The Las Vegas Raiders believe that making the quarterback change from Derek Carr to Jimmy Garoppolo will be a positive step toward being a competitive team in 2023. Garoppolo had a lot of success with the San Francisco 49ers, even leading them to a Super Bowl appearance in 2019.
Prior to joining the 49ers, Garoppolo spent the first three seasons of his career with the New England Patriots who originally drafted him. This obviously gave him the opportunity to learn under the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady and become familiar with the offensive system of current Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels.
When he was traded to San Francisco, Garoppolo pointed to work ethic as the thing he learned most from working with Brady, and now upon joining the Raiders, it is that same thing that he points to as the most important thing he learned with the 49ers.
“Work ethic is probably still up there. Preparation or work ethic, I think those two things,” Garoppolo said. “The NFL is a hard place. A lot of talent, everyone’s fast, everyone can throw, all these things, but I think those two things will really set you apart, and your mindset too. It’s not easy to win games in this league, but if you’ve got those little things going for you, you’ve got a chance.”
In high school and in some colleges as well, a player can get away with just being more talented than the rest of the players. But in the NFL, everybody is that good, that athletic, and that talented. As such the way a player prepares, how they study and how hard they work to improve makes all the difference in the world.
Garoppolo is not the most talented quarterback who has the most amazing arm like Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes. But he is an extremely smart quarterback who can make the right reads and get the ball to his playmakers in the best position for them to do what they do best and that is an important skill to have.
The new Raiders quarterback has a lot of talent at his disposal with DaVante Adams, Josh Jacobs, Hunter Renfrow and the newly-added Jakobi Meyers. But it will take time and effort for everyone to get on the same page so the offense can thrive. There is no doubt that Garoppolo will do everything possible to make that transition happen and allow this Raiders offense the opportunity to reach its potential as one of the best in the league.
