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.