While we haven’t seen a carousel of super busy veteran quarterbacks this offseason like we did in 2022, a small collection of established veterans will be playing new locations next season.
Aaron Rodgers in a Jets green or Jimmy Garoppolo in a Raiders helmet will take some getting used to. And, heck, Baker Mayfield is already in his fourth team as of 2021.
What will these veteran passers bring to the field for their new teams? Here’s a breakdown.
Aaron Rodgers
What Rodgers Offers: Great ability to play under pressure and knowledge of the system
Last season, one of Rodgers’ least effective during his first-ballot Hall of Fame tenure with the Packers, he had a 9.2 percent shooting rate under pressure. This trails only Josh Allen (10.7%) among full-time starters in the NFL. And it wasn’t a fluke.
Rodgers has been above 7.0% in that specific statistical category in each of the past four years. Naturally, this ability was a staple throughout Rodgers’ professional career as well. He hasn’t been a staple for the Jets’ recent quarterbacks. Zach Wilson’s big throw rate was 4.7% under pressure in his abysmal 2022 and 4.8% as a rookie. Sam Darnold’s was 3.8% in 2020.
Rodgers will be able to make magic happen under pressure much more frequently than Firefighter Ed has seen recently. And Rodgers is going from Matt LaFleur to Mike LaFleur. Sure, all siblings are a little different. But there will be many similarities between what Matt has done schematically in Green Bay and what Mike will have installed in Florham Park, New Jersey.
Jimmy Garoppolo
What Garoppolo brings: Extensive knowledge of the offensive system
Josh McDaniels was the Patriots’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for each of Garoppolo’s first four seasons in the NFL. McDaniels was integral to Garoppolo’s transformation from backup Tom Brady who likely would never play to one of the hottest raw materials on the veteran quarterback market in 2017 after two 2016 starts in which he completed over 71% of his shots at 8.41 yards per attempt with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
It’s essentially impossible to qualify in writing, but yes, Garoppolo has extensive knowledge of McDaniels’ tricky quick attack. The Raiders coach will ask Garoppolo to quickly identify underlying cover, get the ball out of his hands in under 2.5 seconds on a regular basis, and throw the ball to the correct shoulder of the wideout and back slots on optional runs. And, in theory, Garoppolo should be ready to do all of these things.
Derek Carr
What Carr brings: Relative stability
Carr is good. He is fantastic? Ehh. Sometimes. Was it time he and the Raiders parted ways? YES. The Carr era had run its course with minimally positive results.
To me, Carr is the most “know what you’re getting” quarterback in the NFL. He will rarely look elite. He’ll rarely be absolutely brutal, so his offense ends abruptly. In the past three seasons, out of 48 appearances, Carr has made just five games with a passer rating below 70. Now (you might want to stop reading, Saints fans), four of those occasions have occurred in 2022 and two have come in the last three. he starts with the Raiders. A little worried about his new start in New Orleans.
But, in general, the Saints should feel reasonably comfortable that they will have a little variation in play each week in regards to their new starting quarterback.
Baker Mayfield
What Mayfield Offers: High-level flashes
In a late season start against the Broncos a season ago with the Rams, Mayfield completed nearly 86% of his passes at a solid 8.2 yards per attempt average with two touchdowns and no interceptions in the win. While most of his time in Carolina was terrible, a low-volume, high-efficiency start stands out against the Bengals as he completed 70% of his 20 attempts with a pair of touchdown throws with no picks en route to a 126 pass rating.
Mayfield’s last year in Cleveland? The randomly cool contests also popped up then. There were two contests, against the Bengals and the Chargers, when the former #1 overall pick had quarterback ratings above 120. Mayfield is going to have some scary lows with the Buccaneers in 2023. Based on his NFL playing history, there will be a few Sundays – or Thursdays – where Mayfield sparks excitement about his future as a starter in this league.
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