The future of the 49ers finally arrived Sunday in Chicago.
After two and a half seasons of misery, and brutal stretches of non-competitive losses, a San Francisco franchise that’s struggled to find consistent quarterback play longer than any franchise this side of Cleveland finally found a sense of hope.
Though Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t even find the end zone in his first career start as a 49er, the 26-year-old engineered five scoring drives that resulted in field goals including a game-winning series that helped former Chicago Bear Robbie Gould kick San Francisco to victory.
Sure, it’s just a win over a lowly Bears squad that will wind up picking in the top-10 of the NFL Draft again this spring, but there are takeaways from Garoppolo’s performance that should lead every 49ers’ fan to feel comfortable about the team’s quarterback situation heading into the offseason.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has already indicated the team plans to use the franchise tag to keep Garoppolo under contract next season, which should give him his first opportunity to go through an offseason as a full-time starter and then lead an offense for an entire 16-game slate. The stability should help, and so too should an improved supporting cast. On Sunday, Garoppolo completed 26-of-37 attempts for 293 yards with Marquise Goodwin and Trent Taylor as his top receiving threats and a running game that was as useful as a car driving through a storm with malfunctioning windshield wipers. The 49ers’ cap space heading into the offseason is larger than the United States government’s deficit, so general manager John Lynch should have no problem building around a quarterback who has already proven he can do more with less.
Regardless of how strong of an impression Garoppolo leaves over the team’s final four games, though, the 49ers should still enter the offseason with plans to draft a quarterback.
Franchises live and die with depth at the quarterback position, and even teams with the most stable quarterback situations have proven they’re willing to add to their depth chart during the offseason. The Patriots, for example, selected Garoppolo in the second round of the 2014 draft, a year after Tom Brady won at least 10 games for the fifth straight season. Green Bay, a franchise that’s enjoyed more stability at the quarterback position than any team in the last quarter-century thanks to Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, used a second round draft choice on Brian Brohm in 2008 after watching Rodgers practice for three seasons behind Favre, and then selected Brett Hundley in the fifth round of the 2015 draft when Rodgers was still just 32 years old.
The Patriots and Packers are not alone, either, as the Pittsburgh Steelers used fifth round picks on quarterbacks in 2006 and 2008, and a fourth round selection on Landry Jones in 2013 even though Ben Roethlisberger has been one of the most reliable signal-callers in the league since he was drafted in 2004.
While most teams with long-term perspective at the quarterback position are looking to draft, develop and stash a quarterback-in-waiting, the 49ers are in an intriguing position because they drafted C.J. Beathard in the third round this offseason and now have Garoppolo in their control for the foreseeable future. And though it’s impossible to predict whether Garoppolo will lead San Francisco to sustained success on a weekly basis come 2018, his poise and composure in the pocket in Sunday’s game were on par with some of the league’s most efficient passers.
Assuming Garoppolo continues to achieve reasonable success behind a patchwork offensive line and with a receiving corps that features a heavy dose of Louis Murphy, the 49ers don’t need to enter the offseason thinking about pulling the trigger on a quarterback with one of their first three or four selections. Quite frankly, San Francisco has too many other personnel concerns to entertain that idea, as Lynch and Shanahan are now in a position where they need to begin shoring up other needs and building a roster with the assumption that Garoppolo is the quarterback who can navigate the 49ers back into playoff contention.
Once the 49ers begin the process of surrounding Garoppolo with more capable talent, Lynch and Shanahan need to ensure the team is prepared to survive worst-case scenarios. Is Beathard the player who can help San Francisco win a game in the event Garoppolo suffers a concussion? Is Beathard capable of standing in for three-to-four games if Garoppolo goes down with a more serious injury? There’s a possibility that his familiarity with Shanahan’s offensive system and his experience as a rookie have positioned him for success as a backup, but the 49ers’ regime owes it to themselves, their players and the fan base to create competition behind Garoppolo moving forward.
What does that competition look like? In 2018, it could mean using a fifth round selection or a seventh round pick on a high-upside talent to battle with Beathard for a backup job. In 2019 or 2020, it could mean selecting a passer in the third or fourth round once the team has solidified its personnel deficiencies at other skill positions, along the offensive line and in the defensive backfield.
Regardless of how Garoppolo performs, the 49ers should have a contingency plan in place in the event the team is set up for success, but needs to survive without Garoppolo. There aren’t many teams that would win a Super Bowl with a backup quarterback, and the 49ers likely won’t be one of them even if Lynch and Shanahan are extremely successful with their personnel decisions over the next two seasons. However, a strong backup could make the difference between winning a game Garoppolo must sit out and making the playoffs, or losing a game Garoppolo can’t play and missing the postseason.
The 49ers no longer need to worry about using an early draft pick on a quarterback. But now, the franchise should consider creating competition behind its clear-cut starter, and positioning the team to win even when the 49ers aren’t at their best.
