The New York Giants are searching for a long-term solution at quarterback — 33-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo is not that. Still, the Giants may be in the market for veteran leadership and three quarterbacks to bolster a new-look quarterback room. Should Jimmy Garoppolo be considered for the quarterback three spot, if Joe Schoen and the Giants opt to add three signal callers?
New York may target two free-agent quarterbacks in March while likely selecting one early in the draft. If two are added, both free-agent quarterbacks would not be guaranteed a roster spot, especially with a cheap, non-guaranteed contract. In this scenario, Garoppolo may be considered an option, purely as veteran depth.
Garoppolo flamed out of Las Vegas after the Josh McDaniels debacle. He completed 65.1% of his passes for 1,205 yards (7.1 YPA) with seven touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2023 — his lone year with the Raiders. His Big Time Throw Rate was a measly 1.1% and he had a 3% Turnover Worthy Play Rate.
Garoppolo suffered a concussion and a Grade 1 lower-back sprain with the Raiders, and he was eventually benched for rookie Aidan O’Connell and even Brian Hoyer. It was a tough year for Garoppolo, and he was then slapped with a suspension of two games for violating the NFL’s Performance Enhancing Substances Policy that carried into the 2024 season.
Despite the struggles, Sean McVay and the Rams signed Garoppolo, and he backed up Matt Stafford for the 2024 season. He signed a one-year, $3.2 million contract with Los Angeles last season. Garoppolo started Week 18 when the Rams rested their first team; he threw for 334 yards with two touchdowns and an interception; he also completed 65.9% of his throws, and he aired it out more than he did in the previous season (small sample size, obviously).
The situations are entirely different, but McVay did retool and reinvigorate Baker Mayfield’s career. It’s safe to say Garoppolo played well in his short stint with the Rams, but is it enough for the Giants to consider him? Let’s see his tape and find out.
Flashes of arm talent
Garoppolo’s first throw of the season was this far-hash dart high enough to avoid the tight coverage of the cornerback. Demarcus Robinson (15) did a great job securing the pass that was to the inside; was it a perfect throw? No, not necessarily, but it was good enough to get completed and certainly allowed Garoppolo to get into a rhythm.
He may not have the biggest arm, but he was attempting far-hash throws with the Rams — accessing every inch of the football field. Garoppolo does a great job confirming Cover-1 middle-of-the-field-closed man coverage and he delivered a throw over the top of the defender with great ball placement despite not being able to fully step into his pass. It’s similar to the throw above with just one safety to worry about.
Garoppolo took his three-step drop on this third-and-5 and looked to execute a quick game throw to the field smash concept that Seattle covered well. He does an excellent job coming off the route concept and locating the backside dig route to Atwell, who was open due to Robinson’s route that vacated the middle of the field. The pass was very catchable, but Atwell could not hold on.
I was impressed with how poised and cohesive Garoppolo’s body was through this Week 18 game. His feet, eyes, shoulders, and hips were all married and working together to maximize his play and accuracy; this was not consistently the case in 2023 as a Raider. He hit his back foot off the play action and fired the football for a first down to Johnson. This play was in the two-minute drill at the end of the game. Everything is copacetic.
I do want to acknowledge, though, that Garoppolo did have high-level throws as a Raider in 2023. Here are three elite passes:
His placement on the first and second throws and timing on the third were elite. He could not get his receiver annihilated over the middle of the field. Here are some more high-level throws from his time in Las Vegas:
Garoppolo threw this beautiful pass to Michael Mayer (87) over two defenders before the safety could arrive. The ball placement and how he helped lead Mayer away from the two linebackers were impressive, as was carving through zone coverage like this in the middle of the field.
The high ball placement and anticipation of throwing before Adams’ break resulted in this first down above on third-and-eleven. Buffalo ran an inverted Cover-2 defense, and Garoppolo was not fooled; he tightly fit the football between the middle hook and the flat and before the inverted Cover-2 player could get down to the catch point.
Finding answers
Garoppolo is guilty of plenty of bone-headed plays, and that must be recognized, but he does possess the ability to quickly find answers and keep drives alive.
He does a great job quickly identifying Ernest Jones IV’s (*13) simulated pressure on third and two, with Tyrice Knight (48) and Boye Mafe (53) dropping into zone coverage. The Rams’ sixth-man protection picked up Seattle’s ODD front defense with a four-man rush, and Garoppolo saw the vacated middle of the field and attacked.
The Rams sent six rushers on this second-and-3 with jet-motion. McVay frequently runs jet-motion and will successfully hit screens off of the play, but this is not a screen but a quick decision by Garoppolo to find an answer in a precarious situation. He saw Tre Brown (22) hustling to match Tyler Johnson (18) on the motion and understood the leverage and space advantage. With six Seahawks collapsing the pocket, he quickly got the football into space and allowed Johnson to defeat one player who wasn’t in perfect position. This was a great example of finding solutions through adversity.
