Jimmy Garoppolo to Raiders: Fantasy Football Impact (2023 NFL Free Agency)

Former 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is set to join the Las Vegas Raiders and reunite with Josh McDaniels, who was his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during his time with the Patriots and who is now the head coach of the Raiders. This agreement can’t become official until NFL free agency officially opens in two days, but Garoppolo and the Raiders have reportedly agreed to a three-year, $67.5 million deal with $34 million guaranteed.

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Raiders Sign Jimmy Garoppolo

Jimmy Garoppolo is heading to Sin City to nestle into Derek Carr‘s vacated throne. Garoppolo is coming off a season where he ranked 21st in PFF passing grade, fifth in yards per attempt, and 17th in adjusted completion rate (minimum 150 dropbacks per PFF). Garoppolo remains just a glorified point guard. He was also 23rd in big-time throw rate and 35th in aDOT (minimum 150 dropbacks per PFF).

The Raiders passing offense will look very different with Garoppolo as opposed to Carr. Last year Carr ranked seventh in deep attempts (14.1% deep rate per PFF). The deep ball isn’t a big part of Garoppolo’s game as he was 16th in PFF’s deep ball passing grade, 37th in deep ball rate (9.1% per PFF), and 27th in deep ball adjusted completion rate (minimum 20 deep attempts). The Raiders won’t take the top off of defenses often, but they will be happy with the accuracy upgrade from Carr to Garoppolo. Last year Garoppolo was 21st in on-target rate, which doesn’t sound great, but it’s still better than Carr, who was ranked 27th.

Jimmy G is headed to Vegas pic.twitter.com/xBI7XSUwlS

— FantasyPros (@FantasyPros) March 13, 2023

Since 2019 Garoppolo has never finished higher than QB15 in fantasy points per game. This year is likely a similar story, with Garoppolo falling in the mid to low QB2 bucket. From an arm talent standpoint, this is close to a push for the Raiders’ pass catchers, but it could hurt the passing volume overall if Josh McDaniels looks to back off their 11th-ranked neutral passing rate of 2022.

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