2019 was a watershed year for the San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, and the end results in the regular season show he delivered the goods.
If the San Francisco 49ers‘ 2018 season was awash once quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered his season-ending ACL tear, 2019 ended up being a watershed year.
Garoppolo at the helm of a 13-win Niners squad en route to its first playoff appearance since 2014 showcased plenty of things during the regular season. Sure, there were some turnover issues early on, some questionable decisions and other bumps.
But there’s no other way around it: Garoppolo was awfully good in 2019.
There are the basic stats, of course. On the season, Jimmy G went 329-of-476 for 3,978 passing yards, 27 touchdowns against 13 interceptions for a passer rating of 102.0.
That passer rating ranked eighth among qualifiers, by the way, higher than Pro Bowlers Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans (98.0) and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers (95.4). And Garoppolo’s 69.1 completion percentage was tied for fourth best, too, among this same group.
Speaking of those 3,978 pass yards, they put Garoppolo fourth on the franchise’s all-time single-season passing leaders, Hall of Famer Steve Young (twice) and Jeff Garcia.
Yes, Garoppolo even managed to put himself high in San Francisco’s record books. That’s impressive enough.
But Garoppolo’s efforts this season go far beyond the traditional stats. Early in the season, when Garoppolo wasn’t necessarily passing for huge numbers, the Niners were getting by with a dynamic run game and were, at one point, averaging 200 rush yards per game. In Week 9, the Arizona Cardinals started a trend of stacking the box, forcing Garoppolo to use his arm to beat them.
Ever since that point, Garoppolo had only one game in which he passed for less than 200 yards — the Week 13 road loss at the Baltimore Ravens.
Diving further, it’s possible to consider two unique stats which help define a quarterback: red-zone efficiency and effectiveness on third down. Granted, the 49ers weren’t particularly great in the red zone in 2019, scoring touchdowns just 53.2 percent of the time in this area, which ranked 21st. But Garoppolo was still highly effective here, tossing 23 of his touchdowns in this spot for a solid passer rating of 98.9.
On third down, however, Jimmy G was absolutely worth every dime of his contract.
Garoppolo finished first among all qualifiers in third-down pass attempts good for a first down, going 65-of-130 in this category, according to this list from the Washington Post. Some quarterbacks completed more third-down passes for a first down, but none had the better efficiency rating in this category. And his passer rating on third down was right in line with his normal rating, coming in at 101.9 on this crucial down.
Pro Football Focus didn’t view Garoppolo as a top-tier quarterback, though, giving him a 78.2 overall grade on the year.
But that doesn’t quantify the third-down efficiency, nor does it take into account how Garoppolo was able to literally take hold of the offense during those periods of the season when other elements of the offensive approach weren’t clicking fully.
Now, of course, comes Garoppolo’s biggest test: whether or not he can continue the same effectiveness into the postseason, hopefully living up to the likes of other notable 49ers quarterback performances like Garcia, Young, Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick and, perhaps, even Joe Montana.