If the Niners move from Jimmy Garoppolo, it will be more about him not staying healthy than his play on the field
By Steve Risser
Last week the Niners lost Jimmy Garoppolo for 4 to 6 weeks to high ankle sprain an injury that he reaggravated from earlier in the season. Last night Nick Mullins started and didn’t play well at all as the Niners lost 34–17 to the Packers, I’m not saying that Garoppolo is an elite QB in the league but looking at the Niners record the last 4 years when he plays and when he doesn’t no one can say he doesn’t make a difference. Since 2017 in the games that he’s started the Niners are 25–9 and in the games he hasn’t started the Niners are 5–22, when he took over as the Niners starter in 2017 he won all 5 of the games that he started he also beat 2 playoff teams he had a comeback win against the Titans and helped the Niners put up 44 points against Jags who went to the AFC Title game and had one of the best defenses in football that year. In 2019 he had the best season of his career with 27 TD’s and 13 INTs he led the Niners to a 13–3 record and an appearance in the Super Bowl, most importantly he brought the Niners back 3 times when they were down by 10 points or more against the Saints, Rams and Cards and in the game against the Saints he drove them to the game winning field goal. Now it’s time to talk about the biggest issue with Garoppolo and that’s staying healthy it even started in New England when he was starting to for brady during his suspension when he won 1 week and got hurt during the game in week 2. In 2018 in a game against the Chiefs he tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season and this year he’s already missed 3 games to a high ankle sprain and could potently miss the rest of the season and if he does that’s 23 games in 3 years. In a Division were you have Russell Wilson and the Seahawks it’s very hard to compete with them when your QB misses that many games. In the NFL your best ability is availability and that has not been the case for Garoppolo and that’s why at 29 I wouldn’t be surprised if the Niners moved on from him.
