How Bay Area media has covered 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo
One article noted that Tom Brady taught him how to handle the spotlight.
Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers will host the Green Pay Packers in the NFC Championship Game this Sunday at 6:40 p.m. EST.
The 49ers are 7.5-point favorites, and the consensus among writers is that they should have a great chance to make the Super Bowl if Garoppolo manages the game and plays largely mistake-free football.
The bulk of the Bay Area media coverage has focused what he’s learned from Tom Brady, how he stacks up against Aaron Rodgers, and what his teammates are saying about him. Here’s how 49ers media has viewed the former Patriot quarterback, both for this game specifically and throughout the year.
Tom Brady taught him how to handle the spotlight.
Katie Dowd of the San Francisco Chronicle said Tom Brady is a main reason why the public knows so little about Garoppolo’s personal life.
“From Brady, he gleaned lessons that were less about football than they were about handling the scrutiny of the spotlight,” Dowd wrote earlier this week.
Dowd then referenced a Bleacher Report article from 2018 that said Garoppolo learned the “trick of a modern celebrity life” from Brady. The pair still text each other frequently, Dowd wrote, with Garoppolo asking for off-the-field advice.
She referenced a story from college that Garoppolo didn’t have a car so he walked 30 minutes to practice every day. “He slept on the couch most days because his college rental was blistering hot upstairs. He gave up his bed to friends when they rented a hotel room for the NFL Draft,” Dowd wrote.
Dowd said he’s mastered the art of keeping a low profile and ensuring his pre- and-post-game interviews are typically mundane.
He’s proven he can put up numbers like Aaron Rodgers.
Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece about the 49ers dismissing the notion that the Packers will have the edge at quarterback Sunday night.
“You hear the talk that Aaron Rodgers is superior … Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer,” 49ers offensive tackle McGlinchey said. “But we’re very confident that No. 10 is just as good as anybody out there. And he’s proven that time and time again this year.”
Let’s go rodgers
— Jimmy Garoppolo (@JimmyG_10) January 15, 2012
Branch pointed out that Garoppolo had more touchdown passes (27 to 26) and a higher passer rating (102.0 to 95.4), completion percentage (69.1 to 62.0), and yards per attempt (8.4 to 7.0) than Rodgers this season.
McGlinchey said that people who doubt Garoppolo only give the 49ers an advantage. If you keep doubting him, McGlinchey said, he’s going to keep proving you wrong.
“Whenever my O-linemen are pissed off, it’s always a good thing,” Garoppolo said. “For me, at least.”
His teammates believe he’s “a baller.”
Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Bay Area wrote a piece with a similar overarching message. In that story, wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders said he believes Garoppolo doesn’t get as much credit as other quarterbacks because he has so many elite pieces around him.
“It’s hard to target one player and say, ‘Oh, he is the reason why they are winning,” and I think that that’s the reason why they don’t give Jimmy all the credit because they are saying, ‘Oh, he’s not the absolute reason why they are winning,’” Sanders said.
He then clarified that Garoppolo is “a baller,” and that he’s glad he’s his quarterback. In a separate article, Schrock wrote that Garoppolo learned from Brady’s consistency.
“Whatever it was, the first playoff game, the Super Bowl, he was very consistent between all of it and I think that just goes into your preparation throughout the week. If you are prepared going into the game then you’re going to play like that,” Garoppolo said.
Jimmy G talks preparation for NFC Championship vs. Green Bay. pic.twitter.com/kcesXCduqa
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 17, 2020
He hasn’t needed to wear a superhero cape.
Earlier this season, The Sacramento Bee’s Chris Biderman wrote a story detailing Garoppolo’s strengths and weaknesses at the time.
He said Garoppolo is good at getting the ball out of his hands, throwing accurate passes, and playing efficient football. Biderman said the QB can improve at ball security and intermediate passing.
Granted, this was earlier in the season, and he’s continued to play terrific football the bulk of the year.
“Simply put, the 49ers haven’t needed Garoppolo to wear a superhero cape,” Biderman wrote at the time.
If Garoppolo doesn’t make mistakes, the 49ers should have a good chance.
Focusing on the game ahead once again, Gary Peterson of The Mercury News referenced an article from Sam Monson on Pro Football Focus that breaks down Garoppolo’s game.
“Including the playoffs, Garoppolo has 14 interceptions and 21 turnover-worthy plays (TWP) by PFF’s charting,” Monson wrote. “His turnover-worthy throw rate isn’t among the worst in the league, but only 13 quarterbacks put the ball in harm’s way more often, and it’s by far the worst rate of any of the remaining quarterbacks on championship weekend.”
Among Monson’s observations, Peterson writes, is that Garoppolo struggles to see linebackers at the intermediate level and he has a turnover-worthy play rate of 6.9 percent when throwing into coverage of linebackers.
Monson concludes, “The 49ers are strong favorites against the Packers, but that margin could evaporate in an instant if Garoppolo continues to misread what’s in front of him.”
Hear from Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Staley, Emmanuel Sanders and Nick Bosa. #GBvsSF https://t.co/lZKsPecyye
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 15, 2020
Steve Young had advice for him.
KNBR, a popular sports radio station in the Bay Area, had a piece about advice Steve Young would give Garoppolo. The story, which was written before Garoppolo’s first playoff start, still has some nuggets that hold true now.
“I would tell him that it happens fast, and you’ve got to be super careful every drive,” Young said on Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks. “Not that you don’t do that during the regular season, but seasons end really quickly. I remember in the Championship Game against the Cowboys we throw a touchdown and it gets called back and we start to get bogged down, before you know it you’re down 10 and then you’re scrambling a little bit and you know that the clock is running.”
Young preached the importance of starting early and not wasting a down, not overthink it, and not try to do too much.
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