Getty Jimmy Garoppolo playing quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.
The San Francisco 49ers‘ offensive cupboard is loaded; they have multiple running backs with starting experience, two strong wide receivers who excel at picking up yards after the catch, and even a duo of in-line players, George Kittle and Kyle Juszczyk, who can impact with the game regardless of whether or not they have the ball in their hands. Speaking to reporters on this very topic, Jimmy Garoppolo credited the team’s new-look offense for making his job “fun,” as detailed by Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“When you’ve got the whole regime out there it’s pretty fun,” Garoppolo said on Thursday. “We’ve had two good days of practice here and it’s just a matchup nightmare for defenses. It’s a pick-your-poison kind of thing.”
Asked to discuss further what makes the offense special, Garoppolo credited his skill players’ ability to make something out of nothing for San Francisco’s overall potency.
“YAC comes from an accurate ball and then what those guys can do after it,” Garoppolo said. “The more accurate you are, the easier it is for them to go run with it. It’s my job to get those guys the ball in space, let them go run, and be the special players they are. But yeah, it’s been fun so far.”
If there’s one thing the 49ers are good at, it’s picking up yards after the catch, as they currently rank seventh in the stat, according to NBC Sports.
George Kittle Doesn’t Want To Hear About Mouths To Feed
Speaking with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson, Kittle echoed Garoppolo’s sentiment, suggesting that having too many mouths isn’t a problem for a savvy play caller and a selfless collection of players.
“I keep getting asked, ‘Are there too many mouths to feed?’ I don’t think so,” Kittle said Thursday after 49ers practice. “As long as you’re winning games, I don’t really think there’s too many mouths to feed. I think we have a lot of guys who can make a lot of plays.”
With a strong collection of players at every position across the offense, from wide receiver to running back, tight end, and even fullback, Kittle doesn’t mind what his individual stat numbers look like if the team is getting the win at the end of the day.
“I think our game plan does a good job of spreading that ball out and getting the ball to the guys who make those plays, whether it’s Deebo, Aiyuk, Christian, Juice, me, Elijah,” Kittle said. “I just think we have guys who are going to make plays, and our game plan this week gives us an opportunity to do that.”
Deebo Samuel Is All About His New San Francisco 49ers Teammate
Assuming nothing goes wrong before the opening kickoff, Week 10 will mark the first game Samuel and McCaffrey will start for the 49ers’ offense. Speaking exclusively with Justin Melo of 49ers WedZone, Samuel described what it was like to add a player of McCaffrey’s caliber to Kyle Shanahan’s offense.
“I was like, man, we’re getting another guy that’s really good with the football in his hands,” Samuel said with a laugh. “Before we traded for him, we had myself, [George] Kittle, BA [Brandon Aiyuk], Jauan [Jennings], and Ray-Ray [McCloud III]. I can go down the line and name everybody (laughs). We’re all capable of doing great things with the ball in our hands. We had Jeff Wilson. We’re getting Elijah Mitchell back at some point. We added even more fire to this offense.”
Will this additional firepower be enough to get San Francisco back to the playoffs for the second-straight season? Only time will tell, but the excitement surrounding the team has only continued to grow since McCaffrey came to town.