The biggest question surrounding the Raiders this offseason is how will Jimmy Garoppolo fit in Las Vegas. And will he be a downgrade from Derek Carr? Both are fair questions that we don’t know the answer to yet. However, there are some reasons to be optimistic.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they wrote about Garoppolo’s fit with the Raiders and Josh McDaniels. One of the reasons they believe that Garoppolo will be a better fit with the Raiders than Carr is due to the amount of motion and pre-snap movement in the offense under McDaniels.
Here is a small snippet of Dalton Wasserman’s thoughts on Garoppolo in this offense:
Garoppolo’s experience with McDaniels and Kyle Shanahan means that he has run an offense that has ranked top four in plays with motion in every year of his career. He can handle the mental load that comes with running motion on the vast majority of plays.
Garoppolo won’t match Carr’s arm strength and ability to threaten defenses outside the numbers, but he may be able to diversify the Raiders’ offense in a way McDaniels has not been able to since he lost Brady.
One of the things that McDaniels wants to do more this year is utilizing play-action and pre-snap movement. While Carr has been fine in both of those areas throughout his career, that is where Garoppolo has thrived.
Garoppolo will never be as physically talented as Carr as he just doesn’t have comparable tools. But if he can be more effective running this style of offense, we could see a bump in quarterback play right away for the Raiders.
