JIMMY GAROPPOLO
Just as they did a few weeks earlier in December, John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan during their 2020 season-wrap news conference doubled-down on their proclamation that Jimmy Garoppolo will be the 49ers’ starting quarterback again in 2021.
“Kyle and I both have spoken and spoken fairly directly as to the fact that we expect Jimmy to be our quarterback,” Lynch said.
“I’ll just echo on that,” Shanahan said. It’s an echo that will carry the 49ers into an uncertain offseason at the quarterback position since Garoppolo did nothing during his injury-plagued 2020 season to suggest he’s getting better as a quarterback or is still the guy to take the 49ers forward behind center as San Francisco attempts to bounce back from an unexpected last-place finish that kept the defending NFC champions out of the playoffs.
Who really knows what the 49ers are thinking? After watching Garoppolo struggle to stay healthy while missing most of the season to injury for the second time in three years, can they really be as committed as they say to a veteran who will turn 30 this year in his eighth NFL season?
Those questions also will echo and reverberate throughout the NFL while the 49ers consider their myriad options at the game’s most important position during the upcoming months.
It could be time for San Francisco to make a change and move on from Garoppolo, which is what several NFL analysts have professed the 49ers will do. Now could be the best time to do it, and there are several factors that suggest it could be what’s best for the team.
Esta historia es de la edición February/March 2021 de Niner Report.
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In the weeks that follow after you read this — and perhaps sometime even sooner than that — Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers organization will make a titanic decision that will have present, future and perhaps even everlasting implications for the franchise. It will chart the course for the team’s pivotal 2021 season while determining whether San Francisco really does have the juice to return to powerhouse status and again be considered a legitimate contender to get back to the Super Bowl.
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Fred Warner vaulted to stardom with a spectacular 2020 season — and the 49ers rewarded him this summer with a $95.225 million deal that makes him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. By today’s standards, Warner’s performance last year was worth the money as he posted an Approximate Value of 19 — matching the highest score ever recorded by a San Francisco defender according to a Pro Football Reference formula that puts a single number on each player-season across all positions since 1960. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (twice) also had seasons with an AV of 19 as they dominate this list of the greatest individual seasons by a linebacker in 49ers history.
