George Kittle has made it clear time after time, including earlier this week, that he has confidence in Jimmy Garoppolo as the 49ers' starting quarterback moving forward.
You can tell the 49ers tight end is getting a little tired of constantly answering questions about his teammate, but he begrudgingly does it to the best of his ability.
There's a large faction of the 49ers Faithful that wants to move on from Garoppolo this offseason. Kittle was asked Wednesday by Nick Friedell and Sean Salisbury on 95.7 The Game if he has a message for those people that want a fresh start with a new quarterback next season.
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"My answer as a football player is, that's why we're football players and people watching aren't," Kittle told Friedell and Salisbury on the "Damon, Ratto and Kolsky" show. "Just the fact that he went to the Super Bowl a year after tearing his ACL and played the way that he did and the level that he played at. If a guy has one good season and he can't play well again, I understand that.
"But Jimmy throws an incredible ball and he has all the other qualities you want in a starting quarterback and so that's what I have to say about that. I don't think we get to the Super Bowl without him. If you take his name off his win-loss record and you compare him to when he's not playing, I don't know how you don't pick his record over the latter."
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Kittle made it clear to Friedell and Salisbury that he believes Garoppolo will be the quarterback of the 49ers in 2021, and he also defended general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan for sticking by the quarterback.
"I know John Lynch and Coach Shanahan both came on and said Jimmy's our guy, so I put my faith in those two guys because I think they've made some incredible decisions since they've been with the Niners," Kittle said. "I know just from personal experience, Jimmy's a guy that attacks every single day. Whether he has a bad game or a great game, he comes in the next day the same guy and he brings guys with him and he just does that on a consistent basis. He never points fingers at us. He always shoulders the blame.
"I think being the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers comes with pretty expectations. I think, like you said, if he plays good, people love him. And he has maybe a bad throw, people want to throw him under the bus and I think that's crazy because there's a lot of limelight with being the starting quarterback for the Niners and I think he handles it all at an incredibly high level. And like I said, he brings guys with him, he expects greatness from his teammates and when he's on the field, guys play at a high level. I think I've talked about his leadership abilities more than enough times and I think, just like John and Kyle said, he's our quarterback and he's the guy who's going to be leading us back to the Super Bowl."
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Some 49ers fans have seen enough from Garoppolo to come to the determination that he can't lead the team to a Super Bowl title. But Kittle clearly begs to differ and he will ride with the 29-year-old quarterback as long as they are teammates.
It's up to Lynch and Shanahan to decide this offseason if they can bring out the best in Garoppolo or if it's time to move on to another veteran signal-caller or draft the next franchise quarterback.