Garoppolo goes to summer school
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jimmy Garoppolo is going to summer school before starting training camp with the San Francisco 49ers.
Garoppolo is spending part of his downtime between the end of minicamp and the start of training camp July 27 working in Southern California with quarterback guru Tom House.
House is a former major-league pitcher and pitching coach perhaps most famous for catching Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th career home run in the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen in 1974. But in recent years, House has run a quarterback academy in Huntington Beach called 3DQB where he helps passers refine their throwing mechanics.
House has worked with several star quarterbacks over the years, including Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Carson Palmer. Garoppolo met House during his time in New England as Brady’s teammate on the Patriots and has been spending time working on his mechanics all offseason as he comes back from season-ending knee surgery.
“We’re trying to implement drills as close to gamelike situations as you could get to,” Garoppolo said in a phone interview last week. “At the same time, we’re sticking to mechanics and the basics. That’s what quarterbacking comes down to. You have to be really good with the basics and do them over and over again. It’s good to get someone with as much experience as Tom.
“It’s nice to have him see you throw and see if he has any little things to fix up or anything you haven’t thought about that he thinks can help you. Quarterback is a very unique position and a lot goes into it. There are a lot of moving pieces.”
The extra work this offseason is important for Garoppolo, who played just three games last season before tearing his ACL. He has 10 career starts in five NFL seasons.
Garoppolo showed plenty of promise after arriving in San Francisco in a trade with the Patriots midway through the 2017 season. He stepped in after a few weeks and won all five starts, earning a fiveyear, $137.5 million contract to stay off the free-agent market.
Garoppolo completed less than 60% of his passes in his three starts last season and saw his yards per attempt drop, while his sack and interception rates went up.
The Niners hope he can regain his form from 2017 with help from an overhauled group of receivers, including second-round receiver Deebo Samuel, third-rounder Jalen Hurd and veteran Jordan Matthews.
San Francisco also signed running back Tevin Coleman and will have a healthy Jerick McKinnon after last year’s big free-agent acquisition missed all of 2018 with a knee injury.
Some of those players are spending time with Garoppolo this summer, and he plans to get a big group together in Santa Clara before the start of training camp to build up a rapport as quickly as possible.
“I’m trying to pick up their mannerisms, what motivates them, all those things,” Garoppolo said. “There’s a million different things that go into it. It’s exciting. This time of year, with only a couple of weeks until training camp, it’s grind time.
“Chemistry comes with experience and practice reps. A guy can be last on the totem pole, but if he starts making plays day after day he can move up quickly. That’s kind of the nature of the beast when it comes to football. But that’s the exciting part of it.”