Las Vegas’ new quarterback has struggled at times in camp, and Raider Nation has already begun to sound the alarm bells. For a team looking to capitalize on having three players voted top-20 in the NFL Top 100 list of 2023, Jimmy Garoppolo’s camp struggles aren’t exactly what the Las Vegas Raiders were hoping for. Of course, there’s a notable silver lining; it’s only training camp.
Are the concerns around Garoppolo’s struggles valid, or much ado about nothing? Let’s take a look.
Jimmy Garoppolo, and his training camp with the Las Vegas Raiders
By most accounts, Garoppolo’s camp performance thus far has been, at best, a mixed bag. The offense is making some plays, but the defense has been responsible for more stops than folks have been used to seeing in past Raiders camps with Derek Carr. However, before we chalk the Garoppolo experiment up as a miss, we must acknowledge the multitude of layers here.
The Raiders Defense is Improving
Las Vegas’ defense is playing pretty well thus far in camp, and one unit that seems to have improved greatly is the secondary. Free agent signing Marcus Peters and rookie Jakorian Bennett have looked fantastic up to this point. Generating turnovers has been an issue for the Silver and Black for years; these two might be able to turn that trend around. The Raiders were last in the league in takeaways this past season, and have been in the bottom-10 league-wide every year since 2016, when they finished second. The interceptions in camp are promising for that reason.
Jimmy Garoppolo is Still Shaking Off the Rust
It is very important to remember that prior to training camp, Garoppolo had not played any live football since December fourth, 2022. The guy had almost eight months of rust to shake off. He is still on a pitch count, so he isn’t even fully participating yet. Also, while he is familiar with Josh McDaniels, he has not played in this offense since 2016 with the New England Patriots. There’s probably a bit of a learning curve – we’ll see how he looks in a few weeks.
This is Who Jimmy is
Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal had some interesting insight on Garoppolo’s performances in camp. According to those Hill spoke with who are familiar with the Raiders new quarterback, Garoppolo is “not a great practice player, especially in training camp.” Essentially, the idea is that Garoppolo is known to throw a lot of picks in practice, but that he usually cleans it up in games.
However, interceptions have still been a problem for him in games as well. On average, the former Patriots and 49ers signal caller throws one pick for about every 41 pass attempts. For comparison, Carr’s average was about 50 pass attempts per interception. An increase in passes thrown to the other team on average is just something that fans are going to have to accept.
Something or Nothing? Final Verdict
Like every other training camp story, Jimmy Garoppolo’s performance is almost-certainly being overblown. What we are seeing now doesn’t mean that Garoppolo and the Raiders offense are doomed this year. That being said, “Jimmy G” is going to throw some picks this year – probably more than what Raider Nation is used to seeing.
Even if that is true, Garoppolo could throw more picks and still be more effective in this offense than Carr was last year. So, yes, this definitely is something. However, it might not mean anything. We will find out for sure in September.
*Top photo: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
