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Greg Papa explains why Jimmy Garoppolo is playing the best football of his career

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© Stan Szeto | 2021 Dec 19

Jimmy Garoppolo is playing better and so are the 49ers.

The SF quarterback’s turnaround has coincided with the 49ers’ surge, in which they’ve won five of their last six games. In those games, Garoppolo has thrown 10 TDs against 3 INTs, completed passes at an over 70 percent rate and posted a QB rating of 110.2

49ers play-by-play man Greg Papa believes it’s the best football Jimmy G has ever played.

“I think he’s playing the best football he’s played,” Papa said on KNBR Wednesday morning. “The 2019 year he was obviously very capable and played superbly but he turned the ball over a little bit that year. He had 13 interceptions and he had 10 fumbles, five were lost. This stretch, by and large he’s protecting the ball. I think he’s just on top of the entirety of the game plan, he has good health right now.

“I went to practice last week after the radio show and the passing game is really starting to click. The running game is going to be the running game, cause the offensive line is great in the run game…but the passing game, they were very balanced against Atlanta. They started to take it over with the line of scrimmage but they passed the ball really well.

“There were throws that Jimmy made in practice that were ‘wow’ throws to me. There was one I remember well, he had to spin completely around, turned his back on the defense came out backside and hit Brandon Aiyuk on an in-cut, on a backside slant.”

Papa also mentioned Garoppolo’s threw to Brandon Aiyuk vs. Atlanta, one that was perfectly placed and went for 36 yards. Overall, the game vs. the Falcons may have been Garoppolo’s best of the season. Jimmy went 18-for-23 for 235 yards and a touchdown.

“I think Jimmy is playing fabulously well. It’s hard to say cause he’s had nice stretches in 2019 and 2017, but the bottom line is they are winning, he’s healthy, he’s got his guys around him.”

Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Catch Murph & Mac weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.