The Las Vegas Raiders saw both quarterbacks who started games for them last season depart for new opportunities over the past few months. Derek Carr is now in the NFC South, as the new starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. Jarrett Stidham, who started the final two games of the season, is now the backup behind Russell Wilson in Denver.
Jimmy Garoppolo’s secret foot surgery puts his Raiders availability in doubt
Per reports, Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is still dealing with the foot injury that ended his 2022 season
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Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
In their place, the Raiders signed Jimmy Garoppolo, whose final season with the San Francisco 49ers was cut short due to a foot fracture. Now, there are concerns about his availability for at least training camp, if not longer.
According to a new report from The Athletic, Garoppolo’s injury eventually required surgery, and his recovery timetable is being described as “unknown.” Originally, doctors believed that Garoppolo’s injury was not a Lisfranc injury and therefore did not need surgical intervention.
However, according to the reporting from The Athletic, during the free agency process the Raiders discovered during Garoppolo’s physical that his foot actually did need surgery. Subsequently, the procedure was done after the quarterback signed with Las Vegas.
A report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal indicates that Garoppolo may be out until training camp.
Raiders coach Josh McDaniels addressed Garoppolo’s status on Thursday.
“He’s going through his process just like we knew he would,” said the head coach. “Nothing has happened that would surprise us based on the information we had.”
“We don’t play a game for 100 days,” McDaniels added. “Everything that’s happened since we signed Jimmy, we knew ahead of time. … Certainly had an awareness of all of it. Our preference is not to push it and rush anybody back at this point in time.”
While the organization may seem confident that Garoppolo will be ready for the season, his injury history — coupled with the rest of the quarterback room — might lead to some concern. The Raiders were one of the teams repeatedly linked to quarterbacks throughout the pre-draft process, given the fact that Las Vegas had the seventh-overall selection. However, the Raiders passed on quarterbacks early in the draft, waiting until the fourth round when they added Aidan O’Connell out of Purdue.
The team also added veteran Brian Hoyer in free agency, who started one game for the New England Patriots a season ago. Hoyer suffered a head injury early in that game against the Green Bay Packers, giving way to rookie Bailey Zappe.
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