NFL insider Ian Rapoport seemed a little surprised to hear about Monday morning's local criticisms of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo following the San Francisco 49ers' Week 1 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
"Is that what's going on this morning? Is it Jimmy G is terrible?" Rapoport asked on KNBR's Murph & Mac show Monday morning.
While Garoppolo's numbers, at first glance, look comparable to his Cardinals counterpart, Kyler Murray, anyone who watched the game knows that the latter was the better quarterback on the football field at Levi's Stadium on Sunday. Much of that had to do with the nearly 100 rushing yards Murray had against the 49ers defense. You throw out his two kneel-downs to end the game, and he is right at the century mark.
"I don't know the answer (on analyzing Garoppolo), obviously," Rapoport said. "Now, I will say that they were in the Super Bowl last year. This is game one. There has to be some level of like, 'OK, yes, sometimes they lose.'
"I get it. There was some missed opportunities and all that, but sometimes they lose, and I think that's OK."
Garoppolo finished the game 19 of 33 for 259 yards with two touchdowns while adding a run for nine more yards. As was the case following the Super Bowl, much of Monday's blame is falling squarely on the quarterback's shoulders.
"Let me also say that I do think that he is a starting franchise quarterback for someone," Rapoport continued. "I believe it's going to be the 49ers, and I think that's going to continue. But what is interesting, because of the way things are structured, if the 49ers, obviously as you guys know, decided that he was not their guy, they could move on and try again. Contract-wise, it won't kill them.
"Nobody wants to do that at all. I do believe they think he is at the guy. Remember, as we saw Tom Brady do his debut (with the Buccaneers) yesterday, they had a chance to move on from last year for Tom Brady and decided not to. So I think they're going to stick [with] him, but yeah, his inconsistencies have always been a little bit of a story. There's good, but then there's also some not as good."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Rapoport below.