“there’s a difference between a guy who might be a long term answer at QB, and an elite one.”

Compare Garoppolo to Kirk Cousins, who was frequently mentioned as a possible 49er QB before they acquired Jimmy G. Cousins would be a good “long-term answer” and is more of a proven commodity but he is not quite “elite”. Garoppolo has at least a chance of being elite, and proven elite QBs almost never come on the market because teams hang on to them. In the draft you don’t know if you’re getting Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf/Johnny Manziel.

When I first heard about the possibility of the 49ers acquiring Garoppolo frankly I was skeptical because there is a history of backup QBs subbing for elite QBs on contending teams and playing well only to be exposed after getting their nice FA contracts – Scott Mitchell, Matt Cassel. But his performance the last few weeks has been startling even if still a small sample size. The 49ers have been a wretched bottom-feeding team for nearly all the York era with only a brief interruption under Harbaugh. Shanahan/Lynch seem to know what they are doing but the team was still 1-10 when Garoppolo took over and the transformation has been dramatic. The Jags were still in the running for HFA and the 49ers would have blown them out by 3-4 TDs if they had any kind of pass rush. It is an old cliche that the QB gets too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses but Garoppolo is already making a big difference. Finally he does very well with the “eye test” – he is accurate, gets rid of the ball quickly, has good instincts, very few 3-and-outs. Maybe he is a “flash-in-the-pan” but how many available QBs would you take over him right now, including the draft? Though maybe the 49ers can pick up Rodgers on waivers lol. In any case Merry Christmas to everyone!