Jimmy Garoppolo's Raiders career already off to concerning start

Jimmy Garoppolo has yet to play a game for the Las Vegas Raiders and there is already some major concern regarding his injured foot.

Garoppolo suffered a fracture in Week 13 of the 2022 campaign when he was still playing for the San Francisco 49ers, thus ending his season. It was initially believed that the injury was not severe enough to require surgery, and he eventually signed a three-year, $72M contract with the Raiders in free agency.

But it was revealed this week that Garoppolo did undergo surgery after all, shortly after signing that deal. 

It also required the Raiders to dramatically re-work his contract to include a waiver, or else he would have failed his physical with the team.

Inclusion of the waiver was first reported by ProFootballTalk on Saturday, while NFL Network's Ian Rapoport provided the exact waiver on Sunday. 

Part of the clause states:

"Player also understands that such condition has decreased his ability to play professional football and that continuing to play professional football may result in deterioration, aggravation, or re-injury of the existing conditions rendering Player physically unable to perform the services that would be required of Player by an NFL Player Contract."

The Raiders released veteran quarterback Derek Carr this offseason and brought in Garoppolo to replace him. Given how bad the Raiders' offensive line performed a year ago it is probably not a great sign that their replacement for Carr is a quarterback whose foot injury is such a concern that the team had to include that sort of waiver in his deal.

The Raiders are coming off of a disappointing 6-11 season that saw them finish near the bottom of the AFC standings. Even when healthy Garoppolo is the type of quarterback that needs a strong supporting cast around him to win. 

The Raiders do not have anywhere near the talent he was used to in San Francisco. All of this could put the Raiders on an early watch list for Caleb Williams in the 2024 NFL Draft.