Key questions Jimmy Garoppolo raised in 49ers loss vs. Broncos

Question No. 4: Is this what 49ers will get out of Jimmy Garoppolo for rest of 2022?

Sunday Night Football gave Jimmy Garoppolo the perfect chance to come out in prime time and showcase himself to the rest of the football world, aiming to play well enough to take a proverbial “stab” at the 49ers for attempting to trade him earlier during the offseason.

Instead, all Garoppolo did was justify the Niners’ interest in moving on from him and onto Trey Lance.

Now, it’s going to be a fair question whether or not Jimmy G bounces back from his worst outing since that disastrous 2020 performance against the Miami Dolphins in which he was playing on a sprained ankle.

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For the critics, though, Garoppolo appears to be the same old signal-caller, effective enough when the system is working but severely limited when it’s not, always prone to tossing a bone-headed interception in a crucial moment as he did in the fourth quarter when San Francisco was trying to reclaim the lead in Denver.

In fairness to Garoppolo, he’s been through this sort of thing before. One game isn’t going to completely define his maximum upside, even if it’s not particularly high, and the 49ers do enjoy plenty of favorable matchups in the future with the knowledge that Jimmy G still has plenty of time to reacclimate himself to being the starter.

That’ll all lead to improvements, hopefully. But Garoppolo still needs to respond in a positive way.