What to do with Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 1 fantasy football

It’s hard to believe that 2019 was Jimmy Garoppolo’s first full season as a starting quarterback. A knee injury cut short a promising start to his 2018 season, but the handsome face of the 49ers bounced back with a big season that ended with NFC Championship and a Super Bowl appearance. Now, further removed from his torn ACL, can he put up even bigger numbers than the 3,978 yards and 27 touchdown passes he posted last year? Garoppolo certainly has a chance to start off on the right foot with a juicy matchup against an Arizona Cardinals team widely expected to bring up the rear in the NFC West.

Fantasy Football analysis: San Francisco 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo

This is a one-sided matchup, and ever as unpredictable as the first week of the season can be, the 49ers should cruise this week. However, those too-easy matchups can sometimes be a drain a quarterback’s production, and it’s not as though Kyle Shanahan makes a big secret of his desire to run the football. But in this case just go back and look at precedent. In two games against the Cardinals last year, Garoppolo threw four touchdowns in both games against Arizona. He racked up more than 700 yards in those two games as well. The Niners are dealing with some injury concerns among their receivers—both Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel sat out practice on Wednesday—but they will definitely have tight end George Kittle, which should be more than enough for the 49ers to accrue some easy points.

Fantasy Start/Sit Recommendation

Start Jimmy Garoppolo.