Football

The words "Jimmy Garoppolo sweepstakes" have been written many times before, and they will be written many times still. I also just wrote them now, and might as well do it again: Prepare for the 2023 Jimmy Garoppolo sweepstakes!

Yes, everyone's favorite in-limbo offseason quarterback is destined to hog speculative headlines through the first quarter of the 2023 calendar year as free agency awaits while Trey Lance's ankle recovers.

Lance, of course, remains the San Francisco 49ers' long-term future at the quarterback position. San Francisco gave up far too much for the 22-year-old, 2021 No. 3 overall pick to give up on him just four starts into his NFL career, which means the team will almost certainly —finally—lose Garoppolo.

Granted, that didn't happen last offseason despite the fact Lance was healthy and Jimmy G was featured in trade speculation throughout the spring. Indeed, the 49ers brought him back on a restructured one-year deal, which paid dividends almost immediately when Lance went down with that season-ending injury in September.

But now, Garoppolo is likely to be too expensive to keep around in a projected backup role simply because he's playing too well to be ignored by other teams that would be happy to make him their starter.

In what's becoming a career year at the age of 31, Garoppolo is the NFL's fifth-highest-rated qualified passer. He also ranks third in terms of DYAR (Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement) and DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) at Football Outsiders, and—while he might never be a prototypical gunslinger—he's one of just four qualified quarterbacks with a 112-plus passer rating on third down.

Maybe most importantly, he hasn't committed a single turnover over the course of a four-game winning streak that has moved the 49ers into "prime Super Bowl contender" conversations ahead of a high-profile Week 13 matchup with Tua Tagovailoa and the contending Miami Dolphins.

This week, DraftKings only listed the Philadelphia Eagles with (slightly) better Super Bowl odds than San Francisco in the NFC.

Of course, things could become super awkward if Garoppolo actually leads the 49ers to a Vince Lombardi Trophy. But because the team is loaded with talent and realistically married to Lance, anything short of a championship likely means Garoppolo—who cannot be slapped with the franchise tag again—hits the market after this campaign.

Where might he land? Let's run through some options, from most to least likely landing spot.

---

New York Jets

Duh. Jets head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur came from San Francisco, and Zach Wilson is the league's lowest-rated qualified passer. It might feel early for the Jets to cut bait on Wilson—who was drafted right before Lance in 2021—but we're talking about New York, and patience levels are at an all-time low in this league already. Wilson has already been benched this season, so it's easy to see the Jets swapping him out for the veteran Garoppolo in March.

New York Giants

Daniel Jones has had some moments this season, but we've officially reached a point at which the Giants are contending despite Jones, who has a mere 88.1 passer rating during a 1-3 stretch for Big Blue. Meanwhile, according to Spotrac, only two teams are slated to enter the offseason with more cap space than the G-Men.

Washington Commanders

I think the NFL might be ready to give up on Carson Wentz as a starter, and the Commanders can't possibly be convinced Taylor Heinicke is the solution beyond this season. It's still possible he grabs the reins entirely, but it's just as possible he fails to take over consistently and Washington is left wondering what could have been as a talented defense puts them into contention following a poor start to 2022.

---

New Orleans Saints

Jameis Winston just hasn't worked out, and I don't think anyone expects Andy Dalton to remain in the Saints' starting role indefinitely. And this is a team that still has plenty of talent—too much to be 4-8 coming entering December. That has to move them into Garoppolo's realm, but the problem is they are on track to be in salary-cap hell (again). If that's the case, they won't likely be capable of winning any bidding wars for Jimmy G.

Las Vegas Raiders

It hasn't been a good year for veteran Derek Carr, and the Raiders aren't in the mix despite plenty of talent. They just gave Carr a new contract in the 2022 offseason, but the Raiders can save $29.3 million of his $34.9 million projected 2023 cap hit by moving on. And if they do that, it would make a lot of sense to chase Garoppolo. They should have the cash to do it, too.

Indianapolis Colts

It's possible Matt Ryan is one-and-done in Indy, but the Colts have enough talent to remain competitive with a veteran under center. They can also afford to be involved in veteran quarterback sweepstakes, but they might prefer to avoid that route after being burned to various degrees by Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.

