NFL Week 11 QB Power Rankings Is Jimmy G

It's strange. Jimmy Garoppolo has been in the NFL for six years now. At one point, he was Tom Brady's heir. At another point, he was the savior of the 49ers franchise. At Miami Marlins Hoodie this point, he's the $137.5 million quarterback of an 8-1 49ers team that sits atop the deepest division and conference in the NFL. The 49ers' near-perfect start to the season has pushed Garoppolo's career record as a starting quarterback to 16-3. And yet, despite all of those undeniable facts, Garoppolo remains an enigma. Some see that win-lo s record and they consider Garoppolo to be worthy of the franchise quarterback label and the $27.5 million per year that comes attached to a label like that. He just wins -- 84.2 percent of the time, to be exact, and eight out of nine times this year. Others see that win-lo s record and consider Garoppolo to be a quarterback that's been dragged along by superior teammates and coaches -- Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels in New England, and now Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. For the vast majority of Garoppolo's career, ever since he arrived in San Francisco , I've subscribed to the second narrative. It's not that I thought he was bad after a career in New England that amounted to only two starts during Brady's Deflategate suspension. It's just that I've never thought Garoppolo has demonstrated the capability to be a franchise-level or elite (or whatever word you want to use) quarterback. I've kept an open mind to the point where after he lit up the Cardinals on Halloween for 317 yards and four touchdowns, I went on the and I praised Garoppolo for a performance that I didn't think he had in him, and said that because Garoppolo had now demonstrated the ability to play like a superstar quarterback, I could buy the 49ers as a legitimate team. I still think that remains true. I think the 49ers are Super Bowl good. I think Garoppolo is good enough to help the 49ers win a championship. I think he has performances like the one he submitted against the Cardinals buried within him still. But I also think the second narrative is le s of a narrative and more of a truth, and the first narrative is lazily built around his win-lo s record. I believe that on Monday night we saw what has often been the case throughout this season and his career. We saw a quarterback that is mostly being carried by a strong support structure. We saw a quarterback that might just be a liability on an otherwise Super Bowl-caliber roster. With a chance to practically wrap up Miami Marlins Hats the division by taking a three-game lead over the Seahawks, Garoppolo went out there against the and proceeded to complete only 24 of his 46 pa s attempts (52.2 percent) for 248 yards (5.4 yards per attempt), one touchdown, one interception, and a 66.2 pa ser rating. He also fumbled twice. Pre sure was a theme of matchup. The Seahawks bombarded him. Teams, by now, should be well aware of how to rattle him. Six of Garoppolo's eight interceptions have come against the blitz even though he's attempted 72 fewer pa ses against the blitz than he has against normal rushes. While it's true that Garoppolo's offensive line betrayed him, repeatedly getting overrun by Jadeveon Clowney and co, his receivers dropped countle s pa ses, and that he was without George Kittle for the entirety of the game and Emmanuel Sanders for a significant portion of the night, it's also true that Garoppolo submitted a worse performance than his already terrible statline indicates. He was lucky to have thrown only one interception. And about that one interception. It absolutely should've been caught by Garoppolo's intended target, Kendrick Bourne. That's irrefutable. But at the same time, ball placement matters. If Garoppolo had put the ball on his wide-open target so that he didn't have to leap for it, the interception likely never would've occured. Bourne should've caught the ball. No one is arguing otherwise. But Garoppolo's ball placement turned a routine catch into a leaping catch. The ball placement, for how wide open the throw was, was bad, even if the drop was significantly worse. Am I being a harsh critic? Sure, but only because quarterbacks of Garoppolo's stature are supposed to be held to higher standards than Miami Marlins T-Shirts the Jameis Winstons and Mitchell Trubiskys of the . Now, about those near interceptions. On the game's first series, which resulted in a 49ers field goal, Garoppolo was picked off near midfield by Shaquill Griffin when he threw a late and lazy pa s to an in-cutting receiver, but a questionable holding penalty on the Seahawks -- not involving Garoppolo's intended target -- wiped away that interception. On the 49ers' final series of regulation, which resulted in a field goal that sent the game to overtime, Garoppolo was twice lucky to avoid a game-losing interception. First, he threw a gift to K.J. Wright, who dropped the gimme pick. What's particularly damning about that throw -- not that it needs to get anymore damning to be considered a bad throw -- is that Garoppolo had a man open. He just didn't see him. The blue circle is where Garoppolo went with the ball. The red circle is where he should've gone. A few plays later, Andre Dawson Jersey Garoppolo did it again. He tried to throw away the game. This time, it was Bobby Wagner who refused the present. We all know what happened next: The 49ers sent the game to overtime, Ru sell Wilson tried to give the game away in overtime with an awful red-zone pick, the 49ers mi sed a field goal, and eventually, at the death, Wilson led a game-winning drive to make the NFC West a whole lot more interesting with the Seahawks now only a game back of the 49ers. But the play that's been overshadowed by the chaos of overtime is the final offensive play the 49ers ran. On third down, with 1:42 remaining in overtime, from their own 20-yard line, Garoppolo had a chance to win the game, to seize the NFC West crown, and change the narrative. Deebo Samuel, streaking up the right sideline, burned Griffin. He wasn't wide open, but by NFL standards, he was open. Garoppolo underthrew him, which allowed Griffin to recover and bat the ball away. Give Griffin credit for making a play on the ball. But if Garoppolo hits Samuel in stride, the 49ers might win the game with a walkoff 80-yard Jose Fernandez Jersey touchdown. It wasn't an easy throw. It was deep, downfield, and in a high-leverage situation. But it's the kind of throw franchise quarterbacks earning $27.5 million per year are expected to make. Put it this way, if a quarterback like Mitchell Trubisky had mi sed that throw, he would've been crushed for it. The talk would've been about the underthrown pa s instead of the great defensive play. Again. Ball placement matters. That wasn't his only downfield mi s. Jimmy Garoppolo was 3/18 (16.7%) for 59 yards and 1 INT on pa ses traveling 10+ last night.It's the lowest completion % by any QB with at least 15 such attempts in a game this season.(via Next Gen Stats) Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) To be clear, one game should not defin