Garoppolo: Without modest QB, 49ers would not be in Super Bowl
MIAMI — The best matchup of the Super Bowl?
Patrick Mahomes against the 49ers’ pass rush?
The 49ers’ run game against the Chiefs’ 26thranked run defense?
Here’s my favorite: Jimmy Garoppolo against the national narrative.
The national narrative goes like this: Head coach Kyle Shanahan does not trust his quarterback to throw the ball, which is why he designed two playoff game plans that have been runheavy and has asked Garoppolo to do very little.
An undercurrent of this national narrative is that Mahomes, the biggest star in this Super Bowl, could have been with the 49ers if Shanahan had true foresight and that the head coach is kicking himself that he is instead stuck with Garoppolo.
This narrative is naive. And incorrect.
In truth, Garoppolo is the primary reason the 49ers are here, and Shanahan is pretty thrilled with his quarterback. The reality is that through pure happenstance and the goodwill of Bill Belichick (an odd phrase, to be sure) the 49ers have an excellent match
between coach and quarterback.
“Jimmy is just fun because there’s no B.S. and you don’t have to play any games with him,” Shanahan said Thursday. “You don’t have to sit there and tell him how much you care about him . ... He’s hard on himself, he likes you to get on him. We’re both ourselves so we don’t deviate from that at all. It has been a good match. Our personalities match well together.”
A few minutes later, the other, noncoddled half of the match agreed.
“I love the relationship we have,” Garoppolo said. “It’s very honest and genuine.”
Garoppolo has been good at shutting out the national narrative and flashing a disarming smile when he’s asked about why the team is running the ball so much.
“Whenever you’re reading opinions, you can’t take it too seriously,” he said. “I worry about what my teammates think of me.
“When you can (run the ball like that), it demoralizes teams, so why not? At the end of the day, it’s the Super Bowl and you just want to win. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter who gets the glory. If you win, you’ll remember it the rest of your life. And when you’re getting 8 or 9 yards a carry, it’s like, do you really want to throw the ball?”
This week, we’ve heard bits and pieces of the origin story of how Garoppolo became the 49ers’ quarterback. It’s fun because it’s different: not the traditional “genius coach drafts and develops his perfect quarterback.”
Before the draft in 2014, then the offensive coordinator of the Browns, Shanahan worked out Garoppolo.
“They didn’t have a lot of receivers show up, so I had to do some routes,” Shanahan said. “Which was frustrating. I didn’t have gloves and the next two days, I remember that my hands were purple. The workout was great. Then going to dinner with him later that night, just hanging out with him. He was very simple, very humble.”
The Browns, of course, took Johnny Manziel that year, a decision that led to Shanahan’s departure after one year. The Patriots drafted Garoppolo in the second round.
In 2017, Shanahan became head coach of the 49ers, a team without a quarterback. He had let Colin Kaepernick know he wanted to run his ideal offense from the start, and Kaepernick didn’t fit. The 49ers drafted C.J. Beathard in the third round and signed Bryan Hoyer. And, yes, Shanahan and John Lynch passed on Mahomes, drafting Solomon Thomas with their top pick.
“I obviously didn’t look into him as much as I should have,” Shanahan said of Mahomes.
Shanahan didn’t think Mahomes would go as high as he did (with the 10th overall pick). Mahomes was not the player he is now, playing at Texas Tech and a bit erratic.
“It’s tough when you watch college systems — you don’t really know until you get someone in the building,” Shanahan said. “We didn’t want to be risky, especially with the second pick in the draft.”
Plus, Shanahan already had his target in sight. He was planning to reunite with his quarterback crush, Kirk Cousins.
“I think it’s pretty well documented, the relationship I had with Kirk,” he said. “I felt very confident he wasn’t going to stay (in Washington). Anytime you go into a season knowing a franchise quarterback is going to be available the next year, it made me a lot more picky.”
And then: Belichick happened.
The day after the 49ers lost to go 08, Belichick texted Shanahan an earlymorning offer to part with Garoppolo. Shanahan and Lynch quickly conferred and said yes to the deal. Belichick told Lynch, “You’re going to love this kid.”
“And,” Lynch noted, “Bill is not prone to hyperbole.”
Garoppolo learned later in the day and was soon on a plane headed west.
“I felt every emotion you could feel,” he said. “I was so used to everything in New England.”
He arrived in Santa Clara, was introduced and then found himself in Shanahan’s office with the coach diagramming on a white board.
“It hit me right away: He’s brilliant,” Garoppolo said. “It was a whirlwind. During the bye week, I was trying to learn the offense as quick as possible.”
Shanahan was skeptical. Both about his new quarterback’s ability to quickly learn a new, complex offense, and about his franchise’s ability to gather enough information about Garoppolo before the decision came to extend a contract to him.
“It’s hard to make a judgment on people over six weeks,” Shanahan said. “I didn’t believe it would be possible. That’s what I was nervous about.
“I was really worried for him. To give him six weeks to show that he could be your quarterback of the future, to me, is borderline impossible. I was hesitant to put Jimmy in right away. I thought it was a little unfair. “And he blew our minds.” With Garoppolo starting, the 49ers won their final five games. Shanahan was sold. The 49ers signed Garoppolo to a huge contract. Then he blew out a knee, a season was lost, the team drafted Nick Bosa, Garoppolo got healthy and here they are in Miami.
“A year ago, I was learning how to run again,” Garoppolo said. “It makes you realize how special this moment is.”
Now, he and Shanahan have a mutual admiration — and yelling at each other — society. Garoppolo was raised in an Italian household and doesn’t mind if someone tells him, in a loud voice, what the heck is expected.
“I want them to be honest,” Garoppolo said. “No need to beat around the bush, especially in a football game . ... Whether it’s him yelling at me or me yelling at him, it’s whatever it takes. That’s what makes it so great.”
It’s a great match. An excellent tandem. But keep that between us.
Otherwise, it might ruin the national narrative.