Raiders coach Josh McDaniels provided an assist after he pointed at the field behind me while discussing his new starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo.
“You can see him here,” McDaniels says, as he shows me Garoppolo throwing passes to his receivers after Monday’s practice. “He’s still out here. He’s still throwing, guys are still working with him and that’s an important part this time of the year.”
Garoppolo getting extra work after practice is a common routine for starting quarterbacks, but it made for good background color, and McDaniels ensured I didn’t miss it for this story.
And it doesn’t hurt to have a few positive nuggets, especially with Garoppolo’s rocky start with the Raiders, which opened with his failing his physical and missing the entire offseason program due to his injured foot.
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After being sidelined the past few months, extra work after practice was probably expected of Garoppolo to get acclimated with his new coaching staff and teammates. Also, don’t tell McDaniels about how familiar he is with Garoppolo from their New England days. That was six years ago, and Garoppolo had only two starts with the Patriots.
“I think the familiarity is probably a little bit overblown,” McDaniels says.
But before diving into McDaniels’s getting acclimated with a post-49ers Garoppolo, let’s touch on the latest regarding the Raiders’ reigning rushing champion, because Josh Jacobs’s absence from training camp came up during McDaniels’s interview with Sports Illustrated.
Of the three running backs who received the franchise tag this offseason, only Jacobs hasn’t reported to training camp, and it’s likely that he won’t be back until the regular season in September. Tony Pollard signed his one-year tender ($10.091 million for running backs) with the Cowboys in March, and Saquon Barkley appeared to be headed for a holdout like Jacobs, but Barkley reported to the Giants after receiving a $2 million signing bonus and incentives that can push his salary to $11 million for the 2023 season.
That leaves Jacobs, and it’s possible he could miss regular-season games to prove his worth, but McDaniels didn’t sound concerned about that occurring.
“I think everybody loves and respects JJ [Jacobs] and understands the process,” McDaniels says. “I certainly do. And I’ve said it a million times this year: I love the player and the person, and I understand the process he’s going through. We’re going to work as hard as we can with the guys that are here every day, and ultimately when he’s back, we’re going to look forward to getting him back and integrated into the group.”
While the Raiders wait for Jacobs to report, or a solution arises for him to arrive earlier than September, the team is going with a running back-by-committee approach during training camp practices. On Monday in Henderson, Nev., second-year running back Zamir White got the first carry with Garoppolo under center, but he certainly wasn’t the lead back, at least not for this workout. There was an even split along with Brandon Bolden, Ameer Abdullah and Sincere McCormick, with the latter two getting a handful of targets out of the backfield.
Getting back to Garoppolo, there were plenty of dump-offs and screen throws, you know, the easy, safe passes that left 49ers fans frustrated at times during his six seasons. He also struggled Monday with protecting the football, throwing two consecutive interceptions. But on the following play, Garoppolo hit DeAndre Carter in stride against tight coverage down the right sideline.
With the Raiders recording only a league-low 13 takeaways last season, McDaniels didn’t mind seeing his defense making plays against Garoppolo. Instead, the Raiders’ second-year coach focused on how Garoppolo didn’t dwell on the mistakes to build chemistry with his new teammates.
“Our defense is allowed to make some plays, too,” McDaniels says. “You know what I mean, it’s training camp. There’s a lot of things that … you might be trying something for the first time. That you’ve never done in your life, with a guy that you’ve never done it with. Those mistakes sometimes are the best opportunities to grow. We encourage the guys to go out there and cut it loose, and when they do, every once in a while, there’s something to learn from, and when we learn from it, it usually makes us better.”
There’s plenty for Garoppolo to learn with wide receivers Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers, Hunter Renfrow and rookie Tre Tucker. He also has to help a rookie tight end in Michael Mayer get up to speed. (As a side note: Mayer, a second-round pick, might already be in line for starting tight end.)
Garoppolo is a different quarterback from the last time he worked with McDaniels—they were together with the Patriots from 2014 to ’17. Garoppolo posted a 38–17 record as the starter with the 49ers for six seasons and made a Super Bowl appearance during the ’19 season.
There were also many rocky moments throughout Garoppolo’s 49ers stint, but the Raiders would gladly welcome all the wins he accumulated during his time in the Bay Area.
“I think the reality is he’s just been a good football player,” McDaniels says. “He’s just been a good football player where he was [with the 49ers]. He didn’t play much for me in New England. You know, I got to be around him when he was developing, but he really put a stamp on what he’s about in San Fran. I know he was coached well by an incredible coaching staff there, and he’s doing some really good things here already.”
