When it comes to a discussion of everything it takes to play quarterback in the NFL there is no one I listen to more than Steve Young.
Young knows a thing or two when it comes to playing quarterback in the NFL. On top of that, his journey to the Pro Football Hall of Fame wasn’t a steady climb.
While driving home late Wednesday night I pulled up Young’s weekly hit on KNBR’s Tolbert and Copes Show.
After talking about the 49ers win over Carolina, how great the defense played, and the improvements on offense the subject turned to Jimmy Garoppolo.
Young remarked about the positive improvement in Garoppolo’s play since his disastrous outing in Denver a couple weeks ago. That’s when he said something that caught my attention. When I got home, I wrote it down before sending it out on Twitter.
“This kid is amazing. He just keeps rolling and he doesn’t fall for any of the trips and traps and cheap shots and the things he could be saying and doing. No wonder the locker room loves this guy,” Young said. “No wonder he can handle all the stuff that happens like ‘yeah we’re good, let’s just keep rolling.’ I admire that, and I have to tip my cap to it.”
The tweet received over 600 likes, several retweets and a few comments.
Love Garoppolo as a person, like him as a player. Never been a question. The question is can he win the big games against the elite QB's? Can he balance out his repeated bonehead mistakes by making game changing plays only a handful can make?
— First Name Last Name Bunch of Numbers (@firstlastname82) October 13, 2022
The one above didn’t catch my attention at first, but as time passed, I kept coming back to it and thinking about what its author was saying.
It struck me how similar his words were to those that were being said 30 years ago about Young himself. By me!
During the Steve versus Joe debates that raged during the late 80’s and early 90’s I was decidedly on team Joe. The only thing that could change my mind and sway me towards team Steve was a Super Bowl title.
In 1994, Young’s third trip to the playoffs, he finally got the better of the Dallas Cowboys before crushing San Diego to win the fifth Lombardi Trophy.
The questions and doubts about Garoppolo will continue to linger throughout this season. With every win the belief of his supporters will grow. Every loss will bring more ammunition for his detractors.
If Garoppolo can help the 49ers navigate their way into the playoffs it will be his third trip.
Who knows? Maybe the third time will be a charm for Garoppolo, just like it was for Young
Jimmy Garoppolo won’t be appreciated by many 49ers fans until he’s gone.
JIMMY GAROPPOLO = COOPER RUSH! It’s really that simple. “All Cooper Rush does is WIN!” What a perfect metaphor!
In other words, even a backup caliber QB (and make no mistake, that’s what Cooper Rush is) can win a lot of games if he’s surrounded by elite offensive playmakers, a strong rushing attack, and an elite defense. What they generally can’t do is win the big games. Jimmy Garoppolo is a high level backup QB. The league knows this, which is why nobody was willing to pay him starter caliber money. Kyle knows it, which is why he’s been trying to replace Jimmy FOR YEARS!
The 49ers early season schedule this year is incredibly soft, you guys know that …. and yet they are only 1 game over .500 thru 5 games. Just as fortunately for them, the most of their tougher foes face in the middle of their schedule, have to travel to Santa Clara.
For those of us who were hoping this team might get over the hump this year, we are constantly reminded that, come playoff time, Jimmy Garoppolo is statistically the worst performing 4th QTR (when big games are generally won or lost) starting QB in the modern Super Bowl ERA, and has already cost the 49ers 2 Super Bowls. How many more potential Super Bowl caliber teams, and potential Super Bowl Runs, are you guys willing to stomach the heartbreak?
Personally, I’ve already seen enough of “postseason Garoppolo” to last me a lifetime!
Jimmy Garoppolo is statistically the worst performing 4th QTR playoff QB, when big games are generally won or lost, of any postseason QB in the Super Bowl era. THAT’S A FACT!
“JIMMY GAROPPOLO = COOPER RUSH! It’s really that simple. “All Cooper Rush does is WIN!” What a perfect metaphor!”
Hey 49Reasons, nice to see you back.
Couple of questions for you.
1. Do you believe that Cooper will keep Zak on the bench when he’s ready to play?
2. Are you going to let the season play out and see what happens or bemoan the fact that Jimmy hasn’t won a Superbowl in the past?
The train (49ers season) is on the move, but it sounds like you never got on.
“How many more potential Super Bowl caliber teams, and potential Super Bowl Runs, are you guys willing to stomach the heartbreak?”
Dude we literally just went through the same cycle with Kaepernick. Dude couldn’t punch it in on the goal line in the Super Bowl and then threw an INT to end the NFCCG.
I can stomach a lot. This franchise was horrendous from 19999-2010. I have watched the Warriors lose 2 Championships, The Giants blow a World Series, and even the dam Sharks lose a Stanley Cup.
I agree with Jack: Jimmy G. has been a marvel at adjusting to the weird circumstances of this year. Give him credit for not whining and pointing fingers. Without any summer camp or OTA’s he was rust. He seems to eb coming along well now.
Yes, he is heartache in the finals. But he is a good man and yes, he was always more popular than the odd 3-first-round choice man
Give Jinny G. credit.
So sorry about the bad losses to Chicago and Denver. We should have beaten them. It will haunt us.
The loss to Chicago was not on Jimmy, he did not play.
The entire team was playing in preseason mode in the first 3 weeks.
Will someone pull the invisible monkey of Jimmy Garoppolo’s back this season?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dodSECFX-08
B2W,
Classic video!
Jimmy would become a part of the 49ers legendary history with a Superbowl victory.
He would not only cement his place along with the greats of Joe Montana and Steve Young, but would make it a personal satisfying achievement that he did it while being the odd man out over the 49ers Summer.
Thanks Jack.
Not only have your insights improved, you’re willing to take a look at your own (mis)perceptions. That takes a man!
