San Francisco 49ers: It’s far too early to be concerned about Jimmy Garoppolo

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has seen his fair share of troubles this summer but it’s far too early to be concerned about the talented signal-caller.

The San Francisco 49ers will be under plenty of pressure heading into 2019 to improve upon their awful 4-12 record from a year ago. And their returning quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo could be shouldering the brunt of that pressure.

Garoppolo has had a somewhat unconventional career to this point. The former Eastern Illinois standout was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft.

And after seeing limited playing time in 2016 following Tom Brady‘s suspension, the young quarterback clearly impressed enough to have teams calling the Patriots inquiring about his services.

The 49ers were the lucky team that managed to secure their hopeful franchise quarterback of the future when they traded away a second-round pick for Garoppolo.

The career backup would go on to make five starts with San Francisco in 2017, winning them all. Garoppolo reignited the team’s offense and looked the part of a franchise savior under center.

His performance was enough to earn him a sizable contract in the offseason — in fact, the largest contract in terms of annual value ever signed by an NFL player at the time. Garoppolo had managed to accomplish this after just seven NFL starts.

Needless to say, expectations were high going into 2018 and the pressure was on for him to perform and live up to his hefty contract. Unfortunately, the 27-year-old would hardly even get the opportunity to do so as he tragically suffered a torn ACL in the team’s third game of the year.

His injury ended his season and any hopes the 49ers had of making a playoff run went out the window. The 2018 season, for all intents and purposes, became a wash for both quarterback and franchise alike.

But now Garoppolo is healthy and ready to return to the gridiron. Unfortunately, his return hasn’t gone quite as planned so far.

Reports of Garoppolo’s struggles in training camp ran rampant over the past couple of weeks and it’s clear that the 49ers signal-caller is still a bit rusty. But in the ever-changing world of the NFL, results are all that matter.

Time is of the essence and teams don’t like to sit around and wait for a player to return to form. It’s why you see people jump to conclusions about a player or team after a bad outing or two.

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And unfortunately for Garoppolo, his return in the team’s second preseason game on Monday night didn’t do much to silence his critics. If anything, they’ve only grown larger and louder.

Garoppolo completed just one of his six passes to his own teammate for zero yards and also tossed an interception on just his second throw of the game. The final stats look bad and pretending that Garoppolo played well is foolish, but context is crucial here.

This was Garoppolo’s first time in an actual football game since he tore his ACL nearly 11 months ago. On top of that, he was playing behind a depleted offensive line with both center Weston Richburg and right guard Mike Person out nursing injuries.

Throw in the Denver Broncos’ dominant defensive front and you don’t exactly have an ideal scenario for a returning quarterback.

Garoppolo still appears tentative, seeming to shy away from his throws as opposed to stepping into them. His left leg — the leg he injured — isn’t being used to power his throws as he’s instead throwing more off of his back foot leaving his passes hanging in the air for too long.

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One could say that he’s playing scared. A more empathetic person would say that he’s just being careful.

Either way, it’s clear that this isn’t the Garoppolo we saw back in 2017 or even through the first portion of 2018.

The criticism is unwarranted but not unexpected. For a player with just 10 career starts making money that some players with 100+ starts could only dream of, it comes with the territory.

But for 49ers fans, it’s far too early to be concerned about Garoppolo even if that may feel like a viable initial reaction. With a healthy offensive line and most importantly more time to find his footing, Garoppolo should hopefully be able to return back to form.

He’ll likely receive plenty of snaps in the team’s next preseason game and that should be a better indicator of where his development is heading into Week 1 of the regular season.

If he continues to struggle, Garoppolo’s critics will only further grow in size. But for now, it’s simply best to be patient.

Time may be of the essence, but patience is a virtue.