Saturday night’s startling news about the impact of Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s lingering foot injury on his contract presents good news and bad news for the team.
The good news is that the Raiders are protected, to the point that they may never have to pay him a dime if the foot injury prevents him from playing. The bad news is, if Garoppolo can’t play quarterback for the Raiders, who?
The lack of a clear and obvious Plan B (Brian Hoyer is the current veteran backup and Aidan O’Connell was selected in the draft) given the precarious status of Plan A puts receiver Davante Adams’ recent comments in a light. different.
“[The front office] think that’s the best bet for us right now to put us in an emergency position,” Adams told TheRinger.com. “We disagree on what we think is best for us right now. . . . I will have to accept that and try to be as optimistic as possible. It’s not what I expected, but it’s something that is reality now.
It really is quite the reality for the Raiders. Foot concerns scared the team enough to cause them to strip the deal of his $11.25 million signing bonus and move everything to the 2023 base salary that may never be paid. And while it’s great to have financial protections, it’s hard to say the Raiders have any real football protections.
Some would say the Raiders shouldn’t be so concerned about Garoppolo or else they would have had a better backup. The contract says otherwise. The contract says it’s a serious concern. So serious that the Raiders weren’t comfortable paying him anything until the foot injury recovered to the team’s satisfaction.
Fans may not currently feel much satisfaction with the quarterback’s overall strategy, and everyone could better understand why Adams said things about his own lack of satisfaction with the team.
Here he is, one of the best receivers in the NFL, and he has to hope that Garoppolo’s foot injury – which was serious enough to cause the Raiders to drastically rework his contract – will heal enough to ensure that Adams doesn’t not catch balls this year from an aging journeyman or the eighth quarterback taken in the 2023 draft.
Who wouldn’t be a little annoyed by this situation?
Jimmy Garoppolo news puts Davante Adams’ comments in a different light originally appeared on Pro Football Talk