Nobody's ever done this before.
First of all, nobody in the NFL makes trades. Nobody trades a promising young Quarterback for a single non-1st round pick. No Quarterback has ever gone to a new team in the middle of the season and immediately been hailed as a savior. No Quarterback has stepped in to a 1-9 team averaging 16 points a game (it's way less if you don't include that nonsensical Rams game) and immediately transformed them into a top 5 offense. No player has ever gone to a downtrodden franchise with a young rookie starting QB and been able to unite an entire locker room behind him, having them view him as a leader rather than a spoiled inheritance child.
All of which is to say: this never happens. This, literally, has never happened. So when I see idiots on the internet (my bad for reading online hawt takes, but when your team is in the spotlight after years of hiding under a trash heap, you kind of can't help it) comparing this deal to Matt Cassel, or Scott Mitchell, or Matt Flynn, it makes me angry enough to come to my own little corner of the internet and scream into the abyss for a few minutes.
In each of those cases, and in literally any other case anyone would like to cite in the entirety of NFL history, an inexperienced Quarterback that received a startlingly large contract from a team other than the team that drafted him never performed well for the team that gave him that contract. Please, someone go find me an example of a Quarterback who came to a new team in the middle of their career, performed well, received a large money deal, and then flamed out. I will wait! I'm an NFL nerd to a very sad extent and I can't think of a single example. The 49ers traded Joe Montana to the Chiefs, they didn't fucking trade Steve Young. Steve Young was the guy waiting in the wings. You don't trade THAT guy!
The typical scenario is: guy gets chance with original team, guy performs well over hilariously small sample size, guy gets traded for some insanely moronic return, guy gets huge money from sucker team, guy sucks. THAT IS NOT WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED HERE.
What actually happened, is: guy got very limited chance with original team, guy performed well, guy sat on bench behind (maybe!) greatest Quarterback any of us will ever see, said Quarterback got pissy, forced team to trade guy to new team, Head Coach didn't want to trade guy, so he passive-aggressively waited until the last possible second and shipped him to the other side of the universe for peanuts in return, guy instantly changes entire trajectory of new team.
Nobody who loves the 49ers will ever forget Colin Kaepernick's first start. That feeling of "hoooooly shit we actually have a guy running our offense who can make those plays!". That feeling wore off pretty quick. The 2012 49ers offense was fantastic, but it was fairly obvious to anyone watching that Kaepernick was relying on his pure athleticism and overpowering speed to make plays, and once defenses figured out that the key to stopping him was "literally make him progress to the 2nd option on a pass play and make sure you have, like, a couple dudes keeping him from running", his effectiveness would be very limited.
Jimmy is the first guy since Steve Young on this team at that position where you don't have to say "yes, he's (blank), but..." Garcia was an odd mix of athleticism and grindey white guy who will give you 110% but is not actually The Guy. Alex was...I mean he's just Alex. He will throw 22 TDs. He will throw 5 INTs. He will not do much else. Colin was an athletic freak the type of which we may never see again, but he could not go through a progression on a pass play if more than 2 reads were necessary.
Jimmy will stand in the pocket. Jimmy will move when necessary, and not a second before. Jimmy will know what your defense is. Jimmy will know where his targets will be within your defense. Jimmy will find the correct target, and distribute the ball to that target in an orderly and efficient manner. Jimmy will not leave the field after yet another fucking 3 and out. Jimmy will move the ball, and will score points on almost every single drive. He was 31/49 total on drives that he lead. He scored points 6 goddamn 3 percent of the time when he had control of the ball.
The 49ers averaged 16 points a game before him, with him in control they scored under 20 once- his first start.
Let me put the negatives in this paragraph: he struggles with accuracy on some deep throws. That concludes this paragraph.
WHO HAS DONE THIS BEFORE?! He didn't know the team! He had one month in the offense! He was learning plays during the week in preparation for real, actual NFL games, one of which was against a team that was a few plays away from playing in the goddamn Super Bowl!
This. Does. Not. Happen.
Ever.
Do not compare Jimmy to anyone else. There has never been a Jimmy before, we are living in a time where history is being written. Years from now we will be seeing NFL Network specials about how the Patriots' dynasty ended, and how fortunate the 49ers were to be there when it happened.
I haven't been this sure about something since the time, immediately after the press conference announcing Jim Harbaugh's hire, when I came here and essentially had an orgasm. "This is going to be fuuuuuun", I said. It was! For a lot of the time.
I'd like to quote myself: This, friends, is going to be really, really, really fuuuuuuuuun.
