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San Francisco 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo notched the fourth highest PFF grade among all signal-callers during Week 8, according to Pro Football Focus. Performances like that might allow the eight-year veteran to hold onto the starting job and keep Trey Lance on the bench this season, one NFL expert believes.
Garoppolo registered an 80.2 score, as tallied by the analytics website, PFF, during the 49ers 33-22 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, October 31. The Niners organization tweeted that factoid on Monday, November 1, an exclamation point of sorts, as calls for benching Garoppolo in favor of Lance amplified during the team’s four-game losing streak.
“4th among all QBs,” PFF 49ers wrote in the tweet stamped with fire and smoke-huffing emojis.
Garoppolo finished the day completing 17 of 28 passes for 322 yards, a completion rate of 60.7%. He didn’t throw for a touchdown or an interception, but ran for two scores. He notched a quarterback rating of 100.6.
NFL Network Reporter Ian Rapoport said on Monday, the day after Garoppolo’s performance, that if the veteran continues to play that way and San Francisco is in the playoff hunt, head coach Kyle Shanahan will want to keep him on the field over Lance, the No. 3 overall pick out of North Dakota State University.
“From what I understand, Trey Lance is expected to start this year, especially if the losses continue to come,” Rapoport said during a KNBR radio interview. “If the 49ers win some games and get back in the playoffs, and sort of in the playoff conversation, then I think Jimmy will start out there. If they get to a point where the season is about the future and not the present, then Trey Lance will start, and the development will begin, and then that will be that.
“I think, more so than ever, they really would like to keep Jimmy out there when they are relevant.”
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Calls for Benching Garoppolo Still Out There
At 3-4, the 49ers are in the playoff discussion. They’re a half game out of the final wildcard slot with 10 games remaining. They have juggernauts for opponents the next two weeks when they host the Arizona Cardinals on November 7 and the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football, November 15.
While Rapoport’s formula for Garoppolo is simple – win and he’s in – his colleague at the NFL Network, contributing columnist Adam Schein, thinks otherwise. Schein discredited notions that Garoppolo is off the hot seat, even with Sunday’s road win.
“First of all, Chicago’s defense was horrible, clearly missing injured star Khalil Mack,” Schein wrote in his column on Monday, November 1. “Secondly, how many of those 322 yards came courtesy of Deebo Samuel creating magic after the catch? And lastly, Garoppolo might not have even been the best quarterback on Soldier Field yesterday, with Bears rookie Justin Fields turning heads in his best effort yet.”
He said a move toward Lance this season is inevitable. Lance is coming off an knee injury and available to play after missing the last two weeks.
“With the Niners under .500 and 3.5 games behind the Rams and Cardinals, do we really think Shanahan’s fully committed to Garoppolo?” Schein wrote. “Trey Lance is raw, no doubt, but when he returns to full health, the spark potential will be too great to ignore.”
Shanahan, Garoppolo Deflecting QB Controversy Talk
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GettyJimmy Garoppolo’s two-score performance October 31 quieted some of the chatter calling for his benching.
Shanahan was asked Monday during a press conference if it would be difficult to play Lance if Garoppolo continued to play well. He didn’t answer the question directly, but said he wasn’t of the mindset to get Lance playing time for the sake of simply getting him game reps.
“I’m not just putting in a backup quarterback just to get them experience. That’s great and all, but that’s not totally what you do,” Shanahan told reporters. “I put in a backup quarterback because he’s got a little bit of a different skillset. So if you think that makes sense in a certain down and distance or a certain situation, I love having that option.”
Garoppolo also deflected questions about the budding quarterback controversy when he was asked about it on two separate occasions during the post-game press conference.
“I think our team just needed a win,” he said when he was asked about whether he felt extra pressure to perform well given the calls for his replacement.
“The noise is going to be there, good, bad, indifferent, it’s just part of the job,” he said when another reporter asked him about it again. “The noise is the noise. When you lose four games in a row, you deserve all that.”
For now, the formula seems to be to continue to lean on Garoppolo so long as the Niners win enough to stay relevant, as Rapoport laid out. It could be a formula that provides the best of both worlds, the Niners stay relevant and Lance can gain experience slowly by playing in packages that provide a unique skillset during games.
“If they can win games and get themselves back on the right side of this thing, I like the idea of not pressuring Trey Lance,” Rapoport said. “Just kind of using him in spots to get acclimated and ease his way into the NFL. It’s a great idea. I don’t know that they’re going to have the luxury of doing that. If the losses stack up, then they probably won’t.
“But if they win, I do appreciate the idea of handling the development carefully for a guy who’s going to be around, hopefully, for them, 10 or 15 years.”
The only thing the 49ers have to do to pull it off is win. No easy task.
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