Pros and Cons of the Steelers trading for Jimmy Garoppolo

Cons of trading for Garoppolo

If this trade goes down, it does come with some risks. Jimmy is not the most durable quarterback, so there are injury risks. That said, he has not missed an entire season, but he does get banged up frequently. The inherent risk is that if the Steelers traded for him, they might have to rely on whoever backs him up; in this case, it would be Mason Rudolph. And here might be the fallacy of making such a trade.

In Jimmy’s best season as a starter, he went 329-476, so he had a 69.1 completion ratio. He passed 3978 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. Compare that to Mason Rudolph’s numbers from 2019; he went 282-453 for a 62.3% throwing for 2824 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions.

Considering that after Rudolph took the helm after Big Ben’s injury and Mike Tomlin demoted for Mason in lieu of Deviln Hodges at one point, Garoppolo did not do much better. So the argument that he is an over-glorified and overpaid version of Mason Rudolph might be a fair point.

Perhaps with an improved offensive and increased production from Najee Harris, Jimmy still would have three decent receivers to throw to in Claypool, Johnson, and Freiermuth. Could he do more with them than Big Ben did in 2021? Possibly he could put up better numbers on a Mike Tomlin team.