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Sarah Barshop, ESPN Staff WriterDec 5, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- Sarah Barshop covers the Los Angeles Rams for ESPN. She joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Milwaukee. She then moved to Houston to cover the Texans. She came to ESPN after working as a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahbarshop.
LOS ANGELES — On the morning the Rams hosted the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 12, backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was getting breakfast at the team hotel when Rams’ senior offensive assistant Jerry Schuplinski checked in.
He said it “was a brief conversation while we were getting breakfast.”
The two have a history, with Schuplinski serving as a mentor to Garoppolo since he was a rookie in 2014 with the New England Patriots. Schuplinski “taught me the NFL game,” Garoppolo said, and is “one of the main reasons why I’m still in this league, to be completely honest.”
And so when Schuplinski and Garoppolo got to talking, old friend to old friend, the coach was thrilled to hear the backup quarterback say he felt he made the right decision to sign in Los Angeles.
The 33-year-old quarterback, who was a free agent after being benched by the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023 and then released during the offseason, signed a one-year deal with the Rams in March to back up starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. Signing in Los Angeles was “a reset” for Garoppolo.
After serving a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing substances policy because he “messed up” the therapeutic use exemption when he first got to Las Vegas, Garoppolo has served the Rams well.
“We kind of talked about the reset thing and he said, ‘It’s probably what I kind of needed to take a deep breath, to learn a new system, to be in a new place, a new culture and all that stuff,'” Schuplinski said. “And he just seems like he’s in a good place. He’s at ease. He’s enjoying his time and he’s really putting in the work.”
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Garoppolo chose Los Angeles because he saw “a great opportunity” to be coached by Sean McVay. Now, nearing the end of the season, Garoppolo said he’s “very happy with the decision.”
The Rams are happy too. This past offseason, the team honed in on signing a capable backup quarterback — after seeing the importance last season when Stafford injured his thumb and missed a game and a half. After that experience — a loss to the Green Bay Packers where backup Brett Rypien and the offense scored just three points — the Rams cut Rypien and signed veteran quarterback Carson Wentz.
Wentz served as Stafford’s backup for the rest of last season and started the regular-season finale as the Rams rested players before their playoff game. He signed a one-year deal to be Patrick Mahomes‘ backup in Kansas City in April.
While the Rams are fortunate Stafford hasn’t missed an offensive snap this season, they’ve benefited from having Garoppolo on the team.
“I think he gives us a phenomenal look where he really challenges our defense,” McVay said about Garoppolo’s work as the scout team quarterback. “I think he’s been a key factor.”
AFTER INDIVIDUAL DRILLS and one competitive one-on-one period where the starting offense and defense compete against each other, the starting defense spends the rest of practice going against the Garoppolo-led scout team.
It’s a role Garoppolo embraced when he got to Los Angeles, saying it brought him back to his three seasons running the scout team in New England while serving as Tom Brady’s backup from 2014 to 2016. With the scout team, Garoppolo is responsible for imitating the style and tendencies of the opposing team’s signal-caller so the defense can get a good look during practice.
“I saw the opportunity, OK, I could lead these guys a little bit, show them how this is supposed to be done,” Garoppolo said. “And these guys have done a really good job. We’ve got a young team, but they’re coming along.”
Garoppolo said he has seen the improvement of the defense this season, saying the young line has “come a long way.”
“I remember at the beginning of the season I wasn’t getting that much pressure,” Garoppolo said. “Towards the end, they’ve been picking it up a little bit. Really, like I said before, it’s a young team, but these guys are learning so quickly and guys that are in crucial spots, they step up at the big moments. And I think it’s going to keep happening.”
While the Rams are fortunate Garoppolo hasn’t seen the field — Stafford hasn’t missed an offensive snap this season — they’ve benefited from having him on the team. Tim Warner/Getty Images
The benefit of having Garoppolo running the scout team as opposed to a younger backup quarterback, quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone said, is not only the throws he can make but that there’s a certain timing and understanding that mimics a game-like scenario for the defense, and he’s able to provide that to them.”
Garoppolo’s “ability to process everything so much faster now is the biggest [difference]” from when he ran the scout team in New England, Schuplinski said. The coach said the leadership quality has always been there for Garoppolo, but now he’s able to pass along all “the little coaching points that he’s gotten used to as a quarterback that he’s given everybody else too.”
And the difference it makes having a veteran quarterback is apparent on the practice field, Rams’ safety Quentin Lake said.
“When he’s back there, he’s calm,” Lake said. “… He just has a really good understanding of an offense, really good understanding of how the defense is trying to attack. So sometimes he’ll make the right throw, sometimes he’ll put the ball right where it needs to be.
“And when you have that, it makes us have to be, especially in the back end, really making sure that we have good eyes and really making sure that we’re tightening our coverage because he’s giving really, those are game-like reps for us.”
But while the main purpose of the scout team is to get the defense ready, his presence has also helped some of the younger offensive players who aren’t getting game reps.
“We’ve got a good crew,” Garoppolo said. “It’s a lot of fun, honestly. I’ve been on a couple of scout teams that were real bland and not as fun. These guys, we’re doing it the right way here.”
That camaraderie the group has built shows on the field. Trash talk, Lake said, is fun and “makes it a competitive period.”
This week, Garoppolo has been playing the part of Josh Allen ahead of the Rams matchup Sunday versus the Buffalo Bills (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox), with defensive coordinator Chris Shula saying they’ll have Garoppolo “break the pocket a few times” during practice to simulate the way Allen can make plays with his legs.
Like any backup quarterback, Garoppolo has to balance running the scout team with being prepared to play if Stafford gets hurt. AP Photo/Ryan Sun
“That’s the thing that you want,” Lake said. “Sometimes you don’t want to go out there and just have a dominant performance on defense because then are you really getting better? Are you really getting challenged? And I think each and every week having him back there, we get challenged every week because we know he has a really good grasp of not only what the opponent offense is doing so he can predict it really good, but also how we’re trying to attack their offense.”
Added Garoppolo: “A guy makes a good play, you get excited for him. We’re the scout team. We’re not supposed to be making plays so when you do, you’ve got to celebrate and enjoy the moment. I just think it makes practice more fun and you get more benefit out of it.”
And like any backup quarterback, Garoppolo must balance running the scout team with being prepared to play if Stafford gets hurt. He said he does the scout team and then runs off to the side and stands next to Ragone, “going through all the reads as if I’m in there.”
“That’s just part of the mental game, I think,” Garoppolo said. “As a young player, I struggled with that but now being older, you see the benefit of it. You’ve got to take those reps.”
GARAPPOLO SIGNED A one-year deal with the Rams as part of his reset, but said he’s learned in the NFL that it doesn’t help to look ahead. McVay has sung Garoppolo’s praises, saying, “I love working with Jimmy. I’m grateful to be here with him right now and obviously, we love Matthew doing his thing and leading our team.
“Would you like to continue to work with [Garoppolo]? Yeah, of course. I definitely would say that,” McVay said. “I’m enjoying working with him right now, maximizing those opportunities, and then we’ll have a little bit of clarity as we get through this.”
And while Schuplinski admits he’s biased, the coach who was also on the Raiders coaching staff while Garoppolo was injured and benched in 2023, said he thinks Garoppolo certainly can be a starting quarterback again.
When asked whether his goal is to start next year, Garoppolo said it is.
“I’ve been in this game long enough that you really can’t set too many expectations, but … the work works like Sean [McVay] says. And you just stay the course, things will work out for you.”
