In this series of articles, our resident tape wizard Greg Cosell will take an in-depth look at some of the more interesting fantasy players for the 2020 NFL season. It’s a peek behind the curtain of the film room, as these are Greg’s raw, unfiltered notes he takes as he watches a player.
49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo seems to be polarizing — he’s executed the Kyle Shanahan offense well since arriving in San Francisco. But a poor fourth quarter in Super Bowl LIV has many wondering if he’s simply a product of his advantageous environment.
To find out, I looked at all of Garoppolo’s third-down snaps and all of his 20-plus-yard completions. I came away impressed, with both Garoppolo and the beauty of the 49ers’ scheme.
Garoppolo’s Traits
Garoppolo has a compact ,snap delivery that allows him to sit on his back foot and make throws.
Garoppolo has the mentality and mindset of a pocket QB. He plants and delivers — when it gets late in the down he still looks to make throws from the pocket, not break down and move.
Garoppolo, while predominantly a pocket QB, flashed enough functional mobility to make some plays outside of structure.
You could make the argument that, while Garoppolo has some functional movement ability, at his core he is a pocket QB dependent on scheme and progression reading to be successful.
Garoppolo is at his best when he is rhythmic in his drop, set, and delivery – he is an excellent fit for the highly schemed passing game of Kyle Shanahan, which is built on trusting the scheme to define the reads and throws.
What makes Garoppolo a strong fit in a Shanahan offense is his pocket mentality. When demanded to, Garoppolo allows the structure and integrity of the route concept and combination to develop to its fullest without leaving the pocket.
Garoppolo showed effective pocket movement traits with quick feet in confined space, and that compact quick delivery that allowed him to make throws in the cauldron of fire.
Garoppolo is capable of some outstanding throws at the short-to-intermediate levels of the defense, both outside and between the numbers.
Garoppolo showed the ability to make quality throws without stepping with his front foot. That allowed him to be patient in the pocket and make late-in-the-down progression throws.
Garoppolo is an interesting evaluation — he is not a second-reaction QB in a strict sense, but he made a lot of throws late in the down, moving within the pocket with his quick feet and snap delivery to defeat pressure.
One thing that consistently stood out was Garoppolo was willing to turn it loose vs. man-to-man coverage — he is an aggressive thrower.
Third-Down Scheme Observations
- Garoppolo on third down: 90/130 (69.2%), 973 yards (7.48 YPA), 8 TD, 3 INT, 13 sacks taken.
- On third down, the 49ers featured 40 snaps in 2x2 sets, 28 snaps in conventional 3x1 sets, 37 with trips bunch, and 16 1x3 sets.
- What immediately stood out was the 49ers’ focus on pass protection when they anticipated blitz, and when they got a pressure front look from the defense – you cannot execute a third down pass game without protection.
- One tactic that consistently stood out on third down was the use of shifts across the formation. Very often they are deployed as man-zone indicators.
- TE George Kittle lined up in multiple locations with multiple splits. He was also used as a movement receiver with shifts and motions.
- What consistently stood out was how good Kittle was separating and winning versus man coverage — he was a mismatch.
- The 49ers’ third down pass game, with the exception of Kittle at times, was not dependent on getting the ball to specific receivers — it was about scheme and pass game concepts breaking down the coverage, whether it was man or zone.
- The 49ers featured trips bunch out of 3x1 sets. Trips featured multiple splits with the three receivers.
- The 49ers featured trips bunch in their five-step drop timing packages out of shotgun. That fits Garoppolo’s game well with his quick release and consistent ball placement.
- The 49ers work the middle of the field by design as much as any team in the NFL. That was a schematic foundation of their third-down passing game.
- The 49ers featured multiple rub/pick concepts on third down to attack and defeat man coverage – man-beater concepts to define throws for Garoppolo in rhythm.
- Empty sets were not a featured part of the 49ers’ third-down pass game. They ran only 18 empty sets on third down.
- When the 49ers did go empty, it was often out of 11 personnel on third down - it was a function of yards-to-go, field location, and the tendencies of the defense they were matched against.
- The 49ers consistently did an excellent job isolating individual defenders in zone coverage with two- and three-man route concepts. That presented a basic one-man read for Garoppolo, and a defined throw.
- The 49ers did a nice job with two0-man route concepts to the boundary side of the field. The outside receiver (if the back was offset in the backfield, he was the boundary X) predominantly ran in-breaking routes. The 49ers also featured angles routes by the back offset in the backfield.
- The 49ers featured trips bunch and two-man stack concepts. It resulted in free releases into routes and played effectively to Garoppolo’s strengths as a timing and rhythm passer.
- One of Garoppolo’s best third down throws came against the Cards in Week 9. Emmanuel Sanders gained 22 yards on third-and-4 — great timing and precise ball placement with Garoppolo confirming the pre-snap man coverage look on his drop. That’s Garoppolo at his best.
- The 49ers did an excellent job with the spacing of their route concepts to expand zone coverage and create defined reads, progression read, and passing lanes for Garoppolo. It was also effective against man coverage, creating clean one-on-one matchups — look at Kendrick Bourne’s 26-yard gain in the Super Bowl for an example.
