As backups to NFL’s best, QBs looked before leaping
You can learn a lot by watching. Just ask Steve Young. And Jimmy Garoppolo. Young, the 49ers’ Hall of Fame quarterback, and Garoppolo, the 49ers’ current quarterback, are the lone members of a fraternity: QBs who spent more than three seasons earning a Ph.D. in what it takes to be great while backing up the QBs widely regarded as the best in NFL history.
Young’s education was almost all observational. That is, Joe Montana was not his mentor. And Garoppolo gets it because he lived it: Tom Brady wasn’t helping Garoppolo work on his footwork.
“Yeah, they’re not coaching you,” Garoppolo said when told of Young’s dynamic with Montana. “That’s how it is. Especially at the quarterback position because there’s only one of you. And I never wanted to be a bother to Tom, especially when I was really young. I don’t want to be that guy
asking a million questions. Without being annoying, you observe as much as you can.”
Garoppolo evidently watched well. He went from caddying for Brady to carrying the 49ers last year, leading a 1-10 team to a 5-0 finish after he was acquired via trade in October.
How did a novice with two career starts look so Bradyesque down the stretch?
Young, who was the NFL’s MVP in 1992, his second season after serving his fourseason apprenticeship, says seeing had something to do with what Garoppolo achieved.
“Seeing it empowers you because now you know,” Young said. “You can’t lie to yourself, ‘Oh, it’s going pretty well.’ No, it’s not. You know how well it has to go. I can’t tell you the empowerment of seeing what greatness looks like.”
The similarities between Young and Garoppolo go beyond being caddies to the QBs who have won nine Super Bowls between them.
They also played for two of the best head coaches in NFL history, Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick, and their teams won two Super Bowls as they stood on the sideline: Young made 10 starts from 1987 through ’90, and Garoppolo made two starts in 3½ seasons before he was traded.
There is an obvious difference: Unlike Young, who had the burden of replacing Montana in the Bay Area, Garoppolo is roughly 3,100 miles removed from Brady’s shadow.
That doesn’t mean Garoppolo isn’t facing gigantic expectations entering the regularseason opener at Minnesota on Sunday.
He’s 7-0 as a starter, making him one of seven QBs since 1970 to win his first seven starts. And his 2,038 passing yards in his first seven starts ranks fourth over the past 49 seasons.
He now has to live up to a $137.5 million contract and a standard of perfection that’s impossible to sustain. Again, Young points to Garoppolo’s NFL upbringing to explain why he shouldn’t be overwhelmed.
“Now the expectations are huge, and that’s good,” Young said. “He knows how good you have to be. He’s watched it — so that’s nice. It’s not going to be, ‘Oh, Jimmy, the expectations are too high.’ He’s like ‘No, I know how good you have to be. You can expect me to do whatever you want, but I know how good I have to be. I’ve witnessed it.’ ”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was a ball boy when his dad, Mike, was the 49ers’ offensive coordinator (1992-94). Shanahan knows Montana wasn’t tutoring Young, and he notes that’s hardly uncommon in starter-and-backup relationships among QBs. But he doesn’t dismiss a reason for why Garoppolo looked unflappable last year despite having a supporting cast and knowledge of the playbook that were extremely limited.
“Tom Brady did not teach Jimmy how to play football at all,” Shanahan said. “But you learn so much by watching. I’m sure Steve is the same way, just watching the pressure that was on Joe: how he handled it every day, the expectations, the standard of not to just be good, but if you don’t win a Super Bowl, that’s considered a failure. For guys like (Young and Garoppolo), I think you know the expectations where they would shell-shock other people.”
Of course, Garoppolo has had plenty to do with his own early career success.
He’s a second-round pick out of Eastern Illinois who won the Walton Payton Award, given to the best offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Last year, his first throw in his first practice with the 49ers created a memory for Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, who were wowed by the way the ball came out of his hand.
Like Young, an All-American at BYU who entered pro football with the USFL after signing a then-record $40 million contract, Garoppolo doesn’t lack natural talent.
But he acknowledges he entered the NFL deficient in other areas.
In college, his video study didn’t go much beyond examining the coverages the upcoming opponent employed. In the NFL, he marveled at Brady’s mastery of the minutiae, from how a free safety with an injured left ankle could be exposed, to his encyclopedic knowledge of the upcoming cornerbacks.
“The amount of time you put into it is so important, and one thing that really stuck out to me was Tom’s film study,” Garoppolo said. “He would know the opponent inside and out in the first couple of days of preparation. Whereas in college, you’re watching throughout the whole week and you think you’re watching, as opposed to what I’m doing now.
“I look back at college and it’s like — what the hell was I thinking? I could have done so much better. It’s one of those things you don’t really learn until you see someone do it.”
Said Young: “More than anything, there’s a standard of preparation, of anticipatory throwing in game situations, of mastering the data and seeing it live and in person. It’s semantical, right? You didn’t learn from Tom, but you learned everything from watching Tom.”
Last year, Garoppolo won his first start 33 days after he was traded. During that month, he learned part of an offense that had no correlation to what he knew in New England. For example, Garoppolo says the term “rub” has opposite meanings in each offense.
Garoppolo learned enough to flourish, and Shanahan learned during that crash course that his new QB could match his intensity when it came to studying X’s and O’s.
“I think that’s how Tom is, and I think that’s how Belichick is: They are hard on everything,” Shanahan said. “They hold everyone accountable week in and week out, and that’s why it’s exhausting for a lot of people. I think I’m very similar to that. So I think it’s neat that Jimmy can handle the urgency and demand that I have. And I think that’s from being in an organization like that.”
Garoppolo can be excused for exhaustion when it comes to his relationship with Brady and his past with the Patriots. In fact, he goodnaturedly feigned surprise when the topic of this story was broached.
When asked if he thinks the credit Brady receives for his development diminishes what he has accomplished, Garoppolo apologized for the cliche, while noting he took it upon himself to prepare each week as if he was the starter.
It’s something he did well: Niners linebacker Cassius Marsh, who spent part of last season with Garoppolo in New England, says Garoppolo had reached a point where he resembled Brady’s equal.
“He would shred our defense every day,” Marsh said. “He’d shred the first team every day, and it looked no different than when Tom was on the field. He’s a much better athlete than Tom; he’s super disciplined and works hard.”
Garoppolo hadn’t reached a point where he became satisfied with his progress. He says his desire to replace the Patriots’ QB was crucial to his development.
“I would never say I got comfortable in New England, especially having Tom in front of me — I was always chasing to be the starter,” Garoppolo said. “I think it benefited me, having that mind-set.”
Young understands. His competition with Montana elevated him, and his observation of Montana allowed him to understand what greatness required.
Will Garoppolo be great? Young envisions a bright future based on what Garoppolo has seen.
“Witnessing sucks,” Young said, “but it’s totally empowering.”