American football analyst Mike Carlson joined The Snap's Superbowl preview at the Woolshed and discussed the merits of San Franciso 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Garoppolo, who was Tom Brady's back-up at the Patriots before joining the 49ers in 2017, has long been divisively viewed as either a weak point or underrated component of the 49ers offense.
Speaking on The Snap, Carlson explained that the reason the 28-year-old is often undervalued is due to his own success as a "system quarterback".
"I think one of the reasons we tend to downgrade him is he's a system quarterback, and not in the negative sense of the word. This is a system designed to work off play-action and so most of his throws are off play-action.
"He's not going to sit back there and look for three guys running verticals and toss the ball deep – they don't do that very often."
While rarely ever taking the limelight as the 49ers star player, Carlson explained that despite that Garoppolo does show his worth in Kyle Shanahan's team.
"He'll take plays where his first read is very carefully designed by Shanahan to work and he's very good at getting off that first read which is the difference between him and what you might call a system quarterback.
"Some of the young quarterbacks around the league just can't get off that first read."
Having only made 950 passes in his career, Carlson explained his belief that Garropolo is a player who could still get better and perform in other offensive systems.
"Let Jimmy be Jimmy. Put him in a drop back offence and see what he does. Put him in a Patriots-style offense.
"He looked good in preseason when he played for the Patriots and he looked good in the starts he made when Brady was suspended."
Giving his view at the show in the Woolshed, former Dublin footballer and NFL fanatic Mossy Quinn warned that people were too harsh on Garoppolo just because he isn't known for making cinematic passes.
"You don't want to be putting the ball in his hands 40 times in a game and relying on him to make plays but I think he has more about him. Ok, he threw the ball eight times last week but that was just the situation," Quinn commented.
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