WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — Having experienced both sides of a fervent Golden State rivalry, Jimmy Garoppolo understands the power of passion and the entertainment value it often stokes. As the veteran quarterback looks ahead to Sunday’s much-anticipated rematch between the 6-2 Los Angeles Rams and 6-3 San Francisco 49ers, two NFC West contenders five weeks removed from an epic overtime showdown, Garoppolo knows there’ll be an authentic strain of nastiness swirling in the Northern California air.
He wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It’s a rivalry game — that’s real,” Garoppolo said Wednesday while standing on the practice field at the Rams’ training facility. “In the NFL, everyone calls certain games rivalries and whatnot, but this really is one. I felt it when I was on that side, and I feel it on this side. It’s intense, but that’s what makes football great. That’s why you got to love it.”
Garoppolo, the 49ers’ starting quarterback for most of six seasons, has spent the past season-and-a-half backing up Matthew Stafford in Los Angeles. Last December, when he returned to Levi’s Stadium for the Thursday night game that would propel the Rams to the division title and essentially end the Niners’ playoff hopes, the man once dubbed “Jimmy Gee-zus” by an adoring fan base braced himself for a cold reception.
“Yeah, I was (worried) about that,” he said. “I mean, fans are fans. But they welcomed me back big time. I love them for that.”
Though Garoppolo had a lot of shining moments during his time with the 49ers, helping them reach one Super Bowl and nearly get to another, he often provoked the ire of the fan base — and his exacting coach — for what he couldn’t accomplish. That’s a stark contrast from the way he’s been received in Southern California, albeit with lower stakes.
When it comes to the rivalry within the rivalry — the match of wits between 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and his Rams counterpart, Sean McVay, former colleagues who were each hired before the 2017 season — there’s a massive gulf when it comes to assessing this particularly polarizing player. Shanahan unceremoniously announced Garoppolo’s goodbye while answering a question at a news conference following the 2022 season, which Garoppolo helped save after losing his starting job to Trey Lance. Garoppolo, who signed with the Las Vegas Raiders that spring, later admitted to me that the coach’s brusque handling of the situation bothered him, saying, “I mean, we’re all people.”
Though Garoppolo’s run as the Raiders’ starter lasted only half a season before he was benched, he has gotten his mojo back with McVay. The quarterback, who turned 34 last Sunday, started the final game of the 2024 regular season after the Rams clinched the division title, and he was in full command of the offense (27 for 41, 334 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) against the Seattle Seahawks.
After the season, with the 37-year-old Stafford’s status uncertain, McVay was prepared to ride with Garoppolo, ideally while grooming a young quarterback as his eventual replacement.
“I’m hopeful that Matthew will play as long as he possibly can, but Jimmy is a guy that absolutely (could step in),” McVay said Wednesday. “I don’t think his days as a starting quarterback are done by any stretch, and I think he feels that way, too.”
In the meantime, McVay is enjoying Jimmy G’s glow in a way that the exacting Shanahan seldom could.
“I think he’s got this disposition and demeanor where he’s so consistent, he’s so authentic, he loves ball, and he has a really good way with people,” McVay said. “Whether it’s his huddle command, how he handles himself in the meeting rooms, or how he and Matthew have established a really cool relationship, there are just certain people that have a zest for life and a good aura. I just think his vibe is always right.”
During a group interview Wednesday, Stafford, who missed nearly a month of training camp with a back injury, complimented Garoppolo for how well he stepped in and helped prepare the Rams’ offensive players for the regular season. Stafford took it from there — he has thrown a league-leading 21 touchdown passes and only two interceptions in 2025, which leads Garoppolo to believe the 17th-year veteran won’t be stepping away after the season.
“I mean, (with) the way he’s playing now,” Garoppolo said, “I don’t think so.”
Garoppolo said he “had some offers this past offseason” from teams that would have given him a chance to start, but he instead chose to sign another one-year deal with the Rams. He’ll likely be more motivated to leave after 2025, though nothing has been decided.
“I like to leave things open,” he said. “I’m really enjoying my time here. Sean’s awesome, and there are a lot of good people here. It’s a hard place to leave. Hopefully, just like there was action (from other teams) this past offseason, there will be (again). So hopefully it will be a tough decision for me.”
Garoppolo, once wired to let it fly and ask questions later, has become a calmer student with a greater sense of clarity during his time with McVay.
“The biggest thing that I’m starting to notice now is the game planning,” he said. “It’s almost like you can know what’s coming. As I’ve gotten older, that’s become easier and easier. I don’t want to say (I think) like a coach, but you’re around this so much that you start to think the same way as them.”
If McVay is seeing a better version of Garoppolo, that equation works both ways. McVay has been hard on himself for the way he handled his relationship with Jared Goff during the quarterback’s final two seasons with the Rams. (Goff was traded to the Detroit Lions for Stafford following the 2020 season.)
“That’s part of his football life, though,” Garoppolo said of McVay. “If you’re not evolving, you’re going to get passed up real quick, so credit to him for doing that.”
Sean McVay said Jimmy Garoppolo’s “vibe is always right.” (William Navarro / Imagn Images)
On Sunday, Garoppolo will be confronted by many familiar figures from his own football journey. Tom Brady, whom Garoppolo backed up during his first 3 1/2 seasons with the New England Patriots, will call the game for Fox. Brock Purdy, a 2022 seventh-round draft pick whose breakout performance as a rookie came after Garoppolo suffered a late-season foot injury, is now the 49ers’ franchise quarterback, though a lingering toe injury will likely keep him sidelined, with Mac Jones (Brady’s eventual replacement in New England, and once the object of Shanahan’s pre-draft obsession before the coach pivoted to Lance) in line to make his eighth start.
Garoppolo also shares a locker room with former Raiders teammate Davante Adams, who signed a free-agent deal with the Rams in March. The veteran wideout’s relationship with Garoppolo was strained in the wake of that 2023 season when Adams, in the Netflix docuseries “Receiver,” went on an expletive-filled rant critical of the quarterback’s throws and said he “signed off” on Garoppolo’s benching.
The two hugged it out after Adams arrived in Los Angeles, with the receiver telling ESPN radio’s “Sedano & Kap” that “it was never a personal thing” and attributing the divide to “a dark moment in all our lives.”
“That was a weird year for everybody,” Garoppolo agreed, noting that he and Adams developed excellent on-field chemistry during training camp. Garoppolo was locked in because the stakes were high. With Stafford’s status uncertain, Garoppolo thought he might be pressed into service in September and beyond.
“S— happened quick in training camp,” he said. “As the season got closer and closer, it really started to become more real. I was preparing as if I was the starter.”
For now, Garoppolo, who regards himself as “an in-the-moment guy,” is content to support Stafford as the Rams joust with the Niners and Seahawks (6-2) for NFC West supremacy. The intra-state showdowns such as Sunday’s have been good to him: He was 8-1 against the Rams during his time with the Niners — though the one defeat was the heartbreaking 2022 NFC Championship Game loss at SoFi Stadium after San Francisco took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter — and Los Angeles has won two of three against the 49ers since he joined the team.
Someday — perhaps soon — Garoppolo hopes to experience a charged atmosphere like the one he’ll encounter Sunday at Levi’s Stadium from the field, rather than the sideline. He has never felt more ready.
“Oh hell yeah,” he said. “You’ve got to know who you are at the end of the day.”
