks with 25 or more attempts."
Wilcots points out that Garoppolo is also efficient on designed rollouts and reverse-play-action passes, which head coach Kyle Shanahan requires within his offense. The Niner quarterback's 82.3 passing grade on designed-rollouts ranked as the fourth-best in the NFL.
"He also finished the season with the fourth-lowest (12.4%) percentage of negatively graded throws while moving out of the pocket," added Wilcots, "and he led all quarterbacks in yards per pass attempt (13.8) on designed-rollout passing plays."
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