He’s handsome, he’s flashy, he might scream bright lights… But Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t a fit in New York. The Garoppolo-Giants rumor mill has been swirling in recent weeks. From Colin Cowherd to pundits on Twitter, the NFL universe is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Their reasoning is this; Jones sucks, this Giants team is ready to contend in a bad division, and Jimmy Garoppolo is certainly an upgrade over Jones and Tyrod Taylor. On my Top 40 Quarterbacks list I published a couple of weeks ago, Jimmy G was comfortably ahead of both Taylor and Jones. But just because it’s an upgrade doesn’t mean that it’s a good fit.
For one, Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract is still insane. Sure, it’s just one more year. But nobody is paying him $24M dollars anymore. He also carries a cap hit of $26.9M. The New York Giants don’t even have the space to fit him in the budget if they wanted to! The financial situation just doesn’t line up, and neither does their roster build. They brought in Tyrod Taylor from the Houston Texans on a 2yr $11M contract as the insurance policy to Jones. Taylor might not be the consistent starter he was in Buffalo for that handful of years, but he’s no slouch. And he can adequately pick up whatever slack necessary if called upon.
It’s also worth noting that Davis Webb is also on their depth chart. This is an important note. Sure, he may not be expected to be a huge impact on the field, but on the sideline is where his value lies. Believe it or not, he actually turned down a coaching offer from the Buffalo Bills to sign up with the Giants and Brian Daboll as their third-string quarterback and essentially becoming an extension of the coaching staff. This kind of role isn’t unique by any means, the Patriots and Brian Hoyer are a prime example. So there are actually three quarterbacks the Giants have committed to. There is absolutely zero room for Garoppolo to come in.
For another thing, the Giants have expressed their yearning to give Daniel Jones a fair shake under new head coach Brian Daboll, and new general manager Joe Schoen. The Mara’s have even admitted that they’ve done nothing to help Jones and surrounded him with nothing to work with since drafting him in 2019. There’s an obvious desire to give him a chance to turn it around. This doesn’t sound like a team in desperate need of a quarterback change.
At that, Jones is on the last year of his rookie deal anyways. He’s an unrestricted free agent in 2023. Why would the Giants nuke their experiment in favor of Garoppolo when there’s no harm in giving Jones the season? If he’s still not good? They let him walk and hit the reset button on the position. If he suddenly turns it around? Maybe you have something on your hands. But adding Garoppolo to this mix makes zero sense as it comes to the future of this Giants team.
I hear you Giants fans. This team looks much improved. Your offensive line is far and away the best you’ve had in years. There are exciting young pieces on defense to be excited about like Kayvon Thibodeaux, Azeez Ojulari, and Xavier McKinney. Kadarius Toney, Darius Slayton, and Wan’Dale Robinson are an intriguing young wide receiver core. But Jimmy Garoppolo realistically isn’t going to take you much further than Daniel Jones will on his best day. You’re better off sitting pat with Jones and riding the wave. If it doesn’t work, your new head coach and general manager get their pick of a quarterback next off-season. There are worse spots to be in, like adding a near $27M at best league average quarterback to the roster because you think you’re just a competent signal caller away. This team is on the come-up, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
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