Getty Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers throws a pass down field during the first half of a preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on August 24, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri.
What you think of Jimmy Garoppolo completely depends on your perspective. On one side, the 49ers quarterback has only started eight games in the last two seasons. On the other hand, you can extrapolate those numbers into 4,556 passing yards and 24 touchdowns over a full season.
(He’s tossed for 2,278 yards, 12 scores and eight picks combined in the 2017 and 2018 seasons).
On the negative side, he tore his ACL in the third game of last season and was on pace for 16 interceptions over a full season. On the plus side, he produced a pair of 20-point plus games in fantasy football last year.
Basically, if you trust that Garoppolo can be healthy and maintain his strong play over a full season, you should draft him early. Let’s take a look at where the country thinks you should draft Tom Brady’s old backup in New England.
Jimmy Garoppolo Fantasy Outlook
CBS Sports says that he should be a fantasy starter due to his previous production and the tutelage of head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Jimmy Garoppolo was cleared for the start of training camp coming off last year’s torn ACL, and he has the chance to be a No. 1 Fantasy quarterback this season. He only appeared in three games in 2018 before getting hurt, but he scored at least 20 Fantasy points in two of them. And in 2017, Garoppolo made five starts for the 49ers, scoring at least 22 Fantasy points in two of those outings. One of the biggest reasons to like Garoppolo as a Fantasy quarterback is coach Kyle Shanahan, who got nine games of at least 20 Fantasy points from his trio of passers, including C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens.
Action Network further details that when Garoppolo starts, he boosts the entire San Francisco offense to the upper half of the league.
Garoppolo has helped his offense average an impressive 27.1 points per game over his 10 starts and cracked the 30-point barrier on four separate occasions.
Jimmy G has put up the stats of a pretty great quarterback in this minuscule sample size:
Completion rate: 65.5% (13th among 48 quarterbacks with 10-plus starts since 2016)
Touchdown rate: 4.8% (14th)
QB rating: 97.8 (eighth)
Yards per attempt: 8.42 (second)
Adjusted yards per attempt: 8.3 (sixth)
In addition, he is in the same breath as some other elite quarterbacks. Including him, six quarterbacks have averaged at least eight adjusted yards per attempt over the past three seasons (among 48 QBs with 10-plus starts):
- Patrick Mahomes (9.4)
- Matt Ryan (8.8)
- Deshaun Watson (8.5)
- Tom Brady (8.4)
- Drew Brees (8.3)
- Jimmy Garoppolo (8.3)
Basically, over a full season, Garoppolo could be as good as last year’s MVP, a 6-time Super Bowl champ and the league’s all-time touchdown pass record-holder.
Scout.com is a little bit more conservative, saying that he should be a late-round pick as the No. 18 signal-caller overall. They point out his high interception rate as a factor holding him back, plus some hesitance with his injury history and small sample size.
With that said, he won’t be facing a murderer’s row in terms of pass defenses this season. Overall, San Francisco will face 10 of the bottom-16 pass defenses in terms of yardage in the league last year, including the Seahawks, Rams and Cardinals twice each.
If you have faith in Jimmy G, take him in the first five rounds. If not, take him later and try to snag a guy like Ben Roethlisberger to rotate in based on your matchups for the week.
