Thanks to LJ for bringing this up, so I had to look into this a little more. Frankly I had never heard of the supposed issues Garoppolo has throwing deep passes. His numbers last year were 4-16 (with one drop) which works out to 31.3%. Sucky. Or 31st out of 35 QBs. Granted, this is a small sample size, and granted even more, Jimmy G came into an entirely new system that he didn’t completely grasp and was force-fed in a few short weeks, AND we don’t really have a stable full of thoroughbreds at WR, but still and all, that’s a pretty shitty completion rate. Even coming out of college, the knock on Jimmy was, per an NFL writer,Nolan Nawrocki:
“He undershoots and often hangs the deep ball, Makes receivers work for the ball downfield, and deep accuracy could stand to improve.”
To me, this isn’t a big deal. At least not yet, anyway. This will be Garoppolo’s first camp to fully digest Kyle Shanahan’s offense. Garoppolo already showed toughness in the pocket, accuracy in the pocket and on the move, and the ability to improvise whe the protection breaks down. His feel for the game is very solid for a guy with so few starts, and he should only get better with more reps with his stable of WRs.
Jimmy G has made Marquise Goodwin look like a bona fide weapon, if not a deep threat, with his speed and separation ability, and Dante Pettis is getting rave reviews for his precise route-running and separation ability. He could very well be the steal of the draft. The point being, if the WRs and Jimmy G can roll at about a 62-65% completion rate on 0-25 yard passes, the deep game WILL open up. And with any kind of separation, the completion rate will rise.
As was noted by ROB!! in reference to Bill Walsh, you don’ really need to be all that successful throwing deep. Just showing it lets the defense know you are willing to try it. As I noted, Andy Reid, EVERY game vs the Niners back in the day Reid would throw deep on the first play. Why not? If you miss it, you’ve shown the defense you are willing to gamble. If you miss it, so what? 2nd down. If it’s picked off, it’s basically a punt. If you hit it, you’ve gained a big chuck of yards, if not a TD.
What annoyed the LIVING SHIT out of me was that Teflon Mike Nolan, Aluminum Mike Singletary, St. Jim Harbaugh, and Jimmy Bag-of-Farts NEVER threw deep. Teams used to dare us to try and go deep by lining up their entire defense within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. Ted Ginn, for all his warts and drops, had ONE deep play in three years here. He had multiple big plays when he got to Carolina the next year.
So I have no problem with the inconsistencies with the deep ball as of now. We just need to DO IT. I have no issue with Shanny because I know he knows the importance of using the deep ball judiciously.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Dante runs a crisp route
The reports out of camp are, once the pads went on, Pettis has lit it up.
Fuck yeah, he snapped that thing off.
The seam route to VD wasn’t deep???
Not in the sense of WR go routes. 25-30+ yard in the air. Those were 15-20 yards and then 10-20 yards after the catch. I’m perfectly fine with how Jimmy handles throws like that.
I don’t really know what the stats are based on, and I don’t care, but the intent of this is about deep post and flag routes.
I mean, a wheel route can gain you 40 yards abut it isn’t what I’m talking about.
Much ado about nothing
Bill Walsh used to say this about throwing long. Make sure you throw 2 or 3 deep passes per game because “even if you complete just one of them” it has a big effect on the defense and the way they have to play you. This indicates to me that Bill wasn’t looking for more than 50% accuracy on these kind of throws !
What pissed me off with Nolan and all was the failure to use the play fake during that time ! We had a power run game , frank Gore and 8 in the box on a regular basis ! I remember sitting there just shaking my head , lol !
There were so many things that pissed me off about Nloan and Singletary. The biggest being both of them stating “We will run Gore 25-30 times a game.” No misdirection, little play action, and no deep plays. Even still, both Teflon and Aluminum threw to Gore in the flat. St Jim did VERY little of that. Another pisser.
As far as I remember Harbaugh was the same way
Gore’s receiving numbers went way down under St Jim.
http://www.westcoastoffense.com/bill%20walsh%20article%202.htm
Wow. Joe is cool even in dire times . . .
More from Mike Lombardi’s twitter at Dwight Clark’s memorial.
Oh shit.
God I love this franchise,it is still a family and always will be. Lots of people never understood that but it goes back to the beginning. San Francisco is a special place and even though the Niners are in SC they are still the SF Niners. Clark is a great reminder of all that love and grace Niner fans and players past and present feel.
Well said.
Here’s the chron article re Dwight:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/49ers/article/Dwight-Clark-tribute-49ers-family-gathers-to-13124307.php
Got lucky and will be in Sactown next week so I’m going to the Dallas pre-season game. Get a chance to see how athletic and hungry the Niners depth chart is.
Cool. I’d like to see one game this year w/my son. Maybe the Rams game 10/21.
U still have your season tix 12th?
Yes, same seats Chuck, I don’t usually make it to pre-season games because of work so I kinda lucked out this time.
I love this kid, down to earth and talented and having a great camp, per reports. He going to make some make some noise this year, in any number of ways. Gotta love the versatility. Said he ran a 4.39 in college. That ain’t slow:
Good stuff in here, guys. You know the media is always going to focus on anything they perceive as a negative. The only thing I’m concerned with at this point is the team gelling and coming together, and I’m confident they’re doing that. There’s lots of positive reports coming out every day.
