Jimmy Garoppolo is 34 years old and is yet to hang up his cleats. He makes for a great choice as an emergency backup, and the New York Giants are desperately on the lookout for one. According to insider Josina Anderson, Garoppolo is in no mood to end his career.
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“I’m ready to play, in the right situation,” Garoppolo told her on a phone call.
Quarterback Jaxson Dart suffered a serious knee injury in Week 2 after a hit from Los Angeles Rams defenders Byron Young and Josaiah Stewart. He will require surgery to heal, effectively ending what was supposed to be a crucial year for the Year 2 quarterback. Veteran Jameis Winston has stepped in as the starter, with Jake Haener serving as his primary backup, including this week’s game against the Tennessee Titans.
As much as people love Jameis Winston, he can also be a complete mystery playing quarterback. You never know if he’s going to be great or bad. Behind him, Haener remains a very inexperienced quarterback who has played only eight games so far.
Garoppolo’s name has already been floated by multiple outlets as a realistic fit for that need. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo mentioned him directly on “Big Day with Peter Schrager” this week, saying Garoppolo “has been working out” and that retirement “is not the way he’d want to go,” while noting he’d be part of the broader conversation around available veteran arms.
The Giants’ interest has also been reported by the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy, who reported that Garoppolo might be a top choice for New York.
The 34-year-old enters this stretch of free agency with one of the more accomplished résumés still unattached to a roster. A second-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2014, Garoppolo won two Super Bowl rings as Tom Brady’s backup before a 2017 trade sent him to the San Francisco 49ers, where he led the team to a Super Bowl appearance as the starter.
He spent the past two seasons backing up Matthew Stafford with the Los Angeles Rams before being released this offseason. Garoppolo briefly considered retirement over the summer before deciding he wanted to keep playing if the right opportunity came along, a stance that lines up exactly with what he told Anderson this week.
Garoppolo has been in the league for the past 12 years and has thrown for 15,828 yards and scored 96 touchdowns.
For the Giants, adding a quarterback with Garoppolo’s starting experience would give Winston and the rest of the room a genuine safety net as New York tries to salvage a season that took a significant hit the moment Dart went down. Whether that “right situation” Garoppolo described turns out to be New York specifically remains to be seen, but for the first time all offseason, his own words make clear he’s not waiting on the sideline by choice.