Jimmy Garoppolo may be opening the door for a quarterback controversy in San Francisco. The 27-year-old had a horrific outing during the 49ers’ second preseason game against the Denver Broncos on Monday night.
He left the game in the first quarter with a quarterback rating of 0.0 after completing 1 of 6 passes for 0 yards and an interception on three drives. And he was lucky his stats didn’t look worse. One of his incompletions was nearly picked off for a second interception, but a Broncos defender dropped the potential takeaway.
Yes, it’s only preseason. But often, preseason is when life is easiest for quarterback, who is reading uncomplicated coverages from a defense that might be lacking some of its stars. In other words, the Nick Mullens hype train is gaining steam.
Garoppolo is making his return from an ACL injury, which he suffered in Sept. 2018. He finished the 2018 season with a 59.6 completion percentage, 718 passing yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in three games. While he had an impressive start with the 49ers in 2017, when he notched five wins on a team which had zero wins prior to Garoppolo’s takeover, his appearances past 2017 have not been as pretty.
So when he flunked on Monday Night Football, fans began to freak out.
