For the past three years rumor mills have been trying to connect Jimmy Garoppolo to the Houston Texans simply because general manager Nick Caserio was the New England Patriots’ director of player personnel when the quarterback was selected in Round 2 of the 2014 NFL draft from Eastern Illinois.
Why the speculation has had a harder time sticking than Jell-O against a sheetrock wall is because Caserio knew what Garoppolo was.
However, when DeMeco Ryans becomes the Texans’ coach, he will have a better idea of who Garoppolo is after having been with the San Francisco 49ers since 2017, the same year Garoppolo was traded.
According to Matt Bowen from ESPN, the 6-2, 225-pound signal caller ranks as the 25th-best free agent heading into the offseason.
Garoppolo completed 67.2% of his passes with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions in 11 games before a foot injury ended his season. He’s still a good passer who can be a mid-tier starter on the market. He is a timing-and-rhythm thrower who fits best in an offensive system tailored around the play-action route tree. The injury history factors into his ranking here, but make no mistake: He will have suitors on the market.
The situation with Houston may be no different than that in San Francisco for Garoppolo. He would either be competing with a young, blue-chip quarterback or looking over his shoulder for his entire time in Houston.
The only way a Garoppolo-Ryans reunion with the Texans could work would be if the field general accepted that he was simply grooming the future — a la, 2004 when the New York Giants signed Kurt Warner and started him for the first nine games, even though they had traded for Eli Manning in the draft. If Garoppolo legitimately thought he could still be a starter, then the Texans would need to pass as it could be a progress stopper for their rookie quarterback.
