By: Andy Davies

The San Francisco 49ers are one of the most successful franchises in NFL history. Only the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers (both 6) have more Super Bowl wins than the 49ers (5). The 49ers’ five Super Bowls all came between the years of 1981 and 1994. They have lost two since, in the 2012 and 2019 seasons. The quarterbacks that led the 49ers to the Lombardi Trophy were Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Steve Young. Three of those five wins saw Montana as the starter and Young as the backup.

Young is seen by many as the best backup quarterback in history, considering the gold jacket that he earned despite many years as the backup to Montana. He would win a Super Bowl as the starter after the franchise moved on from Montana. Ever since Young decided to hang up his cleats, the 49ers have struggled to find his replacement. Have they found the guy in Trey Lance?

Perhaps, but here is why the quarterback situation involving Lance and current starter Jimmy Garoppolo could prevent the 49ers from winning the NFC West during the 2021 season.

Struggles Since Young

Jeff Garcia was the man to come in for Young. During his five seasons in the Bay, he threw for 113 touchdowns and 56 interceptions as well as 16,408 passing yards. He had a 35-36 record as a starter for the 49ers in the regular season and a 1-2 record in the postseason, meaning he never hit the heights of his predecessor.

Alex Smith was the number one overall pick in 2005, shattering Aaron Rodgers’ dreams. However, he was a good quarterback, not a great quarterback. Colin Kaepernick replaced Smith and took the 49ers to the Super Bowl. They ended up losing to the Baltimore Ravens in a game often called the ”˜Blackout Bowl’. Kaepernick failed to live up to the standards he set that season.

He would be kicked out of the league for taking the knee in a protest against police brutality in 2016. He has not played a snap in the NFL since. Jimmy Garoppolo was traded from the Patriots to the 49ers midway through the 2017 season. He gave hope to the organization after winning all five of the games he started in 2017. The fanbase had hope going into the 2018 season.

Many non-49ers fans had San Francisco down as their dark horse for the season. A season-ending injury to Garoppolo in Week 3 saw the starting role shared between Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard. However, the 49ers finished 4-12 as they went into 2019 with the second overall pick. Nick Bosa was selected and transformed the defense of San Francisco and Jimmy G had the best season of his career. He threw for 3,978 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Despite these stats, Garoppolo saw his production limited in the NFC Championship game as the coaching staff decided to use more of their running game. This led to many questions leading to the Super Bowl. The 49ers threw away a ten-point lead in the fourth quarter as they would end up losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 54.

Garoppolo was criticized heavily for an overthrown pass to Emmanuel Sanders that would have given San Francisco back the lead. His 2020 season saw a mixture of poor form and injury. During the 2021 offseason, the 49ers traded up with the Miami Dolphins to gain the number three overall pick. They took Lance with the pick, showcasing their intentions to eventually move off from Garoppolo. There is now talk of whether San Francisco and head coach Kyle Shanahan will start Lance in week one. The other scenarios discussed are either Lance coming in mid-season or sitting out the whole campaign as the backup to Garoppolo. The uncertainty will have a significant impact on the 49ers’ season.

The Strength of the NFC West

This is a problem that will affect all four teams in the best division in the NFL. There is a chance that all four teams can make the playoffs. Los Angeles has an exciting new quarterback in 2009 first overall pick Matthew Stafford. Both the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals have quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray that they would never dream of trading away. Meanwhile, the 49ers’ starting quarterback is largely unpopular by fans, due to a mixture of the overthrown pass in the Super Bowl, his poor 2020 campaign and his injury record.

San Francisco has the least trusted quarterback in the division. With the position being one of the most crucial in all sports, it does not bode well for a team when there is uncertainty in the position. Garoppolo may be benched at some point during the season for Lance. However, the 49ers would be putting a rookie that will still be learning the system into the toughest division in the NFL.

Learning From Mahomes, Jackson, Tua and Burrow

If San Francisco are to help Lance succeed, they will need to take some lessons from recent draft classes. Patrick Mahomes, widely seen as the best quarterback in the league, spent all but one game of his 2017 rookie season as a backup to Alex Smith. The Chiefs then traded Smith the following offseason and Mahomes has never looked back. In his first three full seasons as a starter in the NFL, he has reached two Super Bowls, winning one. He has also been crowned MVP and Super Bowl MVP and reached three successive AFC Championship games. All three have been at home. On the flip side, 2020 first overall pick Joe Burrow started in week one of his rookie year. He wouldn’t last the season, only playing ten games before injury curtailed his first NFL campaign. He was impressive before his injury but there are no guarantees he will be the same player when he returns.

Lamar Jackson was a backup to Joe Flacco during his 2018 rookie year but won the starting role midseason. He has since gone on to win an MVP award and is the future of the franchise. Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins brought Tua Tagovailoa in mid-season but he struggled in his rookie season. He is seen to already be on the hot seat, with many feeling the Dolphins rushed him in. These examples all show there are reasons for the 49ers to be hasty when it comes to choosing when to bring Lance into the starting role.

Lance Or Garoppolo In 2021?