One of the few knocks on Montana was that he couldn’t throw the deep ball, but I always thought he was underrated as a downfield passer. He picked his spots and had a knack for hitting on big plays when the Niners needed them the most. I can think of a handful of huge plays he made over the years on deep balls. You guys remember this one? I do!
That move Pettis made above was just sick. If he can run routes like that, he might make an even bigger impact this year than I thought.
How about this one? Not a deep ball, but holy smokes! I don’t think Wyche ever lived this one down. Early season game. Instead of punting the Bengals decided to go for it on 4th and 1, deep in their own territory, about 30 seconds left. The Niners had no timeouts. S.F. stuffed the play, which automatically stopped the clock on the change of possession. Next play, BOOM!
6 seconds left!
With the great Lon Simmons on the call!
The vastly underrated Kevin Fagan with the tackle on James Brooks. Always liked that guy, had a fine career with the Niners.
Good stuff. Montana was clutch and in my opinion the best ever.
After all the doomer talk from reporters, today JG did this. From the Niners website:
“The practice was highlighted by two long connections from Jimmy Garoppolo to Marquise Goodwin. Their chemistry on the deep ball appears to be coming along. The first was a 55-yard bomb off of play action down the left seam. Garoppolo hit Goodwin in stride for what would have been a 75-yard touchdown.”
I think I’m just not going to worry about anything and keep gearing up for the coming season. Should be fun. Weird scheduling glitch, they don’t play Seattle until 12/2, then the second time two weeks later.
Well fuck. It was a good Old and in the Way song live. Don’t know what happened.
I don’t remember every deep ball from last year but with the ones I do remember the problem was every time JG set deep he had pressure. He didn’t really get his feet under him. He was great at getting the ball out quick but the protection will need to be better this year if we want to effectively throw deep. At least he was not taking all the sacks the Beathard took.
Hey check out how high Jimmy G grades out in these rankings
https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-paying-big-money-for-an-nfl-qb-is-it-worth-it
And here I didn’t know Sheldon Day existed! Silly me… Arik Armstead? Bwahahaha
https://www.ninersnation.com/2018/8/5/17652418/sheldon-day-49ers-defensive-line-depth-chart-2018
For those of us interested in the responsibilities of a couple of positions on the DL in the Niner D, specifically NT and 3 technique, check out allforfunplay’s comment. AFFP is a regular, well respected poster on NN.
I think both Garnett and Armstead are not long for this team. There’s too many young, hungry, talented guys nipping at their heels, guys who can actually stay on the field. Armstead has been a huge disappointment.
When his rookie contract is up, I think so is AA’s time with the Niners.
Seattle will probably take both or em.
They’re experimenting with Buckner on the edge and it’s gone well. He’ll probably get a few snaps there, especially if the pass rush is flailing.
Looking at the D: Pro Bowlers at every level: Buckner at DT, Reuben at OLB, Tartt at SS. Lots of nots in-between, but ya can’t have everything. This is assuming everyone’s healthy, which wasn’t the case last year with Reuben and Tartt.
Offense: Pro Bowlers at FB/TE/WR/RB (Justzwzxwzqzw), Staley at LT. Possible Pro Bowler at QB in Jimmy G., though he’ll have a lot of competition. I have a feeling we’ll sneak a Pro Bowler in at WR (Goodwin? Taylor?) or RB/WR/handyman McKinnon.
Biggest weakness OL again. Or pass D, whether on the lack of pass rush or the anemic secondary. We’ll see. I think the secondary is greatly improved. I wish I could say the same about the O-line.
But we’re not the Browns, and Jimmy G.’s quick release hides a lot of sins.
Pettis might thrive in this O as well. I’d be remiss to forget the rook.
Yes, pass rush and pass pro are our biggest issues. Do one and they should be decent. Take care of both and this team could be real trouble.
I’m going to follow the whole league a bit more this season for the simple reason that I’m an amateur fan, my favorite position is QB, and a love seeing and trying to dissect and diagnose offenses.
This is the year of the Rookie Quarterback.
1) Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs: yeah he’s not a rook. 10th pick of the 2017 draft out of Texas Tech, 1 year holding the clipboard behind Alex Smith. Groomed by great coach Andy Reid. 22-35, 285, 0 TDs, 1 INT against the Texans in his only start. Starting and playing quarter 1 against the Texans on Thursday.
When I saw Andy Reid pick him and groom him last year, I took notice. Andy knows QBs. Andy is one of the best in the league at getting the most out of talented but flawed QBs. They got rid of Alex to give Mahomes the keys to the car. Cannon arm, early ridiculous comparisons to Brett Favre. Can he play outside Texas?
Will I go further in this analysis? Who knows? I’ll just regurgitate google search stuff plus any personal comments of my own. But if I do,
2) Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns. 1st overall pick of the 2018 draft.
out of Oklahoma
Unfortunately he will need more then a Bakers dozen of players to win in Cleveland..
New thread is up.