---

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs won't likely have much money to spend either, but who knows if Tom Brady will be back. And if he isn't, it's entirely possible they coax Brady's former understudy to relieve him with a stellar supporting cast in Florida.

Carolina Panthers

The Baker Mayfield experiment has failed, and Sam Darnold isn't the answer, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. However, a rebuilding team like Carolina that is likely to have a high draft pick might not care to pay for a nine-year veteran.

---

Green Bay Packers

If by chance this is Aaron Rodgers' last year in Green Bay, a Packers team looking to save face and bounce back quickly could try to smooth things over with a veteran like Garoppolo.

A little over a week ago, the New England Patriots were winners of three straight. They suffered a narrow loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Thanksgiving, but even then, the 6-5 Patriots felt like a team that could threaten in the postseason.

After Thursday night's 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, however, it feels like New England's season is basically over. Anyone looking to point the finger at quarterback Mac Jones for the loss—or for not being on the level of Josh Allen—shouldn't. Jones didn't fail the Patriots on Thursday. The Patriots have failed Jones all season.

Let's be clear. Jones isn't Allen. He's an adequately athletic pocket passer whose strengths are his timing, accuracy and ability to read a defense. He isn't the sort of dynamic dual-threat who can create big plays out of thin air.

However, Jones cannot and should not be blamed for all of New England's offensive struggles.

The offense isn't exactly loaded with skill-position players. Rhamondre Stevenson is a tremendous runner, while Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith are quality receiving tight ends. However, the wide receiver group—headlined by Jakobi Meyers, DeVante Parker and Nelson Agholor—leaves plenty to be desired.

Meyers came into Thursday with a team-high 571 receiving yards and a team-high three receiving touchdowns. Those aren't numbers indicative of a No. 1 NFL receiver. Entering Week 13, Parker was the only other player with more than 400 receiving yards on the season.

The reality is that New England lacks breakaway threats, and that's a problem when the quarterback is a distributor and not a creator. Another problem is an offensive line that has now allowed 32 sacks on the season.

You can put things this simply:

If you don't protect a guy like Josh Allen, he can put on a Superman cape and just beat you anyway.

If you don't protect Mac Jones, your offense is dead.

Not sure that's something to hate Jones for, but tonight made that pretty clear.

— Khari D. Thompson (kdthompson5.bsky.social) (@kdthompson5) December 2, 2022

Big plays have been few and far between for New England. We saw this play out on Thursday, as New England's lone explosive play was made by a rookie cornerback getting his first NFL offensive snap.

#Patriots bring in CB and punt-return hero Marcus Jones on **offense**.

All he does is make plays. Speeeed. 💨💨pic.twitter.com/3Jc53oyM65

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 2, 2022

The Patriots and head coach/de facto GM Bill Belichick must shoulder the blame for Jones' lackluster supporting cast.

Of course, Jones had a similar supporting cast last season and was a rookie Pro Bowler who took New England to the playoffs. However, he has regressed in both touchdown passes (from 22 to seven) and passer rating (from 92.5 to 87.3 coming into Thursday)—and the supporting cast is only part of the problem.

The Patriots and Belichick have failed Jones in the coaching department, too. When New England lost offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in the offseason, it didn't replace him with an experienced play caller. Belichick tapped Joe Judge and Matt Patricia—coaches with special teams and defensive backgrounds, respectively—to lead the offense.

Unsurprisingly, the Patriots' attack has been uncreative and predictable for most of the year—one miraculous Marcus Jones play notwithstanding.

So weird. It’s like putting the @Patriots offense in the hand of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge was a bad idea….

— trey wingo (@wingoz) December 2, 2022

Play-calling hasn't helped Jones in any way. No, he doesn't have elite receivers at his disposal, but he does have enough downfield accuracy to stretch the field. Only, the Patriots have rarely attacked deep, instead relying on the run and underneath passes, hoping something breaks.

With the current skill group, there aren't going to be many breakaway plays when opponents aren't concerned with defending the deep ball.

Perhaps Patricia and Co. don't trust the Patriots offensive line. Perhaps they don't trust Jones. Whatever the reason, the result has been an offense that is too easy to defend.

A little creativity could work wonders for Jones, as it did last year. According to Pro Football Reference, Jones ran 32 run-pass options (RPOs) in 2022 and threw for 324 yards on those plays. He attempted 108 play-action passes and threw for 888 yards off of play-action.

