“Garoppolo is in many ways anachronistic,” Cosell said — and it’s important to note that he does not mean this pejoratively. “He’s not the big strong guy like the Carson Palmers of the world, but in some ways he’s anachronistic because he’s essentially a scheme pocket player. That’s what Garoppolo is: He’s a scheme pocket player. And that’s really not the way people in 2021 think about the quarterback position.”
The current popularity of scrambling and deep heaves, Cosell says, has obscured much of what Garoppolo does well in the context of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s system.
If you’re asking, “who would you rather have for the next eight years, Jimmy Garoppolo or Deshaun Watson?,” I think 100 percent would say Deshaun Watson. But that doesn’t mean that Jimmy Garoppolo’s not a good player.
Garoppolo, for whatever reason, has a bad reputation amongst the people out there. I don’t know why. I mean, we would both agree that he’s not special, but people talk about him like he’s terrible.
Garoppolo is still at only about 1,000 career pass attempts. Given this, do you think he’s in a position to still see significant improvement just through increased experience?
I think he is, particularly in the context of an offense as detailed and nuanced as Kyle’s.
Can you elaborate on that?
Here’s what I’ve been told by offensive coaches: You truly can’t judge and evaluate a quarterback until he’s been in the same offense for four years. Because it takes two years for him to master his own offense and then two more years to master his offense in the context of all the things that defenses do.
What about Garoppolo’s footwork? From a technical standpoint, that seems to be a primary concern. He’s not always set and consistent with his feet when he throws.
I think that’s because he’s a snap thrower. Because he’s been a snap thrower his whole life, very often guys who have that snap delivery don’t set their feet. Especially since he came out of a spread offense in college where a lot of those throws were easy throws and he could make them without having his feet set. So yes, I do think he needs to work on his lower body mechanics and the coordination of his throwing motion with his feet. I think that’s an area that does need improvement.
You should always throw the ball the exact same way unless the defense dictates otherwise. That’s one of the things that makes Tom Brady great: repetitive mechanics. He throws the ball the same way every single time. There’s always a couple of times the defense makes it different, but you should throw the ball the same way as a baseball pitcher.
You can’t just start throwing from different platforms just to say, “wow, that’s cool, he can throw from different platforms.” There’s no reason to throw from different platforms unless it’s truly demanded by the defense.
What was your evaluation of Garoppolo coming out of Eastern Illinois in 2014?
(Reading from his 2014 evaluation of Garoppolo, when he was a second-round pick to the Patriots)
A snap thrower more than a drive thrower, more finesse than power. Delivery was quick and compact. Efficient in short/intermediate pass game. Functional mobility. Had a good sense of progression reading within the context of EIU offense. Very good in shotgun play-action pass game, could tell he was detail-oriented.
At times, threw the deep ball with excellent touch and accuracy. Other times, accuracy was lacking. Inconsistent element to his game. Can his arm strength improve as he matures in the NFL? Something to consider. Not a great thrower but a comfortable thrower. The more I watch, the more I sense Garoppolo had a stronger arm than he showed within the context of his college offense.
Much of EIU featured quick game — Garoppolo efficient in that context. Balanced and compact in his setup and delivery. Good velocity on intermediate throws — that’s the best part of his game. Strengths are light feet, repetitive lower body mechanics (“which he doesn’t show in the NFL, by the way,” Cosell interjected as he read), compact delivery and consistent accuracy. Will need to be tightly managed and controlled early in his NFL career. Needs team around him to play at an NFL-quality level. NFL success will very much be a function of team and circumstances.