The 49ers will have to decide soon who their starter will be in 2021. Considering Lance has only played one full season (2019), he is likely to start the season as the backup. He only threw for a combined total of 31 passing attempts, two touchdowns and 1 interception across the 2018 and 2020 seasons, albeit the latter campaign being disrupted by the pandemic. He is likely to be a work in progress but his 28 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in 2019 mean that he is one for the future.

Garoppolo will likely start in week one but it was clear from the NFC Championship game that Shanahan doesn’t completely trust him.

Jimmy G is a capable quarterback but his health is a concern. Expect Garoppolo to remain as the starter provided the 49ers are winning games but for Lance to come in should Garoppolo either be injured or start the season poorly.

Should this happen, this will be the end of Garoppolo’s time in San Francisco. Depending on timing, he will then be traded either before the deadline or in the 2022 offseason.

Can The 49ers Returning Players Avoid A Repeat Of 2020?

This is key if the 49ers are to challenge for both the NFC West and the NFC. After earning the number one seed and reaching Super Bowl 54 during the 2019 campaign, San Francisco finished 6-10 in 2020 and bottom of the division. A ”˜Super Bowl Hangover’ played its part but the main cause of such a decline was down to a colossal amount of injuries the team suffered. Along with the aforementioned Garoppolo, the 49ers also saw Bosa, Dee Ford, George Kittle, Raheem Mostert, Deebo Samuel and Solomon Thomas miss large chunks of the 2020 season due to injury.

San Francisco had 33 players reported questionable and there were 186 occasions when the 49ers reported a player on injured reserve. They had the second-most injuries of any team in the NFL over the past twenty years. Should all these players come back, then this 49ers roster will be one of the best in the league. This will make life much easier for whoever the San Francisco starting quarterback is.

However, from the strength of the division to the uncertainty at quarterback, San Francisco will find it tough to win the NFC West.

The post Why the QB situation may prevent the 49ers from winning the NFC West appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

The 2020 NFL season is over. And as we sit here, three weeks removed from the Super Bowl, the final game of the season, what are we supposed to take away from the year?

17 weeks of games, 256 regular-season meetings in total, and a host of opportunities to take a trip down memory lane. For reasons, both football-related reasons and beyond, the 2020 NFL season was one to remember. But who were the players that defined the season? What were the games, the moments, that made 2020 the fun football campaign that it was?

From fanbase to franchise, there were plenty. But on the landscape of the league at large, here are seven moments that belong in the time capsule, that defined the 2020 NFL season.

1. Ravens vs Browns — Monday Night Football

What are you supposed to say about the game that had it all? Neither of these two teams represented the AFC in the Super Bowl, neither even made it through the Divisional Round of the playoffs. But on Monday Night of Week 14 — the two teams had what might have been the most iconic meeting of the regular season.

Records were set. Both Cleveland and Baltimore combined for a grand total of nine rushing touchdowns through the contest. The most in modern NFL history, and the most since 1922, back in the days when Rock Island was considered a dynasty akin to the Jordan-led Bulls.

Points were scored. The 2020 season saw the most points scored in the history of the league, and this game embodied just that, with a final score of 47 for the winning Ravens, and 42 for the Browns. The two offenses combined for 89 points that night, the most of any two teams in a regular-season game from the highest-scoring season in NFL history.

Memes were made. Beyond the actual football stakes, NFL Twitter was granted the gift of A) an appearance from the legendary Trace McSorely under center for the Ravens, and B) a locker room walk from Lamar Jackson for”¦ what we’ll call, “unconfirmed circumstances.”

Perhaps both these teams will be forgotten to the sands of time, with neither making much noise in the postseason, but their Week 14 clash stands as a monument to the 2020 regular season.

2. Nine Full Weeks of ”˜Letting Russ Cook’

Speaking of points scored, one of the most efficient, explosive, and all-around good-time offenses in the league for the first half of the season belonged to the Seattle Seahawks — despite the odds.

This was, and still is, a group that loves to run the football — a mentality instilled by their head coach, Pete Carroll. But for nine weeks, nine beautiful acts of football majesty, Carroll let his star quarterback Russell Wilson off the leash a bit. He, dare I say it, let Russ cook.

And cook Russ did. Wilson wasn’t just getting chances in the passing game — but he was making the most of them as well. Through those nine games, Wilson managed to hit the endzone through the air 28 times, adding nearly 2,800 passing yards into the mix — all on 70% completion percentage in an aerial attack that let the quarterback sling the rock at will.

But after their ninth game ended in a 23-16 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, making the Seahawks losers of three of their last four, the party abruptly ended. Wilson’s attempts per game dropped from 37.1 to 32. His yards per attempt dropped. His touchdown rate dropped. His completion percentage dropped along with it. Russ was taken out of the kitchen. 

But let’s never forget the time he had while he was there. For nine games, we all witnessed MVP-caliber Russell Wilson, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

3. Alvin Kamara’s Six-Touchdown Performance

It’s been said that once, many weeks ago, football fans never believed in Christmas Miracles. That all changed one holiday morning in 2020, when they got the chance to see one for themselves.

