Start or Sit Jimmy Garoppolo?
The 2018 fantasy football season is upon us. That means fantasy football owners get up on Sunday morning and proceed to rearrange their lineup six-or-seven times before begrudgingly hitting submit, and hoping for the best. Here at Football Absurdity would like to cut that process down to just impotently rejiggering your lineup four-or-five times. Each week, we will highlight multiple players at each position (ignoring Kicker and DST, as one should) and we ask the question: start or sit <player>? I wish I could take it easy on myself and say to start Aaron Rodgers and sit Christian Hackenberg every week, but life isn’t easy (and neither are fantasy football start or sit questions), so we take a look at players on the periphery. This week, we kick it off with quarterbacks. We already looked at Andy Dalton. Next question: Can we trust a big arm and a smile, or will Jimmy Garoppolo be fantasy football poison? Should you start or sit Jimmy Garoppolo in Minnesota?
No team set the NFL more alight the second half of the regular season last year than the San Francisco 49ers. After acquiring Jimmy Garoppolo in a mid-season trade with the Patriots, they decided they saw enough of C.J. Beathard and gave Jimmy G the last five games to play with. He won all five, en route to becoming the quarterback of the future for the Red and Gold. He’s ended up inside the top ten for many fantasy football prognosticators, on the back of his great end-of-season performance.
It’s understandable that the fantasy football community has gone gaga over Garoppolo, given that he posted… one… top-ten finish during his torrid streak last season. At least he scored a ton and protected the ball, what with his pace to finish with nineteen touchdowns (as many as Deshaun Watson had in six games) and two more picks than Jay Cutler had all of last season. That having been said, the weaponry around Garoppolo should be better this season, which means his TD/INT should change, but this is fantasy football. I’m not banking my week one decision to start or sit Jimmy Garoppolo on should.
The defense across from him in week one is one of the worst possible matchups he could face, given their 2017 numbers. The Minnesota Vikings allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks last year and allowed just one quarterback (Kirk Cousins) to top 18.5 fantasy points against them. Again, last year’s numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, but not much has changed about that defense. It’s stout and strong and will be in Jimmy G’s grill all day.
Jimmy Garoppolo set the real-life NFL on fire last season, leading the 49ers to a 5-0 home stretch. However, he has not earned the fantasy football boost he’s received, as his full-season stats are essentially 2017 Jay Cutler’s. So the answer to, “should you start or sit Jimmy Garoppolo” is: Sit him this week against a strong Minnesota defense. As a Niners fan, I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not hopeful. Please don’t tell Jimmy…
