Juice has no doubt Jimmy G gets 49ers back to winning in 2021 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
While the internet has spent the offseason trying to eject Jimmy Garoppolo out of Santa Clara, the 49ers quarterback's teammates have never vacillated in their support of QB1.
General manager John Lynch has said he expects Garoppolo to be the starter in 2021 if he's healthy and recently re-signed fullback Kyle Juszczyk believes Garoppolo will get the 49ers back to where they want to be in 2021.
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"I absolutely believe that Jimmy will be our quarterback this year," Juszczyk said on "Good Morning Football." "I think John and Kyle, they made that very clear. They haven't wavered. Jimmy's our guy. He's going to be starting Week 1. He's going to do what he does. He's going to get us back to winning. He has a proven record of winning. The guy's just a winner. When he's out there, we win games."
Garoppolo was one of many 49ers to get hit by the injury bug in 2020 as he played in just six games while dealing with two separate high ankle sprains. In the past three seasons, Garoppolo has missed 23 games which caused Lynch to say the 49ers need to focus on solidifying the backup spot behind Garoppolo to ensure their season doesn't go down the drain if Garoppolo has to miss some games.
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The 49ers reportedly were interested in both Andy Dalton and Mitchell Trubisky, but Dalton signed with the Chicago Bears and Trubisky joined the Buffalo Bills to backup Josh Allen. The 49ers hosted Joe Flacco last week but have yet to find a serviceable backup for Garoppolo.
Nick Mullens is a restricted free agent and C.J. Beathard currently is an unrestricted free agent. The 49ers currently have Josh Rosen and Josh Johnson on their roster behind Garoppolo, but neither is guaranteed a spot on the roster.
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The 49ers did well in free agency, resigning Juszczyk, Trent Williams, Jason Verrett, Emmanuel Moseley and Jaquiski Tartt while also adding edge rusher Samson Ebukam and center Alex Mack. Those signing should give the 49ers the freedom and flexibility to address the quarterback position in the first round of the NFL draft (Mac Jones anyone?), although cornerback and edge rusher still are more pressing needs.
Garoppolo, when healthy, is a solid NFL starting quarterback and the 49ers clearly are better when he plays. But availability is the best ability, and Garoppolo has only had one fully healthy season in the past three years. The 49ers have a Super Bowl-caliber roster and can ill afford to gamble everything on Garoppolo starting 16 games in 2021.
Juszczyk believes Garoppolo can get the 49ers back to the top, but San Francisco must have an acceptable contingency plan should Garoppolo go down again.
