McDaniels, Garoppolo need each other
HENDERSON, Nev. — Josh McDaniels knows he was spoiled as the offensive coordinator of the Patriots, having stability at quarterback for eight years with Tom Brady. Now he’s starting to experience life on the other side. McDaniels had a different quarterback for each of the last four seasons — Brady, Cam Newton and Mac Jones in New England, and Derek Carr last year for the Raiders.
It means starting from scratch each season. And hoping that everything clicks quickly.
“I’m kind of tired of making this a habit,” McDaniels quipped on Friday.
He’s doing it again in 2023, with a fifth starting quarterback in five years. But McDaniels isn’t starting from zero this time.
After moving on from Carr in the offseason, McDaniels and the Raiders are pinning their hopes on Jimmy Garoppolo, McDaniels’s former pupil for 3½ years in New England. The Raiders signed him to a three-year, $75 million deal to hopefully bring stability to the position and get the Raiders back to the playoffs for just the third time since 2002.
McDaniels had no idea if he would reconnect with Garoppolo after the Patriots traded him to the 49ers at the 2017 trade deadline. But they now need each other more than ever — McDaniels to turn the Raiders around after last year’s tough 6-11 season, and Garoppolo to prove that he can be a healthy, championship-winning quarterback.
“I followed him, I stayed connected to him — even though I know he’s got a terrible reputation as a text-back guy,” McDaniels said Friday in an interview with the Globe. “He’s not learning brand new stuff in that regard. He’s picking the old stuff up pretty quickly, and anything that’s a little new, he’s a pretty quick study.”
Garoppolo thrived in his first, if not brief, stint with McDaniels. He sat on the bench for two whole seasons, but got his big break to begin 2016 as Brady served a four-game suspension. Garoppolo led the Patriots to a road win in Arizona and a 21-0 lead over the Dolphins at home before suffering a shoulder injury that knocked him out the final two games Brady returned.
But Garoppolo’s transition back to McDaniels’s offense this year is not exactly seamless. Garoppolo spent his last six years playing for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, whose system and terminology are quite different.
Yes, Garoppolo may be fluent in French, but he spent the last six years speaking in Mandarin. He needs to rewire a bit.
“Reprogramming your brain is a good way to put it,” Garoppolo said. “That was part of the learning curve of coming back here, and I knew it was going to be like that. But I was excited about that. It was kind of the offense I was born into, I guess you could say, in the NFL. We’re trying to mix and match some of those things that I did in San Francisco.”
To help him learn quickly, Garoppolo is surrounded by former Patriots who know the system cold, from McDaniels to offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi to backup quarterback Brian Hoyer. And he’s throwing to former Patriots in Jakobi Meyers, Phillip Dorsett, and Kristian Wilkerson.
McDaniels doesn’t want Garoppolo to forget everything he learned under Shanahan, though. Garoppolo went 3817 over parts of six seasons with the Niners, with two trips to the NFC Championship game and one to the Super Bowl.
McDaniels said not only has his own playbook evolved since he last coached Garoppolo in 2017, but he envisions tapping into Garoppolo’s experiences with Shanahan, too.
“I always saw Josh and Tom do that back in New England. I thought it was really cool,” Garoppolo said. “It felt good to get back into that. Just putting your two cents in as a quarterback and certain plays that you’d like in a certain offense. It’s new to Josh and new to me, and we’re just trying to make it all work. But yeah, it’s been really cool. I’ve enjoyed the process with him.”
The Raiders took on an obvious risk — Garoppolo’s ability to stay healthy. A torn ACL ruined one season in San Francisco. Ankle and shoulder injuries ruined another. And a broken foot last year led to the rise of Brock Purdy and the end of Garoppolo’s tenure there.
There’s also the risk of Garoppolo taking too long to click with his teammates. He missed the entire spring because of his pesky broken foot, and has been playing catch-up in training camp. The Raiders don’t really want to wait until October or November for Garoppolo to feel comfortable.
“I don’t do this year-round to come in and not make the playoffs. I’m sick of that [expletive],” pass rusher Maxx Crosby said last week. “I want to get back to the playoffs. I want to be in Cincinnati on the road in a hostile environment. That’s why I play the game, that’s why I work the way I work.”
But there are reasons for optimism with Garoppolo. When the 49ers acquired him in 2017, he joined a 1-10 team, winged it with a new offense, and won five straight games to end the season.
Garoppolo is surrounded by a wealth of talent in Vegas, among perennial All Pro Devante Adams, former Pro Bowler Hunter Renfrow, and productive veterans Jakobi Meyers and tight end Austin Hooper. Pro Bowl running back Josh Jacobs also will hopefully return from a holdout before the season begins.
And while Garoppolo may be new this year, his teammates are not. They are now in Year 2 under McDaniels, with a better understanding of the offense and way of conducting practice.
“I was just talking to Josh about that,” Adams said. “It’s a like a whole new world now because you go from saying, ‘How can I not mess this up?’ to, ‘How can I put my own flavor on it?’ Rather than just remembering my assignment, it goes to take it to another level. So, definitely a lot more comfortable. I think everybody kind of moved a lot faster out there.”
One thing Garoppolo has done well this year, as he did in New England and San Francisco, is win over his new locker room. Teammates from Adams to Renfrow to Hoyer to center Andre James all noted how calm and cool Garoppolo has been.
“Calm, collected, always under control,” said Hoyer, who went from San Francisco to New England the same time Garoppolo went the other way in 2017. “I’ve always said the greatest trait for a quarterback is just to stay even keel. You don’t get too high. You don’t get too low. I think he’s the definition of that. He’s played a lot of great football, and I think the guys respect him, and that’s a huge part of playing quarterback.”
Carr was a leader and popular in the Raiders’ locker room the last nine years, but Garoppolo has even won over his defensive teammates.
“Jimmy, he’s done a hell of a job,” Crosby said. “It’s not easy coming back from a foot injury, dealing with all that, dealing with coming to a new team, learning a new system, but he’s just the same guy every single day. That’s what I respect most about him.”
“We’re in there, I see him in the training room, in the tubs, everything and he’s always got a positive mind-set, he’s always looking to improve, and you just see it over camp. Early on a lot of people were giving him a lot of [expletive], and it doesn’t matter to him. He came out these last two days, he’s been incredible. So, he’s only getting better, he’s going to keep improving, and I’m super fired up for him. He’s a great leader and a great guy to have around.”