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Despite a brief hold-up on contract details, Jimmy Garoppolo has officially signed with the Las Vegas Raiders. He was supposed to be introduced on Thursday, March 16, but the official signing had to be delayed by a day. At his introductory press conference, Garoppolo said that the delay was due to “language” in the contract but made it clear that the signing was never in doubt.
The quarterback is now poised to take over for Derek Carr, who held the starting position for nine years. Though Garoppolo is clearly going to be the starting quarterback, he’s not looking to get any handouts. He made it clear that he wants to earn everything now that he’s with a new franchise.
“I’m trying to bring an energy,” Garoppolo said at his March 17 introductory press conference.. “Trying to get everyone on the same page, get everyone rolling in the same direction. Like I said before, I’m trying to earn it. Just because I’m the quarterback, I’m not the leader because of that. I want to be the leader because guys respect me and believe in me. I think that starts with hard work and so, I’ll try to do that as much as I can.”
Garoppolo Praises Josh McDaniels
The news that the Raiders signed Garoppolo didn’t come as much of a surprise due to the quarterback’s previous relationship with head coach Josh McDaniels. The two worked together on the New England Patriots and have a lot of respect for each other. McDaniels was Garoppolo first coach in the NFL and he learned a lot from him. The quarterback spoke about new head coach and had plenty of praise.
“He’s very smart. Taught me the game of football, basically, in the NFL,” Garoppolo said. “But he cares, too, about the game. He cares about the game. He cares about winning. You can really tell, just talking to him, that winning is important to him, and I wouldn’t say that’s true about everyone in the NFL. When you do get an opportunity like that, it’s hard to pass up.”
McDaniels has one of the most complicated offenses in the NFL. It has been several years since Garopollo was in the system and he did stress that it will take him a bit of time to get back up to speed.
“Revamping my mind is the first step and then just relearning the language,” Garoppolo said. “It’s basically like going Spanish to French, something like that, and it won’t take long. I think Josh’s offense, obviously, has evolved over the years and just got to pick it up as quickly as possible.”
Garoppolo Talks Raiders History
The Raiders were once one of the best franchises in all of sports. The team has fallen on hard times over the last two decades and nothing they do builds a consistent winner. While Garoppolo isn’t the most dynamic athlete to play quarterback, he’s a proven winner. He’s well-aware of how the Raiders used to be and had a chance to discuss the history of the franchise.
“Growing up, I didn’t know a whole ton about the Raiders, grew up in Chicago. The only thing I knew about the Raiders was [from] my dad. He was a Bears fan, but he also liked the Raiders. He always said they were the cool team. They were the team that everyone wanted to cheer for. The badasses. … I can remember the throw by Ken Stabler, guys like that. Just hard-nosed guys. It was cool.”
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