Jimmy Garoppolo is out for the year with a torn ACL, it’s not been confirmed. And that pretty much knocks San Francisco’s offense off the rails for the 2018 season. Or does it?
C.J. Beathard takes over as their starter. While he’s not Garoppolo, I recall that the offense wasn’t totally hapless when he was starting last year. He replaced Brian Hoyer and sparked them last year.
Beathard completed only 55 percent of his passes, with 4 TDs and 6 interceptions, which is pretty lousy . Of the five games he started, he completed under 50 percent in two of them – losses against the Eagles and Cardinals.
But Beathard averaged 237 passing yards per game, which wasn’t far below the league average. And he went 19 of 25 for 288 yards and 2 TDs to lead the team to a 31-21 win over the Giants.
Most noticeably, Beathard tends to run a lot more often than other quarterbacks. He’s not unusually fast athletic, but that’s part of his game. He averaged 24 rushing yards in the five games he started last year, with 3 TDs. That’s the kind of rushing production you typically see out of quarterbacks like Cam Newton and Tyrod Taylor.
Helped along that rushing production (and the reality that most fantasy scoring systems tend to be biased in favor of running quarterbacks) Beathard actually put up better per-game numbers last year than half of the quarterbacks who started playoff games. Seriously: Brees, Bortles, Keenum, Mariota, Ryan and Taylor. That’s standard scoring.
Last year 37 quarterbacks started at least five games. Beathard put up better per-game numbers than 22 of them.
I’m not promising Beathard will put up top-15 numbers again this year. I’m not crazy about the weapons around him. But I like the way Kyle Shanahan puts together his offenses. In general, in the a 12-team fantasy league with each team carrying two quarterbacks, it seems like somebody (hopefully not my team) should be carrying Beathard as its second quarterback.
| QUARTERBACKS, POINTS PER START (2017) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Pass | TDP | Run | TDR | Points |
| Deshaun Watson, Hou. | 6 | 266 | 3.00 | 42 | .33 | 32.2 |
| Russell Wilson, Sea. | 16 | 249 | 2.13 | 37 | .19 | 26.0 |
| Carson Wentz, Phil. | 13 | 254 | 2.54 | 23 | .00 | 25.7 |
| Alex Smith, K.C. | 15 | 269 | 1.73 | 24 | .07 | 23.2 |
| Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 7 | 239 | 2.29 | 18 | .00 | 22.9 |
| Cam Newton, Car. | 16 | 206 | 1.38 | 47 | .38 | 22.9 |
| Tom Brady, N.E. | 16 | 286 | 2.00 | 2 | .00 | 22.7 |
| Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt. | 15 | 283 | 1.87 | 3 | .00 | 22.2 |
| Kirk Cousins, Wash. | 16 | 256 | 1.69 | 11 | .25 | 22.2 |
| Matthew Stafford, Det. | 16 | 278 | 1.81 | 6 | .00 | 22.0 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo, S.F. | 5 | 308 | 1.20 | 1 | .20 | 21.6 |
| Philip Rivers, LAC | 16 | 282 | 1.75 | 0 | .00 | 21.1 |
| Jameis Winston, T.B. | 13 | 270 | 1.46 | 10 | .08 | 21.0 |
| Jared Goff, LAR | 15 | 254 | 1.87 | 3 | .07 | 20.9 |
| Dak Prescott, Dall. | 16 | 208 | 1.38 | 22 | .38 | 20.4 |
| C.J. Beathard, S.F. | 5 | 237 | .60 | 24 | .60 | 20.3 |
| Drew Brees, N.O. | 16 | 271 | 1.44 | 1 | .13 | 20.1 |
| Josh McCown, NYJ | 13 | 225 | 1.38 | 10 | .38 | 20.1 |
| Blake Bortles, Jac. | 16 | 230 | 1.31 | 20 | .13 | 19.9 |
| Case Keenum, Min. | 14 | 243 | 1.50 | 10 | .07 | 19.7 |
| Carson Palmer, Ariz. | 7 | 283 | 1.29 | 2 | .00 | 19.4 |
| Brett Hundley, G.B. | 9 | 204 | 1.00 | 30 | .22 | 18.8 |
| Matt Ryan, Atl. | 16 | 256 | 1.25 | 9 | .00 | 18.7 |
| Marcus Mariota, Tenn. | 15 | 215 | .87 | 21 | .33 | 18.3 |
| Derek Carr, Oak. | 15 | 233 | 1.47 | 4 | .00 | 18.2 |
| Blaine Gabbert, Ariz. | 5 | 217 | 1.20 | 16 | .00 | 17.7 |
| DeShone Kizer, Clev. | 15 | 193 | .73 | 28 | .33 | 17.4 |
| Andy Dalton, Cin. | 16 | 208 | 1.56 | 6 | .00 | 17.2 |
| Tyrod Taylor, Buff. | 14 | 189 | .93 | 28 | .21 | 17.2 |
| Eli Manning, NYG | 15 | 231 | 1.27 | 2 | .07 | 17.2 |
| Jacoby Brissett, Ind. | 15 | 203 | .87 | 17 | .27 | 17.0 |
| Trevor Siemian, Den. | 10 | 214 | 1.00 | 12 | .10 | 16.5 |
| Jay Cutler, Mia. | 14 | 190 | 1.36 | 2 | .00 | 15.2 |
| Joe Flacco, Balt. | 16 | 196 | 1.13 | 3 | .06 | 15.2 |
| Mitchell Trubisky, Chi. | 12 | 183 | .58 | 21 | .17 | 14.7 |
| Brian Hoyer, S.F. | 6 | 208 | .67 | 1 | .17 | 14.2 |
| Tom Savage, Hou. | 7 | 202 | .71 | 0 | .00 | 13.0 |
—Ian Allan