Richard Sherman believes the San Francisco 49ers can rest better at night knowing Jimmy Garoppolo is on the roster. If something were to happen to their 22-year-old starting quarterback, Trey Lance, their championship hopes don't vanish as if snapped away by Thanos.
Garoppolo has helped guide the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game in two of the last three seasons along with a Super Bowl appearance in that span. He is 33-14 as a regular-season starter. That's an impressive résumé for a second-string quarterback. And he already knows the offense inside and out.
One teammate who is happy to have Garoppolo back is All-Pro tight end George Kittle. He understands what it means for the 49ers' season and what it means for the continued development of Lance.
"I'm happy," Kittle told Sherman, his former teammate, on The Richard Sherman Podcast. "I think Jimmy G ... everybody loves him in the locker room. There's no bad blood anywhere. We all respect Jimmy. We all respect him as a leader. We respect him as a quarterback. Him being in that room with Trey Lance and Coach Shanahan, our offensive coordinators, I think that's going to be very beneficial for Trey. While Trey is in the driver's seat and Trey gets to play quarterback, he has Jimmy G, who knows how to win games, and he can learn a lot from him.
"So I hope that's how Trey takes this, and he just continues to play his game because Trey's a really good quarterback. He just needs a lot of reps, and those reps are coming, and he's going to get a lot better, and he's going to continue to get better. And I think with a guy like Jimmy behind him, I think that will continue to push Trey to want to be better as well.
"I think it's really good for our team. In the grand scheme of things, having a QB like that, that you can plug in if some worst-case scenario happens, and you know what you're going to get with Jimmy. And like I said, the whole locker room respects him."
If Garoppolo needs to play, the 49ers know they can win football games with the veteran quarterback. They've done it for years. Not every NFL team has—or can afford—that type of safety blanket. Having a starting-caliber quarterback as your backup is reassuring. After all, San Francisco may own one of the most talented rosters in the NFL, especially on the defensive side of the football.
"There's a lot of positives that come out of this," Kittle continued. "Jimmy, he's a known winner. That's what he's best at. He wins games. Like, that's what he does. When you're in the huddle with him, you kind of sense that he's got this intensity to him. There's aspects of football that aren't just Xs and Os and not just throwing the football that Trey's going to learn from Jimmy. Like just how to carry yourself, how to do certain things. And Trey does a good job of that. It's just Jimmy's been doing it longer, so he's just going to learn a lot of things from him."
You can listen to the entire interview below.