Update (3/17): Jimmy Garoppolo has finalized his three-year contract with the Las Vegas Raiders and will hold a press conference on Friday. The finalization of this deal hit a hiccup a day earlier, leading to some questions about what was happening.
Veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo made his way to the Las Vegas Raiders’ team facility in the suburb of Henderson Thursday morning.
Garoppolo was on hand to officially ink his three-year, $75 million contract with the Raiders later that day. He would join fellow free agent signings Jakobi Meyers and Phillip Dorsett in being introduced to the media.
Once Garoppolo’s scheduled press conference was delayed, concern started to grow over what was happening. It was then postponed until Friday at the earliest. While sources around the Raiders conclude that everything is “all good,” nothing had come to fruition on the contract side as of Thursday evening.
We now have this note from Tashan Reed of The Athletic indicating that Garoppolo’s contract has not been finalized. According to Reed, the Raiders’ official who announced Garoppolo’s press conference was being postponed indicated that it was related to contract details still “being hashed out.”
“The Athletic reached out to multiple league sources in an attempt to discover what those contract details could be, but none of them responded by the time this article was published. Again, there’s optimism that whatever it is that prevented Garoppolo from officially joining the Raiders will be resolved, but the alternative must be considered.”
Report on Jimmy Garoppolo contract situation
This is all sorts of interesting after the scenes in Henderson earlier on Thursday.
One of the reasons Vegas reached out to Garoppolo following the release of Derek Carr was his relationship with head coach Josh McDaniels. The two spent years together with the New England Patriots earlier in their careers.
As for a potential hiccup, there’s a lot of scenarios that come to mind. None of them are great for the Raiders.
Related: Sportsnaut’s NFL free agent tracker with grades
What is happening with Jimmy Garoppolo and the Las Vegas Raiders?
Garoppolo’s pending contract calls for $33.75 million in fully guaranteed cash. It pretty much ensures that he’ll be with Vegas through the 2024 season.
At issue here is the quarterback’s injury history. Garoppolo, 31, missed a combined 31 games in his final five seasons with the San Francsico 49ers. Perhaps, the Raiders are looking to lower that fully guaranteed cash.
Either way, it should still be considered likely that the two sides will come to terms on an official agreement. At this point in NFL free agency, both sides are running out of options. Pretty much every starter-caliber quarterback is off the market. Meanwhile, there are very few starting jobs available to Garoppolo.
Even then, this is a rather interesting development as things play out in Southern Nevada.