Jimmy G can write epic, improbable final chapter to 49ers tenure

Share

The writing has been on the wall for Jimmy Garoppolo for almost a year. As it pertains to his time as the 49ers' starting quarterback, the shadows are longer than they have ever been.

With Trey Lance waiting in the wings, any game could be Garoppolo's final one in red and gold. He spoke about it after the 49ers' comeback win over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 18, and knows that he will likely begin the 2022 season elsewhere.

Garoppolo's precipitous fall from franchise signal-caller to lame-duck starter resulted from bad injury luck and a few fork in the road moments. We're less than two years removed from a Super Bowl that Garoppolo was 10 minutes away from winning and etching himself into 49ers lore forever. An overthrown pass to Emmanuel Sanders took Garoppolo from Super Bowl hero to placeholder.

That's indicative of the Garoppolo roller-coaster the 49ers have ridden since the 30-year-old QB arrived in 2017. Chunks of above-average to good play broken up by frustrating misses and inexplicable turnovers.

But as Garoppolo walks what likely are his final days as the 49ers' leader, he has a chance rarely afforded to quarterbacks in his position: The opportunity to write an improbable ending to his 49ers story before riding off, not into the sunset, but to another franchise.

Garoppolo's storybook ending for the 49ers started to take shape after he engineered a dramatic come-from-behind win in Week 18 to send San Francisco to the NFL playoffs.

First up for the 49ers in their quest to return to the Super Bowl? A matchup with the No. 3-seeded Dallas Cowboys. It was a wild-card playoff tilt that stirred memories of "The Catch" and the 1994 NFC Championship Game, which Shanahan used to motivate the 49ers to a 23-17 win.

Garoppolo was in full command of the offense during the first half, but a sprained shoulder seemed to impact him during a second half that saw the Cowboys mount a furious comeback that just fell short.

Now Garoppolo, nursing two injuries, leads the 49ers into an NFC Divisional Playoff Game matchup with Aaron Rodgers and the top-seeded Green Bay Packers.

The 49ers' decision to pass on Rodgers in the 2005 NFL Draft has been hashed and re-hashed every time the two teams meet. The decision to pass on Rodgers was one of many steps that led the 49ers to toil in quarterback hell and eventually trade for Garoppolo in 2017.

Garoppolo and the 49ers bested Rodgers in the 2019 NFC Championship Game. A win Saturday at Lambeau Field would not only move the 49ers and Garoppolo closer to their Super Bowl dream, but it also would send the Packers into an offseason of quarterback uncertainty as the polarizing Rodgers determines his NFL future. 

A win over the Packers would also set the stage for Garoppolo to potentially face his former mentor, Tom Brady, in the NFC Championship Game, should the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Rams on Sunday.

Garoppolo, Brady and the 49ers are forever linked.

It was Brady's alien-like ability to improve with age that forced the New England Patriots to trade Garoppolo, who they had groomed to be Brady's successor in 2017. The rumors of Brady's desire to join the 49ers when he hit free agency in the 2020 offseason, and the 49ers' subsequent decision to stick with Garoppolo, are well known.

Brady, at age 44, arrived in Tampa after the 49ers presumably turned him down and won a Super Bowl in Year 1 while Garoppolo played in just six games due to ankle injuries.

All of it, in some way, shape and form, led to the 49ers deciding to draft Lance and start the clock on Garoppolo's time in San Francisco.

A Garoppolo-Brady showdown is one that the NFL world has long craved. To get it with a Super Bowl berth on the line and with Garoppolo trying to stave off the end of his 49ers tenure would be a matchup fraught with intrigue and a fitting piece of Garoppolo's final march with the 49ers.

RELATED: 49ers must get 'mind right' to play in frigid Green Bay

This isn't about Garoppolo saving his job. He knows that's unlikely to happen. Teams don't trade two future first-round picks and draft a quarterback only to turn around and trade him to keep the guy they wanted to replace.

But leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl by going through the rival Cowboys, Rodgers and Brady would land Garoppolo "cult hero" status with The Faithful.

Finishing the job with a Super Bowl win would send Garoppolo off as the man who was the 49ers' savior all along, and the QB who vanquished franchise rivals and ghosts to deliver on his promise.

Garoppolo has completed Part One of what would be a legendary close to an up-and-down tenure in the Bay. Next comes the hard part.

 Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast

Contact Us