Raiders insiders reveal crucial update on Jimmy Garoppolo
The Las Vegas Raiders and Jimmy Garoppolo got off to a weird start when the veteran quarterback showed up to the team's facilities to sign his contract, but left without doing so.A little more than two months later, we now know why that happened. Per The Athletic's Tashaun Reed and Vic Tafur, the Raiders discovered […]
The Las Vegas Raiders and Jimmy Garoppolo got off to a weird start when the veteran quarterback showed up to the team's facilities to sign his contract, but left without doing so.
A little more than two months later, we now know why that happened.
Per The Athletic's Tashaun Reed and Vic Tafur, the Raiders discovered Garoppolo needed surgery on the foot he injured in December of 2022. They subsequently signed him and then had him undergo the surgery after his introductory press conference.
Garoppolo initially suffered the left foot injury on Dec. 6, 2022 while playing for the 49ers. San Francisco feared that he’d suffered a Lisfranc fracture — which requires surgery — but 49ers team doctors concluded that it was a different type of fracture that didn’t require surgery and had a recovery timeline of about two months.
Based on that, Garoppolo…. should have been fully healthy by the time he agreed to terms with the Raiders on March 13…
When Garoppolo did sign a day later and had his introductory news conference, he didn’t reveal the reasoning behind the delay or give a clear update on the status of his foot injury. But according to a league source, the Raiders discovered during Garoppolo’s physical that his foot actually did need surgery and the procedure was done after his introduction.
What in the hell are the Raiders doing?
On Thursday Josh McDaniels met with the media for the first time for OTAs, and let everyone know that Jimmy Garoppolo and a few others would not be on the field.
"There's a number of guys that you're not going to see," McDaniels told the media. "Again, I'm not going to, you'll see him. I mean, I'm not going to run down a list every time here. But, you know, no, he's going through his process just like we knew he would, nothing has happened that would surprise us based on the information we had. Same thing with Tyree [Wilson].
“Again, there's a number of guys you're not going to see out there today. So rehabbing the things that they're rehabbing and again, we know we don't play a game for over 100 days. So, you know, they're doing everything they can do to get right and when they're all ready to go then eventually they'll be back on the field."
The Raiders second year head coach also mentioned that Garoppolo could be out until the start of training camp.
This new regime just made a huge gamble. Derek Carr wasn't even close to the worst quarterback in the league last year, and in fact, I'd go out on a limb to say he is a better talent than Jimmy Garoppolo. But, they cut him, trying to save money and move in a new direction.
They didn't want to deal with Carr's big contract, but they could've easily converted his gigantic base salary to a signing bonus and then added two void years to the deal in order to significantly lower his 2023 cap hit. In all, on a basic level, they only saved around $11 million by releasing Carr: Carr's cap hit was $34.875 million in 2023 and Garoppolo's is $23.8 million.
The move is an even bigger gamble when you factor in all of the injuries Garoppolo has dealt with over the last few years. He played 57 games with the 49ers, and missed 41 possible games due to injury. He has dealt with everything from an ACL injury, thumb, hand, shoulder, and now a foot injury. Injuries happen, but you never wanna roll the dice on a pattern like this and it’s doubtful it gets any better.
Let's be real for a second. If Derek Carr wasn't on the Raiders last season, are we sure Davante Adams, their best player, even comes to the team, or request a trade to be in silver and black? Sure, it was his childhood dream to play there, but we also know one of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest reason is because his best friend was there.
Was the decision to move on from Carr worth it? Now the best player on the team doesn't have the biggest reason he came to the team, he doesn't see eye-to-eye with what the team is doing, and with what we know now about Garoppolo's situation, he won't be able to build that chemistry during the offseason. And the building chemistry part goes for everyone, not just Adams. Garoppolo will be at a huge disadvantage by the time the season starts.
Oh, and just to make matters even worse, they don't re-sign Jarrett Stidham, who shined as a starter and looked great as a backup, and instead grab Brian Hoyer of all people.
This is just one of the many risky moves the Raiders have made so far with this new regime. They could have another one coming up to after taking a rookie in Tyree Wilson who is also recovering from a foot injury he suffered in college. Sure, it could be nothing, but we don't know that, because every gamble the Raiders keep
This better work out for McDaniels or he's done. and if the Raiders don't fire him, then they are dumb for not doing so.
You can read The Athletic' full report here.