Entering Thursday, Jones had run six RPOs and 33 play-action passes with 318 passing yards off of those plays this season.

The Patriots also might want to let Jones do what he does best, stand under center and survey the field.

Mac Jones is better Under Center than Shotgun and that trend continues tonight. When UC he's +17.1% Comp % Over Expected & -12% in shotgun. He's been UC more tonight than his season average, NE should continue to put him there.

— TNF Prime Vision (@TNFPrimeVision) December 2, 2022

With a bland offense that lacks breakaway pass-catchers and doesn't do a stellar job of protecting the quarterback, it would be hard for just about any signal-caller to find success—at least one not named Allen or Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes.

And it's not as if Jones didn't see this coming. The second-year quarterback had trepidation about Belichick's choice of play-caller, and he was largely ignored. According to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, this strained the relationship between team and quarterback early in the season.

Breer said the following on the NBC Sports Boston pregame show in October (h/t NESN's Dakota Randall):

"I think things did get a little sideways, really over the last couple of months. And I think it’s going back from the change to Josh McDaniels. ‘Why are we bringing in Joe Judge and Matt Patricia when Bill O’Brien’s sitting out there and potentially we could’ve made a run at him? Why does it make sense to have a defensive guy and a special teams guy here? Why are we changing the offense? Why are we streamlining after all the success I had?'"

Jones doesn't seem nearly as comfortable in the current Patriots offense as he did under McDaniels—a sentiment shared by many around the league, according to Breer.

"One thing some of these people who evaluated him have told me consistently over the course of this year is it doesn't look like he trusts the offense," Breer said on Early Edition (h/t Justin Leger of NBC Sports Boston). "So I think the first thing is getting him concepts that he trusts. Figuring out what he likes and focusing on that."

This is perhaps the biggest way in which the Patriots have failed Jones. Instead of listening to the guy they drafted to be the franchise quarterback and tailoring the offense to suit him, New England has dismissed his concerns and tried to force him into an unfamiliar system.

And perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. It's the "Patriot Way" to follow Belichick and do what is asked. It worked for years with Tom Brady running the show, though to be fair, Brady is arguably the best to ever do it.

Of course, New England can point to the success of Bailey Zappe—who went 2-0 and posted a 100.9 QB rating when Jones was out with a high-ankle sprain—and say that the "Patriot Way" still works.

However, when a team doesn't trust its quarterback or acknowledge his input, it's hard for that quarterback to trust the team and to flourish.

So, if New England misses the postseason this year, and a bad offense is the culprit, don't blame Jones. As a rookie, he appeared to be a worthy successor to Brady in New England, but in his second season, the Patriots have let their prospective franchise quarterback down in multiple ways.

San Francisco 49ers fans can breathe a sigh of relief because it appears running back Christian McCaffrey will take the field for Sunday's showdown against the Miami Dolphins.

"I feel great," he said Thursday when discussing the knee concerns that could have potentially limited him in the contest, per Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area.

McCaffrey sat out Wednesday's practice after the early walk-through portion.

"He just felt something in it, some irritation," head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters.

That it appears McCaffrey will play is all the more important for San Francisco considering running back Elijah Mitchell will miss six-to-eight weeks with an MCL sprain he suffered during a win over the New Orleans Saints.

Mitchell also suffered a knee injury during a Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears and didn't return until Week 10 against the Los Angeles Chargers.

The 49ers acquired McCaffrey earlier this season in a trade with the Carolina Panthers, adding to a group of weapons that already included Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk. That group, along with a formidable defense, is a major reason why the team has won four games in a row and looks like a Super Bowl contender.

Yet losing McCaffrey and Mitchell from the backfield would greatly decrease the team's ceiling, especially since there may still be questions about Jimmy Garoppolo's ability to win a Lombardi Trophy as a thrower.

Jordan Mason and Tyrion Davis-Price provide depth at the running back position, but neither of them can change a game the way McCaffrey can.

The Stanford product has 634 rushing yards, 479 receiving yards and seven total touchdowns across 11 games for the Panthers and 49ers this season.

Minnesota Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson offered some clarity Thursday regarding his previous comments about Arizona Cardinals quarterback and former teammate Kyler Murray.

