Getty Jimmy Garoppolo hands off the football during the 49ers' Week 3 home game versus the Packers.
Not everyone is a believer in San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Especially if your name is Martellus Bennett.
The outspoken former New England Patriots tight end, who played with Garoppolo in 2016 during the Pats’ run to the Super Bowl over the Atlanta Falcons, appeared on the “Double Coverage” podcast with Devin and Jason McCourty on Wednesday, October 20, and went down memory lane of that title run with the twin brothers.
But one memory Bennett has? One that involves Jimmy G…accompanied with an expletive to describe him.
Bennett Ripped Ex-QB for Early Performances
That Patriots team went 14-2 during the regular season. Plus, they went without Tom Brady early on who was serving a suspension due to his involvement in “deflate gate.”
But the now 34-year-old ex-TE remembers those games fondly because of Garoppolo, particularly the first Pats loss that season.
“Bro, we lost two games,” Bennett told the McCourtys near the 35 minute mark of the video below. “One of them was because Jimmy Garoppolo was being a b****.”
Bennett Dove Deeper
Bennett pointed out that Garoppolo checked out before the Pats took on the Buffalo Bills in Week 4 of that season — a game the Pats lost 16-0 on October 2 for their first loss of the year.
“He decided not to play right before the game,” Bennett said. “Jacoby (Brissett) came out and played with a f***** up thumb and played his heart out, but Jimmy was just being a b**** about it all.”
Brissett, then a rookie, completed 17-of-27 passes for 205 yards. But got sacked three times and threw zero touchdown passes.
Bennett Doesn’t Believe in ‘Jimmy G’
This week, Super Bowl winning head coach Tony Dungy vocally expressed support for Garoppolo to take the entire QB snaps moving forward. Meanwhile, 49ers legend Jerry Rice is opposed to a two-QB system and feels the ‘Niners should roll with one QB.
But for Bennett, who played two of his 11 seasons in the league with the Pats, is a clear-cut non-believer in Garoppolo.
“That’s why he…you can’t win with a b**** for a quarterback,” Bennett told the twins.
Bennett then pointed to Garoppolo’s agent Don Yee for playing a role in the QB not showing grit in that ’16 defeat.
“That was the whole thing with him: He didn’t want to come out and do anything because his agent was trying to protect his body or some s*** like that,” Bennett said. “Which, I can’t fault him for that. But like, you should have made that decision on Thursday. Now it’s Sunday. So anyways, he’s not going out there, so now Jacoby straps up and we lost to the Buffalo Bills. We shouldn’t have lost. It was just last-minute, trying to make adjustments for what Jacoby could do.”
Bennett was only teammates with Garoppolo for one season before that Halloween trade between the Patriots and 49ers in 2017.
As for Garoppolo, he’s expected to be good to go from his calf injury for the 49ers’ Sunday Night Football home contest against the Indianapolis Colts, via ESPN 49ers reporter Nick Wagoner on Friday, October 22. And Indy will have ex-49er DeForest Buckner anchoring the Colts’ defensive line.