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The Las Vegas Raiders have handed the keys to the starting quarterback job to Jimmy Garoppolo after giving him a three-year contract worth $72.75 million in free agency. However, there are concerns about Garoppolo’s viability this season.
The veteran quarterback hasn’t played a full season without injury since 2019, which was also the only team he did it in his nine-year career. Garoppolo already missed Raiders’ organized team activities due to offseason foot surgery. In a July 10 column, Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine put together a list predicting the “biggest bust” for every team in 2023 where he listed Garoppolo as the Raiders’ best candidate.
“Jimmy G has proven to be a capable starter who won’t outright lose games. He generally takes care of the ball and has an 87-42 touchdown to interception ratio for his career,” Ballentine wrote.
“But he does have limitations when it comes to arm strength and he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. There’s a reason the 49ers have been trying to move on from him as a starter for the last two seasons.”
Whether or not Garoppolo is a bust could come down to health. In games that he’s started, he has a 40-17 win-loss record. The problem is that he has missed 31 regular season games due to injury since he joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2017.
Jimmy Garoppolo Named X-Factor for Las Vegas Raiders
As previously noted, Jimmy Garoppolo does win when he stays healthy and has talent around him. The Raiders have questions on defense as the group finished 28th in the NFL by allowing 365.6 yards per game, but he does have Pro Football Focus‘ No. 1 ranked wide receiver Davante Adams, as well as Pro Bowlers Hunter Renfrow and running back Josh Jacobs.
In a July 6 column, Jared Dublin of CBS Sports listed the biggest “X-factor” for all 32 teams in the NFL. He listed Garoppolo as the biggest X-factor for the Raiders.
“The Raiders are counting on Jimmy G delivering similar results to those he achieved in San Francisco, but without the cocoon of Kyle Shanahan, the scheme and the same plethora of weapons around him. (Davante Adams is there, but the rest of the pass-catchers aren’t of the same quality.)” Dublin wrote.
“If his foot isn’t healthy or if he can’t generate the same level of play without Shanahan in his ear and scheming things up, it’s going to be a long season in the desert.”
Las Vegas Raiders Aren’t Worried About Jimmy Garoppolo’s Foot
For the time being, the Raiders don’t appear worried about Jimmy Garoppolo’s foot. Veterans don’t report to training camp until July 25 and it appears the quarterback will be ready to go. Former Raiders senior personnel executive Michael Lombardi, who is the father of offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi, recently appeared on the June 23 episode of the “Pat McAfee Show” where he gave some insight on how the team is feeling about the quarterback’s status.
“They knew he would be ready for training camp, but he wasn’t going to be in the offseason program. This was decided back in April and so, therefore, they deferred the signing bonus until he can pass the physical, which he will and I think he’s on track to do that,” Lombardi said of Garoppolo.
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