I don’t want to oversell this trait, for Garoppolo does panic (as we will see later), but it’s necessary to acknowledge the good with the bad. The Rams faced an important fourth-and -6; Mafe and Jarren Reed (90) ran a flawless twist to Garoppolo’s blindside. He took a massive hit from Reed but was able to stand tall through contact as he found Tyler Higbee (89) for the first down. Through his faults, Garoppolo has absorbed massive hits through the years.
Toughness
Garoppolo does an excellent job flipping his hips off the play action and locating Jordan Whittington (88) on the crosser before taking a punishing hit in the two-minute drill at the end of the game. He took a beating down the stretch of this Week 18 loss against Seattle.
Jones IV did a great job avoiding Ronnie Rivers (30) and gaining easy access into the pocket through Jonathan Hankins (97) and Roy Robertson-Harris’ (98) blocks. Garoppolo took the hit and threw a catchable pass to Tutu Atwell (5), who could not hold onto the ball through contact.
The 33-year-old Garoppolo isn’t fleet of foot, but he’ll run if necessary, albeit infrequently. He flashed toughness as he lowered his shoulder on third-and-11 to try and secure this first down for the Raiders. When square and throwing downfield, he also found ways to complete impressive passes on the run; again, as we’ll see later, this was not consistent down the line of scrimmage or to the sidelines.
Throw on the run
Garoppolo is not shy to step up in the pocket and use his feet to extend plays behind the line of scrimmage. He connected with Davante Adams (17) on a solid touch pass over the top of a defender to secure a first down on second-and-10.
Garoppolo stepped up and away from the pocket to connect with Jakobi Meyers (16) for a first down against the Detroit Lions. He threw across his body, which is inadvisable, but he put enough touch on the pass to get over the top of the underneath defenders and Meyers made an impressive adjustment to his route to secure the pass.
McVay loves to move the pocket or use bootlegs to get his quarterbacks moving against a previously used run look that is well disguised. Garoppolo threw a well-placed touchdown to Johnson while on the run. This isn’t the easiest throw to make for an older quarterback who isn’t exactly mobile, but he made it look easy and it was placed high and away from the trailing defender, and with enough touch to clear the underneath players.
Negatives
Garoppolo’s deep ball accuracy has always been a problem; it’s an issue that significantly hindered the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. While Garoppolo was purportedly playing through back issues amplified after his Week 6, 2023 injury, misses like the one below aren’t infrequent throughout his career.
Davante Adams quickly created separation against the Lions, but the throw was about a step-and-a-half too far for the superstar wide receiver. The throw was from the far-hash, and it was kept in bounds, but misses like this are back-breaking. The deep misses are one thing, but he also has a slight tendency to skip passes into the target when he isn’t comfortably set or if he’s under pressure.
Garoppolo does an excellent job stepping into the pocket and keeping his eyes downfield, but he doesn’t set his feet or orient his body completely to the target. Instead, he attempts to adjust with his arm and dips the ball into the deck. He did something similar this season with the Rams on a crucial fourth-and-3.
He falls back as he throws, and it goes too low for the receiver to scoop up. Now, it’s plausible that Garoppolo wanted to put this pass low due to the tight coverage from Seattle, but the fading away from the target may have forced it too low, which effectively ended the game, as the Seahawks won 30-25. Here are some other examples of low throws:
Garoppolo’s lack of consistent arm-talent is an issue that has plagued him. His career was maximized under Kyle Shanahan and, as we saw earlier, he flashes arm talent and high processing, but he also gets reckless with the football and tries to do too much.
He attempted to hit the simple out off a slide to the right but the curl/flat defender sunk underneath the out route outside the numbers. Garoppolo saw the safety assume the responsibility of the route and thought he could get it over the top of the curl/flat but it became a pivotal interception for Seattle.
Las Vegas held a 10-3 lead against the Green Bay Packers in 2023, and Garoppolo had the offense at midfield. He tried to hit the crossing route in tight coverage off play action, but it was undercut by the Packers defender in the third quarter. This pick helped Green Bay swing the tide of momentum toward the cheeseheads. Luckily, the Raiders intercepted Jordon Love at the end of the game to secure the victory.
Here’s more reckless panic that led to his ultimate benching after sustaining and recovering from his back injury. Pittsburgh eliminated the first and second read off the play-action 21 personnel look. Garoppolo felt the pressure and tried to throw it away toward Meyers but threw it directly into double coverage and Pittsburgh intercepted the pass.
Final thoughts
I am not going to lie; I came away more impressed with Garoppolo’s 2024 game than I anticipated. Still, with the current state of the Giants, there’s little upside to signing a 33-year-old quarterback with limited mobility for Brian Daboll’s system. If the Giants go in this direction, it must be cheap and, as a possible quarterback three, competing for two and as depth. It would be a situation where Garoppolo would likely be released if he did not beat out the second quarterback, and, to be honest, if he did beat out the second quarterback, more questions about Joe Schoen’s evaluation ability should be hurled toward the Giants’ brass.
