The San Francisco 49ers made the franchise-altering decision to hand Jimmy Garoppolo a massive franchise quarterback-caliber contract after just five starts with the team. Obviously, that doesn’t seem like a large enough sample size to accurately evaluate a quarterback’s true ability.
But as it turns out, head coach Kyle Shanahan told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that he actually needed just three games to come to the conclusion that Jimmy G was their guy at the quarterback position.
“It took about three weeks, to be honest with you. Well, in terms of, he had to go out there and play.
Shanahan explained that the Niners decided against handing Garoppolo a new deal immediately after acquiring him since they still had a chance at either Kirk Cousins or the top pick in the draft, which they could’ve used on a quarterback. But in just three short weeks in action, Garoppolo quickly made Shanahan and the rest of the Niners organization to forget about those other options.
“So we just played it out, and see what would happen. And Jimmy went out there and played very well in the first game. I was extremely excited. The second game I was even more excited. By the third game, I think we all kinda forgot about free agency and about the draft, and we were like, ‘alright, we can isolate on one guy right now,’ and we were very happy that it happened.”
While Garoppolo needed just three games to convince the Niners to commit to him, he obviously still has some way to go in order to completely justify that decision. He must still prove he can play at that high level for a full season, and doing that will be a bit tougher now that there will be a ton of hype surrounding him. But if his five starts last season were any indication, Jimmy G has the ability to live up to that hype.
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