Golden Nuggets: Can Jimmy G play all 16?

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San Francisco 49ers links for Saturday May 4, 2019

With free agency and the draft now in the rearview mirror and rosters solidified for the most part, we move full steam ahead into prediction season. One by one, sportswriters, podcasters, and the rest of the NFL talking heads begin to make their predictions for the upcoming 2019 NFL season. Which teams will improve? Which will decline? Who will show improvement?

Honestly, it’s probably a little too early to say, but regardless, when the topic of conversation is the 49ers, a common narrative begins to emerge: one Mr. James Garropolo, and whether or not he can stay healthy for the full 2019 season.

In fact, just yesterday Dan Hanzus – host of the Around the NFL podcast – pointed out while discussing the 49ers prospects for 2019, “Jimmy Garropolo has never really put together a full season of tape as a franchise QB..” and went on to say “..I just want to see him play for 16 games..”.

It’s a fair statement given that he missed all but three games last year with a torn ACL, but is Jimmy G really injury prone?

I decided to check it out for myself, and this is what I found.

In high school he played a total of 30 games in three seasons, no injuries of note. What about college? Mr. Jimmy took over as the starting QB of Eastern Illinois during his freshmen season playing the final 8 games. From there he would go on to start every game for the entirety of his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. Thirty six games in all, no injuries of note.

And finally the NFL. In 2014 as a rookie he appeared in 6 regular season games without incident. 2015 he saw very little action but did play in the preseason and in practices, and as we know (Jerick McKinnon) it is possible to injure oneself without playing a single regular season game. And yet again, he emerged unscathed.

It wasn’t until 2016 – the year that he was to fill in for Tom Brady during his suspension – that he was finally struck by the injury bug. Missing two starts due to a sprained AC joint. In 2017 he played in 6 regular season games without injury. And finally, in 2018, as we all know, he tore his ACL in the third game of the season and missed the remainder of the season.

So, what’s the verdict? Well, through three full seasons of HS, four full seasons of college, and five seasons in the NFL – 12 seasons total – Jimmy Garoppolo has had one major injury and one minor injury. Not too bad in my opinion, and nowhere near enough to consider it anything close to a pattern, or to earn him the label “injury prone”.