Cris Carter agrees wholeheartedly with Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston, who pulled no punches Sunday in his assessment of the injury 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered in Kansas City’s 38-27 win over San Francisco.
Garoppolo scrambled toward the sideline on a third-down play late in the fourth quarter. Rather than step out of bounds before being drilled by Chiefs cornerback Steven Nelson, Garoppolo cut back toward the field of play, at which point his left knee buckled and he crashed the ground in obvious pain.
“That was his fault,” Houston said after the Chiefs’ victory. “I pray he’s not hurt, nothing serious, but as a quarterback you should step out of bounds. It was only an inch. That inch wouldn’t have made a difference. You got the yardage you need, you step out of bounds. You got to be smart.”
It later was confirmed that Garoppolo tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season. Perhaps Houston wouldn’t have been quite as harsh with his words had he known the severity of Garoppolo’s injury, but the sentiment is understandable. And Carter agreed with Houston’s analysis Tuesday on FS1’s “First Things First,” calling Garoppolo’s last-second cutback an “idiotic play” with no potential benefit.
The 49ers’ loss dropped their record to 1-2 on the season. There had been a ton of optimism in the Bay Area, in large because of Garoppolo, who signed a five-year, $137.5 million contract after a solid 2017 stretch run with San Francisco on the heels of a trade from the New England Patriots. But the Niners’ chances of making noise this season now look grim, as head coach Kyle Shanahan will be forced to rely on backup C.J. Beathard or whichever quarterback they choose to bring in off the street.
Colin Kaepernick, anyone? Yeah, don’t count on it.
