While the idea of Tom Brady joining his childhood favorite team and supplanting Jimmy Garoppolo as quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers was an entertaining concept to consider this offseason, 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead didn’t give the idea much thought.
As far as he’s concerned, Garoppolo doesn’t need to prove anything more for Armstead to have faith in him as the team’s quarterback.
“I thought it was cool for the media and fans, you know cool story to be like this is crazy and draw a bunch of attention but I didn’t really think too much more of it than that,” Armstead said with Chris Simms on Unbuttoned. “I didn’t see our organization in the position that we are in after the year that we just had and make a huge adjustment like that. Jimmy is our quarterback and our leader so I didn’t see that as an actual possibility.”
Garoppolo helped the 49ers get back to the Super Bowl and win the NFC for the first time in seven years. The team won 13 games with Garoppolo getting his first full season in with the 49ers. He’s started 24 games for San Francisco since being traded from the New England Patriots in 2017 and the 49ers are 19-5 in those games.
For Armstead, that’s plenty of reason to have faith in Garoppolo as the team’s quarterback.
“I mean, shoot, when he is on the field, we win,” Armstead said. “I mean the year when he got here when he was on the field we won and then he got hurt and unfortunately and then when he came back we won so I don’t know really what more you want out of him.”
Garoppolo threw for 3,978 yards with 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions last year for the 49ers. He completed 69.1 percent of his passes and posted a passer rating of 102.0 in his first full year as a starter. His postseason numbers weren’t quite as inspiring as San Francisco only needed him to throw eight passes in their NFC Championship victory over the Green Bay Packers. An overthrow of an open Emmanuel Sanders with less than two minutes to play in the Super Bowl with the 49ers trailing by four is one of the final memories of last season.
Nevertheless, Armstead is confident in Garoppolo and believes he’s not going to be shaken by some of the push for the 49ers to consider trying to find a different option for the position.
“I mean, yeah, I think the media is critical of a lot of things but Jimmy is a confident guy and I am sure it doesn’t bother him too much,” Armstead said. “People are always going to have things to say and that is just something that we deal with as athletes and people have had plenty of stuff to say about me so I mean it is what it is and keep proving people wrong and doing what you love to do.”