While Peterson turned heads by saying "Kyler Murray don't care about nobody but Kyler Murray" on his All Things Covered podcast, he explained "I don't have any beef with Kyler Murray," per Kevin Seifert of ESPN.

Seifert shared more of the cornerback's comments:

"What I meant by my comment was when you're a franchise quarterback you have to carry yourself a certain way. So if you're having bad body language, pouting, moping on the sideline, what type of energy do you think feeds off to your teammates?

"That's what I meant about Kyler. He cares about himself because he's not putting the team first. When you make a bad throw, and you come off to the sideline, you're dropping your shoulders, how do you think the defense feels? If our starting quarterback don't have any energy, no fire, that we can win this game, how can we? That's what I meant about Kyler caring about Kyler. I didn't mean any disrespect, in any fashion or form. And I might not be his mentor, but these are the things, tips, that can help him be a better football player in the long run."

He also said he texted Murray and wants to help him even though the quarterback has not returned the message.

That Peterson reached out is notable because the Cardinals quarterback responded to the initial comments by saying the veteran could do just that instead of criticizing him in an effort to help grow a podcast:

This isn’t true…you on some weird shit @p2 you got my number, if you really felt like this as a “big bro” or “mentor” you supposed to call me and tell me, not drag me so your podcast can grow… https://t.co/MFqbMKh3la

— Kyler Murray (@K1) December 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/P2/status/1598451688658333696

Murray has been under the spotlight all season, dating back to when the Cardinals included and then removed an "independent study" clause requiring additional study prior to every game.

There have also been a number of exchanges with head coach Kliff Kingsbury, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and others that have drawn attention:

I appreciate Patrick Peterson not walking back a single thing he said on his pod. We've all seen Kyler's pout, shout at his No. 1 WR, curse out his head coach in games. It's refreshing when a current player and former teammate is willing to call out that BS. https://t.co/UaCTQUoxx2

— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) December 1, 2022

That the Cardinals are 4-8 hasn't helped quiet the noise.

While Peterson has been with the Vikings since the start of the 2021 campaign, he is a Cardinals legend and used to play alongside Murray in Arizona. The NFC West team selected the LSU product with the No. 5 pick of the 2011 draft, and he played his first 10 years there before joining the Vikings.

The potential future Hall of Famer was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and earned three All-Pro nods during his time with the Cardinals.

Ahead of their game on Sunday, Cincinnati Bengals tight end Hayden Hurst fired back at Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid on Thursday in retaliation for a perceived slight.

While speaking to Fox 4 in Kansas City (h/t ProFootballTalk's Michael David Smith), Reid talked about his intention to shut down Hurst, but twice got the tight end's name wrong: "They have 88 Higbee—no, not Higbee, he's with the Rams—what's his name? It's Higgins, yeah they're gonna have him back, he's a very talented receiver, more of a finesse type of guy, not the best blocker, I'm gonna lock him down."

Reid first confused Hurst with Los Angeles Rams tight end Tyler Higbee, before referring to him as "Higgins," which is actually the name of Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.

When asked about Reid's comments by the media on Thursday, Hurst suggested the safety would ultimately eat his words:

"I feel like I'm probably the last person you want to talk shit about." Hayden Hurst to Justin Reid. #Bengals pic.twitter.com/k3ky29cSMy

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 1, 2022

Hurst called Reid's remarks "funny" before adding: "You can pick anybody in this locker room, but I feel like I'm the last person you want to talk s--t about because I have a long memory."

The Bengals and Chiefs cultivated a rivalry last season when Cincinnati beat Kansas City by three points late in the regular season and then did it again in the AFC Championship Game.

When the Bengals and Chiefs meet again on Sunday, it will mark the first taste of the rivalry for Hurst and Reid, who are in their first seasons with their respective teams.

Hurst signed with the Bengals in free agency after spending the previous two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, while Reid signed with the Chiefs after a four-year stint with the Houston Texans.

Much of the Chiefs' defensive focus will be on wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who is returning to the Bengals' lineup after missing the past four games with a hip injury, but they can ill afford to turn a blind eye to Hurst.

He has become something of a security blanket for quarterback Joe Burrow this season, making 46 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns, and he could be an unexpected difference-maker on Sunday.

While Hurst was likely already motivated to leave his mark, Reid's comments may give him an even greater desire to deliver.