The Las Vegas Raiders have themselves a shiny new quarterback in that of Jimmy Garoppolo. As the NFL free agent tampering period got going on Monday, reports came trickling in that the Raiders were targeting the former Super Bowl quarterback.
Within less than two hours, the Raiders and Garoppolo had agreed to a three-year, $67.5 million contract with $34 million guaranteed.
This always seemed to be a likely end result for both sides. Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler have a built-in relationship with Garoppolo dating back to their days with the New England Patriots. In particular, Garoppolo knows McDaniels’ offense like the back of his own hand.
Garoppolo will now come in and replace longtime Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback Derek Carr as a stopgap option.
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For the Las Vegas Raiders, this has to be seen as a below-market deal given what we saw the likes of Daniel Jones and the aforementioned Carr receive earlier in the offseason.
Given the contract Garoppolo signed, this is not going to preclude Las Vegas from utilizing its first-round pick (seventh overall) on a quarterback. The team had been looking to move up to the No. 1 overall pick before that selection was traded from the Chicago Bears to the Carolina Panthers.
In short, the Raiders have solved their short-term quarterback situation while still being players to add a long-term option to the mix.