Jimmy Garoppolo will have one of the ten best supporting casts to work with of any quarterback in football this season, according to rankings published last week by Bleacher Report.

NFL writer Brad Gagnon ranked Garoppolo's supporting cast seventh in the NFL during a June 13 feature, adding, "They're still trying to sort out who'll lead the way at wide receiver and running back, but there might not be a deeper skill-position group in the NFL than the one that belongs to the Jimmy Garoppolo-quarterbacked San Francisco 49ers."

Gagnon praised Garoppolo's deep group of running backs ("No other team boasts a running back trio like Tevin Coleman, Jerick McKinnon and Matt Breida. It's unclear who will emerge there, but it's extremely unlikely all three fail," wrote Gagnon) and his promising crop of pass catchers, led by Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle ("His 1,377 receiving yards were the most by a tight end in NFL history, and he should only get better with Garoppolo back from a knee injury in 2019," wrote Gagnon). Only the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Atlanta Falcons, and Indianapolis Colts were given higher rankings.

"A lot still has to happen in San Francisco, which is why it's not as easy to see this supporting cast as complete, or even particularly strong," wrote Gagnon. "But the odds are in the 49ers' favor simply because the team has so many talented weapons surrounding Garoppolo at all three offensive skill positions."

Not everyone may agree with the 49ers being ranked seventh considering some of the health issues the running backs have had as well as the unproven element surrounding some of the young receivers. But the fact Garoppolo's supporting cast is ranked that high is a sign the 49ers have grown leaps and bounds from where they were just two seasons ago. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated twice in recent days that he now feels his team finally has the depth it needs to compete, and part of that is due to what's been brought in on offense.

"When we got here, we knew what was ahead of us and we knew we had to flip a lot of things," Shanahan said at the team's State of the Franchise event on June 5. "To give you guys an example – we have 90 guys on our roster right now. There’s only 10 guys here from before two years ago. There’s only one guy left who was a starter on offense when we got here, and he’s the guy we just re-signed for two more years in Joe Staley. There’s three guys left on defense that started, and it was (DeForest) Buckner, (Jaquiski) Tartt, and Jimmie Ward. So, there’s been a lot of turnover. It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point. We really feel like those first couple years, it was hard work to change the entire foundation of this team. But we really set out this year to get some difference makers, and we feel we did. We got a few pass rushers as difference makers, we got a running back, we got some guys in the draft who can help us, and now we feel like we can compete."

The 49ers now have to stay healthy and prove worthy of such a lofty ranking on the field, but the outlook seems much more promising than it did in previous seasons. If nothing else, the result should be fun to watch.