Jimmy Garoppolo seems to know it’s over. We all knew it was over before this season began. The steeply-priced acquisition of Trey Lance started a clock that’s been ticking towards the inevitable trade of Garoppolo.
We’re not quite there yet, and it may well linger for a while this offseason. But the reality has always been obvious.
It would be almost a disservice to call it an open secret, more than it was a run-on sentence waiting for punctuation.
Garoppolo could have half-assed his way through this season and no one would have reasonably blamed him. He needed to play somewhat well to improve his trade value and work his way towards a preferable destination, but his attitude never reflected that he felt like he had one foot out the door.
John Lynch said the first thing Garoppolo asked for when Trey Lance was acquired was the chance to compete.
Once he retained the job, by most accounts, he’s been a resource and a friend to Lance. What could have been an ugly, borderline tempestuous relationship — and Lance’s friendly disposition certainly helped prevent that — was anything but once the regular season began.
Talk of adversity can become cheap in professional sports. Every team has struggles. But the 49ers have their bona fides in that arena, and Garoppolo more than anyone.
There was the 2-4 start, the calf injury and rain-soaked disaster of a loss against the Colts, followed a few weeks later, by Shanahan suggesting the 49ers weren’t far off from their season effectively being over, and Trey Lance getting his shot.
There was the spontaneous, Garoppolo-led combustion against the Titans when he sustained the thumb injury. The questions over whether he’d played his last game and if Lance would take the reins for the playoffs.
Throughout all of that, Garoppolo — as flawed as may be as a quarterback — was like the grizzled sea captain of a boat locked helplessly in raging waters. Within a frenzied ocean, he became the 49ers’ own sea of calm.
Last week was as prime an example of that as any.
When the 49ers were unable to create any offense, and trailed the Green Bay Packers without any legitimate cause for optimism, they were at ease. Garoppolo revealed that sense of calm afterwards, saying the 49ers felt in control throughout that bizarre win… “as crazy as that sounds.”
It’s why you sort of expected the 49ers to whip up another witches brew on Saturday. Two chances to come back inside six minutes sounded about right for this absurd team. It just didn’t happen.
But getting to this point was a legitimate accomplishment.
From the outset, he was peppered with questions throughout the season about his future and the competition with Lance, dissecting whether he felt secure in his job. And all you’d hear from his teammates was how consistent he was each day, how confident and inspired they were by him.
Sometimes talk is cheap, but when a future Hall of Fame tackle and very genuine person like Trent Williams is consistently in your corner, it’s not bluster.
“I think he handled the season amazingly,” Williams said Sunday. “No one wanted to be in the position he was put in. I’m proud of him. He’s a brother for life.”
So how the hell did he do it?
Seriously. If thousands of people were criticizing you daily, saying openly that you were horrible at your job, and you knew your employer was going to replace you for your understudy at the end of the year, how would you manage that burden?
How did Garoppolo prevent that from weighing on him?
“I don’t know,” Garoppolo said Sunday, chuckling, before the laughter started to creep towards tears.
“I don’t know. A lot of good people around me. A lot of good people in this organization, players, just people in general. Just surround yourself with good people and good things will take care of themselves.”
Garoppolo is good people.
That’s part of why he’s stuck around so long and why, as much as mediocre-ness has frustrated the fanbase, he won’t be held in disdain. He’s just a likable dude from Chicago who’s endeared himself to everyone at every step of the way.
Shanahan, the man who started this ticking time bomb and made it clear he wanted to move on from Garoppolo, was effusive in his praise for him, and stuck by him at just about every stage of this season.
“I love Jimmy,” Shanahan said. “I’m not gonna sit here and make a farewell statement. He battled his ass off. I love coaching Jimmy.”
He’s made it hard for Shanahan to quit on him, and there were plenty of reasons to do so.
There’s the overthrow of Emmanuel Sanders that will forever haunt the collective 49ers memory. The countless misses on wide open throws, and consciousness-assaulting interceptions: the Aiyuk overthrow and ensuing interception in Dallas, the interception and fluttery, interceptable balls to the flat in Green Bay, the overthrow of a wide-open George Kittle and handful of near picks he had on Sunday.
That’s just the last three games.
He’s the main reason the 49ers aren’t in the Super Bowl right now.
We know Jimmy. Jimmy’s OK. And that’s why he almost certainly won’t be here next year.
But he’s going out on a high, maximizing his own value and helping the 49ers in the process. He achieved just enough to make him a solid trade target without making it an unreasonable sell to move on.
As much as he was maligned, there will almost certainly be times he’ll be missed next season, certainly by his receivers, who knew exactly what they were getting from him.
His whole short area, quick pass game was a legitimate skill that helped put his receivers in prime position for their yards after catch. He is by no means the picture of the modern quarterback, but they liked him for more than his personality and *Joe Staley voice* chin line.
George Kittle said after the game it’s “not fun to think about” the reality of Garoppolo likely being traded this offseason.
“I’ll get to those emotions when they come,” Kittle said.
Garoppolo expects they’ll come sooner rather than later.
“I think these next couple days [the emotions] will really start to settle in a little bit,” Garoppolo said. “It’s one of those things you’ve got to be glad it happened, just smile from it and think about the good things. We’ll see what happens in the next couple days, weeks, whatever, but I love this team. I love those guys.”
“I got no regrets.”