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara,  with the power of Air Heads, Santa Claus, and the league’s worst run defense in yards per carry allowed on his side, put together a record-setting running back performance on Dec. 25 against the Minnesota Vikings.

A six-touchdown rushing performance in a 52-33 Week 16 catapulted Kamara into the record books, dusting off a record held for nearly a century — six rushing touchdowns, tied for the most with Ernie Nevers back in 1929.

Kamara brought the gift of history to the children of New Orleans, and with it, a glimmer of hope that fans of the team might have the best running back in the league.

4. Justin Herbert’s Surprise Breakout

Justin Herbert wasn’t supposed to play in his rookie season. He ended up winning Rookie of the Year.

He was supposed to sit behind Tyrod Taylor, who in recent years has turned into an NFL journeyman, bouncing from the Ravens to the Bills to the Browns to now the Los Angeles Chargers. Taylor started for the Chargers in Week One, and looked as he always has, someone who can distribute the ball well enough to get his team a win, but won’t light up the scoreboard doing it.

Was Taylor bound to bring the Chargers inspired quarterback play? Probably not. But he was exactly what the team wanted him to be, a bridge quarterback for a rookie quarterback seen as a raw prospect, who would need a year or two to develop into a franchise savior.

So when Herbert was called up in Week Two, replacing an injured Taylor, calling it shocking that he managed to go toe-to-toe with the reigning Super Bowl champions and the best quarterback in the league, would be an understatement.

From that win moving forward through the year, Herbert never looked back. Shattering just about every rookie record along the way, all while missing one game at the start of the year.

5. Tampa Bay’s Week Six Beatdown of Green Bay

The Tampa Bay Buccanneers played the role of underdog throughout most of the playoffs. Coming in as the NFC’s top Wild Card team, Tampa Bay faced three favored opponents in New Orleans, Green Bay, and Kansas City en route to a Super Bowl blowout victory.

But, maybe, the team shouldn’t have been doubted as much as they were. After all, back in Week Six, the Buccaneers showed the world exactly who they were in a 38-10 win over the Green Bay Packers– a statement win that would mirror the team’s performance in the Super Bowl.

The explosive offense of the Packers was silenced entirely in their meeting with Tampa Bay. Winners of their first four games of the season, Green Bay hadn’t scored fewer than 30 points in any contest during their 4-0 start. Their eventual MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers had thrown for 13 touchdowns and not a single interception up to that point. And even still, the Packers found themselves without answers.

Their 10 points scored would stand as their lowest total throughout the 2020 season. Rodgers’ two picks ended as the most he threw in a game in 2020, and made up for 40% of his total interceptions on the season. The Tampa Bay defense also forced the Packers’ quarterback to his lowest completion percentage of the year, his second-fewest total passing yards, and the only time during the season where he would fail to record a passing touchdown.

This game was a precursor to the Super Bowl. The Buccaneers offense did their part, but the defense stood tall and gave a juggernaut Green Bay offense fits for 60 minutes.

6. Aaron Donald’s Sixth-Straight Statement Season

Los Angeles Rams’ defensive tackle Aaron Donald was drafted 13th overall in 2014. In his first season as a pro, he would go on to record nine sacks in 12 starts, earning a Pro Bowl birth and Defensive Rookie of the Year in what would go down as a very nice first season in the NFL.

In six seasons since then, Aaron Donald has blasted past the role of an elite defensive player into a category all his own. The ”˜Donald Zone,’ where he and only he stands. 

Aaron Donald has made an All-Pro team in six consecutive seasons. Nobody at the defensive tackle position is better. Aaron Donald has won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in three of his last four seasons. Nobody on the defensive side of the ball is better than him, either.

Aaron Donald has transcended what we all assumed possible for a player in the defensive tackle position. The six-time All-Pro recorded 13.5 sacks in 2020, good for second in the league. Only one other tackle recorded more than ten. All of this, while being double-teamed on 70% of his pass-rush snaps. And sometimes tripled-teamed, just to be safe. Aaron Donald just might be the best player in the NFL.

And of course, he’s been in that argument for a long while before 2020. But this season reaffirmed what most of us already knew. There is nobody else quite like Aaron Donald.

7. The Erosion of the Patriots Dynasty

When was the last time you remember the Patriots being a bad football team? Or at least, on the level they were in 2020 — a competent, yet unspectacular group? I’ll answer that for you.

It was the 2000 season, when the team went 5-11 as a scrappy young go-getter named Tom Brady rode the bench as a wide-eyed, sixth-round rookie. That’s the last time the Patriots were a bad team. That’s the last time they finished below .500.

That is, of course, until the 2020 season. Stalwarts at the top of the NFL standings for two decades no longer, as New England’s reign as the league’s pre-eminent dynasty finally came to a close. Tom Brady found a new team, and the Patriots found themselves floundering on offense.

The New England Patriots were an irrelevant, unassuming team in 2020. That’s what makes them such a relevant talking point.

The post NFL: Seven Moments That Defined the 2020 NFL Season appeared first on Pro Football Mania.