- It was more and more evident watching the third-down throws that Garoppolo trusted the scheme. He turned it loose without hesitation even on progression reads that took him late in the down.
- The more third-down snaps I watched, the more I felt that Garoppolo had a good feel for the 49ers pass game concepts. He looked comfortable within Shanahan’s scheme.
- Garoppolo was efficient on third down. Overall, I would argue that he was impressive with his decision-making and his ball placement. But keep in mind that much of his decision-making is scheme dependent.
Notes from All 20+-Yard Completions
- Garoppolo completed 61 passes of 20 or more yards — that was fourth-most in the NFL.
- What you see with the 49ers’ explosive pass plays is how well schemed they are. The scheme and system creates the throws for Garoppolo.
- The more you watch the 49ers explosive pass plays the more you see how everything they do starts with the run game, They are so multiple with their run game concepts (personnel, formations, tactics) and how they get to the explosive pass plays.
- Play action and play-action boot were a featured part of the 49ers’ big-play passing game, often out of 21 personnel.
- With their play-action concepts, the 49ers did an excellent job controlling second-level defenders, opening space/voids between the numbers. The focus of the 49ers’ pass game was between the numbers, which creates easier throws for the QB.
- The 49ers’ pass game is very dependent on personnel, formations, shifts/motions, and multiple play action concepts. Also, the boot game is significant part of the pass game, as is misdirection – It is a schemed pass game without a focus on a specific receiver with the exception of Kittle at times.
- Misdirection is also a significant tactic the 49ers used to try to create explosive pass plays.
- Three examples for the Niners using misdirection on big plays — Marquise Goodwin’s 38-yard TD against the Bengals came on play-action boot throwback out of 21 personnel, a schemed big play; Deebo Samuel’s 38-yard catch in the same game came on a throwback screen off jet-action shotgun boot action; Richie James for 57 yards against the Cards also came on a throwback screen off jet-action shotgun boot action.
- The 49ers are multiple with their formations out of base 21 personnel, including empty sets. They do such a good job with their pass game concepts out of 21, including utilizing the fullback Kyle Juszczyk, like on his 22-yard reception against the Steelers.
- “Mesh” was a concept you saw from the 49ers as a man-beater: RB Tevin Coleman’s 31- yard reception vs. the Bucs came on mesh out of 21 empty.
- “Dagger” (a 96 combination: inside vertical, outside dig underneath the vertical) was another concept you saw from the 49ers out of 21 personnel, often off play action. You saw this on three Deebo Samuel receptions — 39 yards vs. Bengals, 20 yards vs. Steelers, 21 yards vs Saints. “Dagger” often came out of closed formations to one side and twins to the opposite.
- Samuel was almost always the outside receiver in twins opposite a closed formation and was featured on in-breaking routes from that formation.
- A post-cross combination is another basic route concept you saw from the 49ers. It’s all how they got to these basic concepts that made them successful: personnel, formations, and backfield actions.
- When you watch the 49ers’ pass game, you see the little details that produce explosive pass plays. A great example was this 36-yard reception for George Kittle against the Bengals, off of outside-zone boot action out of 22 personnel. Kittle showed outside-zone run blocking off the snap, which dictated the man-to-man safety’s reaction and allowed Kittle to release cleanly on his crossing route.
- Another great example of the details producing an explosive pass play came on Kittle’s 36-yarder against the Rams. Sanders was in jet motion, with Kittle releasing inside the formation on his crossing route – it was a basic flood concept with the flat route and the crosser gotten to in different ways, and that broke down the Rams’ Cover 3.
- The Run game is so critical to the pass game, both in terms of personnel and formation. The 49ers’ explosive-play philosophy starts with the run game — Juszczyk’s 27-yard reception against the Steelers was a good example. Attack and isolate the weak side stacked LB with iso lead run action out of the straight I formation
- Shanahan does such a good job attacking and breaking down zone coverage with personnel, formation, run action concepts, and route concepts. Look at Goodwin’s 25-yarder against the Steelers, and Kittle’s 45-yarder against the Rams (again, with Kittle excelling with the small details, showing iso lead run blocking).
- The 49ers did an excellent job with counters off basic route concepts out of the same formation looks. They ran post-corner/out from twins, the same formation look from which they ran “dagger.”
- The 49ers featured the “bang” play action pass game out of both conventional and shotgun play action. These are timing throws for Garoppolo: Emmanuel Sanders for 31 yards against the Saints was one example of many.
- RPO concepts were part of the 49ers playbook, and it was just another tactic to play off the 49ers’ run-game foundation. Samuel gained 30 yards on slants in both games against the Seahawks on RPO concepts.
- Samuel is strong with his run-after-catch, and that fits the 49ers’ offensive profile with the timing pass game and the schemed play-action pass game. Samuel was featured on dig routes in the play-action pass game.
- Samuel showed subtlety and refinement as a route runner. He did an excellent job attacking and defeating man coverage.
