San Francisco 49ers: Garoppolo overrated and the product of a system

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo electrified the league last year, but one NFL star thinks it’s all just smoke and mirrors.

When the San Francisco 49ers squared off with the Jacksonville Jaguars in week sixteen last season, something profoundly unexpected happened – the 49ers absolutely manhandled the league’s top-ranked defense in posting an improbable 44-33 win.

On the day, Garoppolo went 21/30 for 242 yards and two touchdowns in the game. He also had a one yard rushing touchdown on the day. The Jacksonville defense – top-ranked at the time – which had limited opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating in the neighborhood of 65 or so, was lit up by Garoppolo, who went off for a rating of 102.4

It was Jimmy Garoppolo’s fourth straight win since being installed as the team’s starter and a loss that left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Jaguars.

After that game, praise for Garoppolo’s performance from the Jaguars was spare and came with plenty of caveats. The most vocal of them being Jacksonville corner Jalen Ramsey, who couldn’t quite bring himself to give Garoppolo the credit he deserved for his masterful performance against the Jaguars.

"“He was very good for their system. It’s not like he just shredded us up in the secondary. They do a lot of boots, they do a lot of stuff like that. Guys were getting open in zones and he was making his throws. Getting the ball out of his hands quick. Kudos to him.”"

Six months removed from that game, it’s clear that the Jaguars – or at least, Ramsey – isn’t quite over getting thrashed by Garoppolo and the 49ers, whose 44 points were the most the Jaguars defense had surrendered in all of 2017.

What got Ramsey talking recently was the release of the NFL’s top-100 players – a ranking voted on by the players themselves. Specifically, that Garoppolo checked in at number 90 on the list.

"“Not yet, not yet. What he play — five games?”"

Technically, if you count the two games he played for the Patriots in 2016, it’s seven games, but we get your point, Jalen.

Still, it’s hard to argue that over the five games he started for San Francisco, that he wasn’t one of the better quarterbacks in the league – the caveat, of course, being “over that span.”

Garoppolo went 5-0, completed 67 percent of his passes (120/178) for 1,560 yards, and seven touchdowns. He did throw five picks, of course, which pulled his QB rating down to 96.2 for his portion of the year.

However, over those five games, his numbers, in the more important statistical metrics, ranked right up there with the best in the league.

Ramsey did throw some grudging praise to Garoppolo – sort of. But, was heavy with the caveats and rationalizations you’d expect from somebody still bitter about their team getting smacked around on the field.

"“He has good potential. I think he’ll be a good player, but off my experience playing him, it was a lot of scheme stuff. It wasn’t like he was just dicing us up. It was a lot of scheme stuff. Nobody had a scheme on him (last year). There was not a lot of film out on him.”"

Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, echoed Ramsey’s sentiments and took the opportunity to pile on.

"“And that is a big deal. That’s a big deal when they know your strengths and weaknesses and how to attack them.”"

Okay, so let’s stop for a moment and think about those statements. Basically, what Ramsey is saying – which Warner is backing up – is that Garoppolo is simply a product of a system and that essentially, he’s nothing special.

He’ll be a “good” player, but once opposing defenses get more film on him, they’ll be able to pick him apart and expose him.

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To be fair, there is much about Garoppolo’s game that’s unknown, given the small sample size of his work. Fair enough. And yes, once there is more film on him out there, opposing defenses will be able to scheme a little bit better for him as they attempt to limit his strengths and exploit his weaknesses.

They’re not entirely wrong. That’s all well and good.

However, let’s just think about how much film there is of Tom Brady out there. How much film there is of Drew Brees out there. How much film there is of Aaron Rodgers out there. How much film there was of Brett Favre, Peyton Manning – and the list goes on.

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The point is, having all the film in the world can’t stop a great quarterback from exposing flaws and weaknesses in a defense. Has anybody, despite the abundance of film, actually slowed down the likes of Brees, Brady, Rodgers?

And let’s not be as disingenuous or intellectually dishonest as Ramsey is being – every quarterback is a system quarterback. Every single offensive coordinator in the league worth their salt, schemes around the strengths and weaknesses of their quarterback.

Which explains why former Raiders offensive coordinator Todd Downing is currently not an NFL offensive coordinator.

But, the point remains. Brady has run the same system and scheme in New England that he’s run since the Cretaceous Period, and has a pile of rings to show for it. Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers – they all run a specific system and a scheme that maximizes their strengths, while limiting their weaknesses.

The difference is that some quarterbacks are smarter and run that system better than others.

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Underscoring that point is the fact that the 49ers and Kyle Shanahan ran the same scheme and system all year last season. C.J. Beathard and Brian Hoyer – who both had a lot more time to learn the system than Garoppolo – combined to go 1-10. They couldn’t get it done.

The great quarterbacks figure out a way to make the system work for them. They take what a defense gives them and don’t force things. They don’t put their teams in bad positions and will exploit the weaknesses they see in a defense.

Credit where credit is due – with Ramsey, A.J. Bouye, Aaron Colvin, Tashaun Gipson, and Barry Church – the Jaguars had one of the best secondaries in the league last season. No question about it.

So Garoppolo, showing a savvy well beyond his seven career starts, found a way to attack the Jacksonille defense and cut them to pieces. It’s a tactic that Ramsey not only took issue with, but used to minimize Garoppolo’s performance in a recent Tweet.

To Ramsey’s point, Garoppolo did indeed utilize his running backs and tight ends well. Between Matt Breida, Carlos Hyde, Kyle Juszczyk, and George Kittle, they accounted for 12 of his 21 receptions and 145 of his 242 total passing yards that day.

Fair enough.

Again though, that is exactly what the great quarterbacks do. What was Garoppolo supposed to do – throw it into a loaded secondary that was among the best in the league and just hope for the best?

Maybe, that’s what he’s used to seeing, given that Blake Bortles is under center for the Jags, but that’s not what the great ones do. The great ones find ways to exploit the defense. They find the chinks in the armor. And then they exploit them.

Obviously, Garoppolo found some weaknesses in Jacksonville’s armor and took full advantage of it. He found a way for his team to win. All the great ones do.

Now, this is not to say that Garoppolo is a sure-fire Hall of Famer. This isn’t even to say he deserves that number 90 ranking that fired Ramsey up so much, at this point. This is simply to say, Garoppolo deserves a lot more credit and respect than Ramsey is giving him.

He found a way to not just beat the vaunted Jaguars defense – but embarrassed them in the process. And more than anything, that seems to be what’s sticking in Ramsey’s craw – that a team who struggled to average 14 points a game in 2017, lit them up for 44.

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And let’s be real — throwing your teammates under the bus by citing the stats the secondary gave up, versus what the rest of the team did, in a weak attempt to prove your point, and diminish Garoppolo’s performance — isn’t a real good look.

As the old saying goes, Jalen, you win as a team, and you lose as a team. And you lost. Badly. Trying to diminish and minimize what Garoppolo did to your defense that day isn’t going to change that.