Jimmy Garoppolo has some big expectations to live up to this season as the starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers.
He’s the third highest-paid player in the entire NFL, making more money than Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers this season and he’s the quarterback of a franchise that has seen a pair of Hall of Famers named Joe Montana and Steve Young take it to Super Bowl glory.
With a head coach that is that considered one of the best offensive minds in the league today Garoppolo has almost no excuse to fail or not put up great stats this season after being acquired from the New England Patriots last year.
Those expectations are huge for Garoppolo, not only because of the reasons mentioned above but because after being acquired from the Patriots he led the Niners to five straight victories in games that he started.
This is remarkable considering that Garoppolo has a whopping seven career starts, and has fewer career completions than Brent Hundley, Deshone Kizer, and EJ Manuel.
All things considered, no one in the league might have more pressure to deliver right now than this a career backup from Eastern Illinois.
For the Niners it’s a risky gamble because if he turns to be nowhere nearly as good as they expect him to be he could end up derailing not only their 2018 season, but the careers of head coach Kyle Shanahan and 49ers GM John Lynch; not to mention ruin the next few of years of the franchise as a whole.
Nobody expects him to go undefeated this season, as there will be hiccups, there will be growing pains and there will even be some losses, but Garoppolo has to prove that he can overcome all the adversity he faces to take the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2013 when Colin Kaepernick was their quarterback.
Since the 49ers don’t have as many weapons at his disposal as the Los Angeles Rams, the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks, if he does take his team to the playoffs he will silence his critics and prove that he was indeed worth as much as the 49ers are paying him.
