Leland Lundahl
Answered Sep 14, 2018
That would surprise me, John Lynch spent the last six months repeating all over the radio stations how he “single handedly fleeced the Patriots”. Would that turn out to be a mistake? Yep, just when you realize the QB he paid $27MM a year played only five games. Five games. I think the real storyline is how John Lynch did get fleeced, by Garoppolo’s agent. Because $27MM for five games? Not even 16, not even a playoff berth, nothing — just five total games. How ’bout I play for the Niners one game and John Lynch signs me to a $50MM extension? Would that be possible? He’d make a great Santa Claus for sure.
As for Garoppolo: you wanted the money, now it’s time to play ball. If you don’t have the weapons, maybe you should have taken a paycut instead of breaking the bank and promoting your dating life (how has-been is that) on TMZ. Secondly, this is Kyle Shannahan’s offense…there’s always somebody open. Kyle Shannahan is the best offensive playcaller in the league. He gets full backs open, he finds ways to get the third string tight end open, that’s how good he is. But what struck me the most in that game, is how apparent he is responsible for moving the offense almost 99% of the time. Essentially Garoppolo is just a caretaker. No wingspan on his arm, doesn’t recognize the blitz, defenses see too many tells in him, the way he sells the run with his head down, the way he sells the pass when his left leg is positioned in front, when both feet are joined it’s a run — no velocity, overthrows a lot of receivers. He made no plays in that game, it was all Shannahan’s ingenious offensive designing.
For instance, Shannahan loves to use these pocket sweeps and dumbo blocks to trap the defense into play-action and look how wide open the full back is.
Naked bootleg, the tight end releases freely uncovered and is able to earn a big gain.
Overall, Garoppolo just didn’t shred that defense, he hardly made any plays. He threw three interceptions, he took too many sacks in the red-zone, there was a goal-line situation where he didn’t sneak. This is the problem with Garoppolo, no game-changing throws, no big-time throws into clouded spaces. His hands are so small he can only really do one thing and that’s wrist snap the ball to receivers in motion. Other than that, bad decision maker, no anticipation, takes unnecessary sacks, low football IQ. Bottom line: he’s a one-read quarterback.
The few throws he was able to complete were in-breaking routes in stride.
On the naked boot he botches a throw with bad timing, uncorks a floater and the ball is too slow to get there.
Same situation here, bootleg, but I don’t know what he’s doing. is it a keep or a live play? Why is he running all the way to the boundary with the ball? The X over the top is open. He seems to have trouble actually executing a play-action and a bootleg, normally you’re supposed to step back up between the hash marks and unleash. With his lollygagging he closed out all of his receivers’ windows.
He took like five sacks in this game, gets bogged down too easily, seems to have found a tendency to break-free to his left when the pocket gets noisy but U-turns his whole body completely instead of dropping a step in a half backwards. Circus gagging, footwork really needs some polishing.
This time same thing, it’s too easy to get to him, you just know by the way he positions his left leg it’s a throw. Safety blitz, that time he never saw him.
It’s hard to tell if he doesn’t feel the pressure or if he’s simply incapable of stepping up into the creases. That time the elephant end just rushes around the arc, plenty of space to throw inside the pocket. He got lucky on that TD.
Here come the blitzes! Here come the blitzes! Two picks against the blitz in that game, he was just awful at reading them. First one it’s from the right side, corner screaming, and he throws to his right! Second time tango blitz up the middle, the space is wide open but he checks to the left with a terrible release. He uses a three-quarters delivery that could lead to a lot tipped balls. The thing is, his velocity is so low, these throws are hanging way too long in the air.
Cover 2 this time, which means the combo routes are going to be neutralized, the wing back is open on the quick hitch but Garoppolo doesn’t see him. He undershoots too many passes in double, sometimes triple coverage.
Deep accuracy an issue, this is a rub combo, Kittel runs the spot, he’s open but the two don’t connect, that pass sails way over his head.
Well, it’s a good thing they are playing the Lions this sunday because for $28MM this season the Patriots have Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Trent Brown. John Lynch is the type of general manager that will get Jay Cutler out of retirement.
