The Raiders made one of the biggest splashes of free agency on Monday, agreeing to terms with QB Jimmy Garoppolo. After several other options fell through earlier this offseason, this always felt like the most likely option for the Raiders.
But what grade should the Raiders get for landing Garoppolo so early in free agency?
In a recent article by Seth Walder of ESPN, he graded every signing from Day 1 of free agency. And for the addition of Garoppolo by the Raiders, he gave them a solid “B”. Here is what Walder had to say about that signing by Las Vegas:
“Half-measures in the NFL are often bad, but this one makes some sense. Garoppolo has always been efficient — even if we have to assume Kyle Shanahan’s system gets some credit — ranking from 12th to 16th in QBR in every season he has qualified.
Given his injury history, however, qualifying has been the hard part. There’s at least nonzero upside here, too, considering his best stretch of play was in 2017 with McDaniels and the Patriots, when he had an 83 QBR in six games.”
It’s not very likely that Garoppolo will be an upgrade over Carr, but the Raiders needed a veteran quarterback and he knows the scheme well. It also doesn’t hurt that the Raiders got him on a significantly cheaper deal and they aren’t tied to him beyond one year.
There weren’t many great options on the free-agent market for quarterbacks, but the Raiders did well grabbing someone with a bunch of experience who can contribute right away. A grade of “B” seems more than fair for this signing.
