Jimmy Garoppolo appears to have played his final game with the Raiders and at least one team beat writer is wondering if Garoppolo has been receiving the Derek Carr treatment over the last few weeks because of the injury guarantees in his contract.
Vinny Bonsignore, who covers the Raiders for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, thinks the Raiders might be protecting themselves from potentially losing $11 million if Garoppolo suffers a serious injury before the end of the season.
“I think there were some financial considerations that are in play [as to why Garoppolo has remained on the sideline],” Bonsignore said this week on Raider Nation Radio’s The Morning Tailgate.
“We all know about the injury guarantee of the $11 million, the other half of his money for next year is guaranteed for injury. So I do wonder if that played into it because the [Colts] game kind of played out how we suggested it might… and at that point do you make a change at quarterback to try to get some momentum going? But they opted not to do that…”
One other explanation for Garoppolo’s time on the bench might be his underwhelming play in the first half of the season.
Aidan O’Connell (81.3) has a better quarterback rating than Garoppolo (78.1) and although the rookie has run into a few rough stretches, he has thrown 6 touchdowns and no interceptions in the last 3 games.
Antonio Pierce has spoken highly of O’Connell in recent weeks, so it might be that the organization just wants to give O’Connell as many reps as possible with the understanding that he will be with the team beyond this season and Garoppolo probably will not.
twitter: @raidersbeat
You suggest somehow (presumably having seen how mediocre O’Connell is, on his good days) that Bonsignore is incorrect. I have known this since Garoppolo was not inserted into a game O’Connell could not muster a single point. Let’s see where both QB’s are at next season.
with this owner it makes sense because Jimmy could have won at least two of o’connels ,what’s his wins record? I’d have rather made the playoffs with Jimmy than watch a backup qb develop!
Have to disagree. Not saying that O’Connell is the solution, just that Jimmy isn’t either. He’s an interception machine. The Raiders blew it when they hired that bozo from N.E. They made the playoffs in 2021 and added Adams. They were primed to win, but then Davis made a catastrophic decision. Now they have a QB problem. Sad.
Dude you crazy if you think Jimmy g could come into some of those games and win it. For real O’Connell wasn’t the reason we lost games other than I believe one game you can probably say we lost cause of O’Connell. He’s played decent enough for us to win we just either get going to late and can’t come back because we run outta time or we just can’t stop the other teams offense at times when we really need to keep them from scoring any kind of points. As for you saying something about Mark Davis.. he don’t mind spending the money to go get players it’s just stupid azz McDaniels just brought in the wrong type players. We could of had CJ Stroud if not for the POS McDaniels.
O’Connell a decent qb, but he needs to learn to scramble out of the pocket and throw better passes. The o line need to get a lot better to protect their qb so he can make better decisions.
Once again same old story with the Raiders. They sign the wrong guy at QB ie: Jimmy G. While he sits on the bench and collects a paycheck the Rookie O’Connell takes his lumps! The Raiders need to draft a top rated QB from the draft and DEVELOP him. Hoping the old guy has a few more good years isn’t working. Just Sign One Baby!
Yeah I agree.. the raiders need to stop fking around and just do what they have to do to draft one of these QBs in next year’s draft. This is supposed to be a good draft for QBs. So the raiders just need to stop signing these old washed up bum QBs and just draft one for the future and let him and O’Connell go into training camp and battle it out to see who starts.
If I had to pick, I’d have let Jimmy play a few games with Pierce, but Adams threw his helmet and Davis tossed everything. O’Connell can’t scramble, he’s pocket only and after this many games we’d see if he had “it”. He doesn’t. What QB can we get? Fields maybe?
I believe the Raiders should release Jimmy G at the end of the season and count their losses! AOC is not a bad QB by any means however the Raiders need to strengthen their O line for whatever QB they end up with of whom I hope is a QB that doesn’t mind taking off if necessary. Personally, I believe Renfrow is not a bust with the Raiders but an asset and fixing that O line will do two things! 1. Open up the passing game and 2. Create openings for Zeus and other backs to run through. People need to get off AOC and give him the help he needs to be a better QB regardless of what capacity in the position he plays in. Kinda off the subject, the Raiders might wanna really think about trading Josh Jacobs for real because I know they’re considering it! I’d sure hate to see him in a KC Chiefs uniform in a two back set with Pacheco.
Garoppolo has more wins for the Raiders than O’Connell, he’s sharp in the pocket and more mobile than O’Connell. He’s a Super Bowl QB and was benched over Adams hissy fit. Another game and he’d have started to get in sync with the receivers more. To even have a conversation “comparing” an average rookie to a pro QB with one of the winningist records for a QB in NFL history is outrageous. Dump Pierce, he has no idea what he’s doing, start Garoppolo, trade Adams to the Jets, he’s not a team player, O’Connell is a career back up.