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Jimmy Garoppolo’s arrival midway through last season was like a cool drink of water to parched San Francisco 49ers fans roaming the Joshua Tree desert.

Joshua Tree, in this case, represents the last few seasons when San Francisco was desperately searching for stability at quarterback. Garoppolo appears to have provided that and perhaps much more.

The former Patriot parlayed his five-game winning streak as the starter to end 2017 into one of the richest contracts in NFL history, inking a five-year, $137.5 million contract. And suddenly the 49ers are playoff hopefuls after finishing last in the NFC West the past three seasons.

San Francisco has higher expectations than anyone would have expected entering Year 2 of Kyle Shanahan’s tenure after Garoppolo’s surprise addition at the trade deadline. But perhaps no one is expecting more from Garoppolo in 2018 than ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, who this week picked the 49ers franchise quarterback to win NFL MVP in 2018 in a predictions piece.

“As long as we’re all on the Jimmy G train, we might as well take it all the way into town. Will Garoppolo be a better player than (Aaron) Rodgers or (Drew) Brees in 2018? I don’t think so. But Garoppolo is poised to lift a flawed team much higher than it otherwise would have risen. That’s a pretty decent working definition for the MVP.”

While unlikely, the formula for Garoppolo winning the MVP is there. The 49ers have a league-high five primetime games and a last-place schedule. If he plays like a top-five quarterback throughout the season, shines in front of national audiences and gets San Francisco back to the playoffs, Seifert might not be the only one making the case for Garoppolo as the league’s most valuable player.