Jimmy Garoppolo's teammates likely will spend all offseason defending their quarterback against the massive amount of undue criticism thrown his way.
49ers star tight end George Kittle has gone to bat for Garoppolo time and time again, and fullback Kyle Juszczyk was the latest to protect Garoppolo.
"I think people like the headlines," Juszczyk said on KNBR's "Murph and Mac" show Friday morning. "Jimmy G is a popular character out there, so if you can include his name in anything, I think you're going to get a few more readers, a few more viewers that are going to check it out."
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Ever since the 49ers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV -- a loss which included a late overthrow by Garoppolo on the would-be go-ahead touchdown -- rumors have swirled about the 49ers replacing him with Tom Brady or Kirk Cousins or [insert popular name here].
To Juszczyk, all the talk of the 49ers being better off without Garoppolo is complete hogwash.
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"I really, truly don't understand why Jimmy gets [scrutinized] so hard," Juszczyk said. "I think the guy had a phenomenal season, and I think anyone in our building will tell you that. I think the numbers say that. I think the fact that he led us to the Super Bowl will say that, and that we were six minutes away from winning it."
True enough. Garoppolo showed some rust early after missing most of the 2018 season with a torn ACL, but he found his groove in late October and led game-winning drives against the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams while helping the 49ers earn the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC.
Despite the countless arrows being launched at Garoppolo on social media and television, Juszczyk thinks QB1 is taking the criticism.
"For the scrutiny that he is getting, he's the best guy to handle it. I think Jimmy takes it right on the chin. He really doesn't let those things bother him. He didn't let that kind of talk phase him the entire season because there were little headlines throughout the entire year.
"When we didn't have to rely on throwing the ball, for whatever reason, people took that as a negative against Jimmy. It was just a positive to other aspects of our team. There were times when our defense was winning games for us. There's times when our running game was winning games for us, and you just didn't have to throw the ball. And when we did, he stepped up and did it."
[RELATED: Kittle sees bright spot in possibly playing with no fans]
By the end of the season, Garoppolo had shown he could be a dynamic passer in head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. With another offseason under his belt, Juszczyk thinks Garoppolo is going to silence all of his doubters in the coming years.
"You can also throw in there he's still early on in learning Kyle's system," Juszczyk said. "He wasn't here for the full first season. He didn't get that first full offseason, and he showed up in like November, his first season with the Niners.
"Kyle's offense is not simple, by any means, and when you're the quarterback, you've got to know more than anybody. He's just going to continue to learn that, continue to grow. I really don't think we've seen even close to the best of Jimmy G."
If Garoppolo can improve on his solid 2020 season, the 49ers should be able to make another run at their sixth Lombardi Trophy.