Jimmy Garoppolo has experienced a solid but injury-ridden NFL career so far. He started his career as a potential Tom Brady replacement. It didn’t work out that way as he ended up being traded to the San Francisco 49ers. Injuries have created a lot of what-ifs but even at that, he was only one win away from his first Super Bowl last season. Through the ups and downs, Garoppolo has been one of the most winning QBs against winning teams since entering the NFL.
The reason for QB wins against winning teams
I started to dive into this stat for every quarterback because the new hot argument is to say that a certain quarterback didn’t beat any good teams. I often see people use this argument to say players like Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford are not good and just put up empty stats. At the end of the day, there is much more to the story.
Garoppolo is the other end of the spectrum. He often gets credit for being a winner despite performing worse than other quarterbacks.
First off and most importantly, quarterback wins are a team statistic. Secondly, very few quarterbacks in the NFL have a winning record against teams who finished the season above .500 in the league.
There are a lot of moving parts involved in football. While winning and losing is the most important stat, it is one that unfairly gets attributed to quarterbacks.
So what is Jimmy Garoppolo’s record against winning teams?
Since entering the NFL in 2014, Jimmy Garoppolo is 13-10 (.565) against teams that finished the season with a winning record.
In 2021, Jimmy Garoppolo was 4-4 (.500) against winning teams as the starting quarterback.
- Eagles (win)
- Packers (loss)
- Colts (loss)
- Cardinals (loss)
- Rams (win)
- Bengals (win)
- Titans (loss)
- Rams (win)
In 2020, Jimmy Garoppolo was 1-2 (.333) against winning teams as the starting quarterback.
*Garoppolo’s last game of the season was week 8 against the Seattle Seahawks. He was placed on IR after that.
- Miami (loss)
- Rams (win)
- Seahawks (loss)
In 2019, Jimmy Garoppolo was 5-2 (.714) against winning teams as the starting quarterback. This was an amazing season as Garoppolo helped lead his team to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
- Rams (win)
- Seahawks (loss)
- Packers (win)
- Ravens (loss)
- Saints (win)
- Rams (win)
- Seahawks (win)
In 2018, Jimmy Garoppolo was 0-2 (.000) against winning teams as the starting quarterback. He started through week 3 and was injured.
- Vikings (loss)
- Chiefs (loss)
In 2017, Jimmy Garoppolo was 3-0 (1.000) against winning teams as the starting quarterback after the Patriots traded him to the 49ers. His first game in a Niners uniform was week 12.
- Titans (win)
- Jaguars (win)
- Rams (win)
From 2014-2016, Jimmy Garoppolo started 2 games for the New England Patriots during this time frame. This came when Tom Brady was injured in 2016. The Patriots won both those games but neither were against winning teams.
A winning record isn’t common
Almost every quarterback in the NFL has a losing record against winning teams. It only makes sense because those are the games teams are most likely to lose every year. This has not been the case for Jimmy Garoppolo.
Garoppolo has benefited from being in ideal situations. He was granted the luxury to learn the game from Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. He wasn’t thrown into the fire and was completely ready when he got his chance to play.
What quarterbacks have a winning record against winning teams?
As seen on our master QB record vs winning teams chart, there are only a handful of NFL quarterbacks that have a record above .500 against winning teams.
You can digest that information on your own. The only thing I want you to take away from this is that it is extremely rare to have a winning record against teams that finished the season with a winning record.
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