You didn’t expect everyone to come out of Super Bowl LIV with tempered reactions, did you?
Jimmy Garoppolo wasn’t a full-fledged disaster against the Kansas City Chiefs, but his poor fourth-quarter play obviously didn’t help the San Francisco 49ers’ cause at Hard Rock Stadium. Throw that into the hot-take culture we live in, and some pundits actually believe it would be in the Niners’ best interest to move on from Jimmy G.
Skip Bayless wasted no time firing off this take after the Chiefs raised the Lombardi Trophy and took it to the next level by suggesting San Francisco replace Garoppolo with Tom Brady. Three-time Pro Bowl linebacker LaVar Arrington on Wednesday co-signed Bayless’ advice.
“If there was one person where I would say it’s worth trying, it would be Tom Brady,” Arrington said on FS1’s “Speak For Yourself.” “I’m just being honest here. You’re that close. I ask myself, ‘Man, you’re seven minutes away from winning the Super Bowl, but you’re seven minutes away from the Super Bowl and you’re depending on what?’ Your defense. You’re not depending on your offense. You’re seven minutes away from a Super Bowl and you’re depending on your defense. Now, I ask myself the question, do you disrupt the chemistry? Do you disrupt making it to the Super Bowl to make this type of move? If there’s one person you would put in the locker room that’s going to command the respect and get the respect from those players in the locker room, that the coaching staff would trust and believe in and he knows what his role is and can play that role and come in there and have a running game and have an offensive line and receivers and, oh, a really good defense as well, it’s Tom Brady. If it was possible to work, it’s a sensible decision to make.”
.@MarcellusWiley breaks down why moving on from Jimmy G for Tom Brady wouldn’t make sense for the 49ers
"I think this is a trajectory for Jimmy G that is going up and I wouldn’t interrupt it for anybody because this is a young stud in the making." pic.twitter.com/TlSPFtY3cL
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) February 5, 2020
We’re going to have to side with former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who believes replacing Garoppolo with Brady in San Francisco makes no sense. Let’s keep in mind Garoppolo is only 28 years old and just completed his first full season as a starting quarterback. You can even make the case, as Colin Cowherd did earlier in the week, that Garoppolo was better against the Chiefs than Brady was in his first Super Bowl appearances.
Growing pains are a part of every player’s development process. Unfortunately for the Niners, some of Garoppolo’s just so happened to take place on football’s biggest stage.
