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Moving from the San Francisco 49ers to the Las Vegas Raiders may have given Jimmy Garoppolo the perfect springboard for a second coming, after an injury-hit time of late.
Derek Carr had moved to the New Orleans Saints, so the starting quarterback slot was up for grabs. Garoppolo would be forgiven for thinking that he was the right fit for that vacant spot on the roster.
With the NFL Draft less than a month away, Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels has thrown a curve ball to Garoppolo. McDaniels said that he wasn't done in the QB department and was hoping to pick up a possible starter in the draft.
All of a sudden, there is no guarantee that Garoppolo will be a shoo-in at quarterback, and a young(er) upstart might still pip the former 49er to the berth.
Speaking at the NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix, Arizona, McDaniels said: "We're doing a deep dive obviously in the draft.
"I would love to have a quarterback room that's got guys that are young, developing, under contract that you can continue to work with every year. As opposed to try to do the veteran route every season if you can.
"So, we'll see how it goes and how this next month and a half shakes out," the Raiders coach added, "but I'm confident Jimmy will be ready to roll, and we need to do a good job of finding our backup plan."
It could be that, while Garoppolo was signed so that the team had a viable starter, he may not have been the go-to guy he thought he was. Garoppolo was more of an insurance against an up-and-coming QB not being snared in the draft.
Speaking about the quarterback position and the draft, McDaniels said: "Obviously, it makes you feel better if you come out of there without somebody specific.
"But I think in terms of our roster, what we've tried to do is put ourselves in position where we can actually draft the best player that we feel like is available at the time." he added.
"And we're open to anything. That's nothing new, but if that happens to be a quarterback, then it's a quarterback. If it happened to be a defensive lineman, it's a defensive lineman. If that happened to be a tight end, then it's a tight end. You know what I mean?"
McDaniels has said before that he has coached teams in which a rookie was the primary back-up. He isn't afraid to have that situation again at the Raiders, with Garoppolo looking over his shoulder at who is chomping at the bit to replace him.
McDaniels added: "I think the goal though is to try to eventually draft a player at that position you can move forward with and develop.
"We've done that. I've done that. I've been a part of that. I enjoy doing that. I think it's a good philosophy to have organizationally, so you're not always chasing a new backup quarterback every year and trying to identify who the best fit is. We'll see if we can figure that out over the next month or so," the head coach said.
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