Steve Young provides Garoppolo with vote of confidence

Jimmy Garoppolo faces the unique pressure of restoring the San Francisco 49ers back to greatness, but he received a vote of confidence on Tuesday from one of the franchise's legends.

Garoppolo, who led the 49ers to a five-game winning streak to close out the 2017 season, gained an endorsement from Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, who led the franchise to its last Super Bowl victory in 1994. Young believes Garoppolo acquired invaluable experience serving as Tom Brady's backup prior to being traded to the 49ers in October.

"Now the expectations are huge, and that’s good,” Young said via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. "He knows how good you have to be. He’s watched it - so that’s nice. It’s not going to be, ‘Oh, Jimmy, the expectations are too high.’ He’s like, ‘No, I know how good you have to be. You can expect me to do whatever you want, but I know how good I have to be. I’ve witnessed it.’ It just makes a huge difference. A lot of players don’t have any idea how hard the job is; what really good looks like. And Jimmy’s watched it for four years."

Young also credited the young quarterback for stopping the downward spiral that permeated the 49ers organization.

"It’s so hard to come into a team that’s not winning, in midseason, with new coaches and new plays, and just start winning games,” Young said. “That’s just so hard to do. You can try to diminish it, but why would you? You’ve got a 1-10 team that goes 5-0. Jimmy did so much just to stop the madness."

Young helped define the 49ers during the 1990s and now Garoppolo is faced with the task of reviving the team while competing for the NFC West title in a division that's been entirely revamped. Gaining the confidence of a team legend could go a long way and may foreshadow a career-defining year for Garoppolo.