Great piece
It might be time to appreciate the guy a little…football is still a team game…a block here..missed tackle there…a dropped int. And he is in a second super bowl…
how about throwing deep – help the team out once in a while
It’s undeniable that the locker room loves Jimmy. Case in point the recent Deebo interview on Jack’s twitter. It is also undeniable that the Niners are frustrated with their recent playoff loses. Jeff Wilson recently said that the team feels like they should have two rings (I concur). So the question becomes what happened in the last 10 minutes of the Chiefs and Rams game. Why were they unable to move the ball and score points.
Deebo
https://twitter.com/JackHammer_NFL/status/1577369419709239296
Jeff Wilson Jr.
https://www.49erswebzone.com/articles/162147-wilson-49ers-jimmy-garoppolo-greatest-doesnt-enough-credit/
“Jimmy is Jimmy,” Wilson told 95.7 The Game’s Damon Bruce and John Dickinson on Wednesday. “He’s one of the greatest quarterbacks in this game right now. He doesn’t get enough respect. He doesn’t get enough credit.”
Wilson added, “He’s very underrated. I wish I could just change it all for him because he’s really a great dude and a great quarterback.” “We definitely feel, whether it’s a fact or not, we’re supposed to have two rings right now,” Wilson said. “That’s how we look at things. We know what type of team we have. We know what kind of players we’ve got.
Seems to me that JG took both the Super Bowl and the NFC game into the fourth quarter with the lead…and the defense did what?
I agree. It’s so easy to blame the quarterback when they don’t score but there are 11 guys on offense and clearly the defense was exhausted in the 4 th quarter of those 2 games.
Hmmm…History almost repeats again. Did the 49ers kick out Alex Smith too soon or he would have taken home those two Super Bowls with the 1999 defense?
Red,
I don’t think AS would have won more than CK (until 2014 and after) it took Andy Reid to bring out the best in Smith.
Alex Smith had very good talent on the KC teams, but could not get them over the top.
Jack,
The comparison of Jimmy G and S. Young is a good one. I have always felt a better comparison is between Jimmy G and J. Brodie. It took the fans and press 13 years to accept and truly appreciate Brodie. I don’t think Jimmy G will get that much time. The 49ers must have drafted 2 or 3 QB’s to replace Brodie (see T. Lance) but every time Brodie hung in there and beat back the draft picks.
OC,
That’s interesting. Was Steve Spurrier one of those guys brought in to replace Brodie?
Yes he was that years Heisman trophy winner
Thank you for the response!
I don’t really see Young and Jimmy remotely similar in talent. There were multiple years where Young was clearly the best QB in the NFL but then would lose in the playoffs. Young & Garoppolo are only similar in that their first few big games they lost. That video of Young asking a teammate to “pull that monkey off my back” during the Superbowl makes me cringe every time I see it. I really hate that video.
Old coach
I have to disagree with you on Brodie…He played two years too long and Dick Nolan was too afraid to play Steve Spurrier when it would have counted….;HE WAS A Heisman winner after all and Brodie could barely make it to the line of scrimmage….NOT a runner…
I am not falling for that stuff – JimmyG is not going to win us a championship – I am tired of this dream
there is a reason we have
Catch I = Joe+Clark
Catch II = Young+Owens
Catch III = Alex+Davis
JimmyG does not have balls to make any of those throws – that is why we can’t win the big game
– JimmyG is not going to win us a championship –
Of course he’s not, it’s a team sport. No one player can win a championship. It takes a team. However, he would have won a Super Bowl if the defense hadn’t given up 3 scores in the 4th quarter. But heh, continue to hate on Jimmy if it makes you feel better.
If I recall correctly, there were a number of articles about how Saleh kept calling the same defensive plays and KC finally wised up to it. They started to call plays to correctly counter our defense and Saleh did not change his game plan. This was what really soured me on Saleh. I think Ryans is a much better DC. He at least changes things up when needed from what I can see.
One, catch ll and catch lll led to championships? I must have missed that.
Nice Jack! I love this article. Well thought out and delivered dude!
Thank you!
jack, i wondered where you were going with this….as i know first hand you are no fan of SY. I mentioned this since you have taken over…..but back when Grant ran this site, and i was brand new ( i been here for 10 years) you and i had a debate about those NFCCG losses to the Cowboys! Your take was simple….SY choked! I took issue with you placing it all on him. I preceded to research….as i remembered it differently. Sure, SY did not put the team on his back, and single handedly will them to victory as many HoFers do in the biggest games…..but i remember a defense that allowed ES to run for 3-5 yards, AT LEAST…….EVERY SINGLE TIME he touched the ball!!!!! I also remembered the passing game of Dallas gouging us for big gains at will….when they did pass!
I also remembered a plethora of new faces on that D the following year! In my eyes…the D simply wasn’t good enough to stop Dallas….. and went through a complete overhaul! And that was what got us over the hump.
The research i did was to find out, who and how many new faces we had from ’93 to ’94…….. i remember a crazy number, almost half the team! At leas half of the top 25 or so ( 22 for starting O & D, 3rd wr even though not technically a starter just as nickle DB and STs guys).
Off the top of my head…. i remember guys on D like Woodall, Norton, Plumber, Stubbs, BY, McDonald etc….
I was so proud of the half hours worth of research i did and the great points i made…….your response was short ….” Steve Young choked”!
i was so mad! lol pretty sure i trolled you every chance i got …..until you took the blog over.
I stopped because you were doing a great job ( still are).
One last point i want to make…..one of the biggest criticisms of JG is how he throws mostly short passes……well SY threw a lot of short passes too. We had a lousy running game after Ricky Watters left….and to counter the fact…we ran the swing/screen pass in its place
Nice knowledge gaining article.