{"id":785587,"date":"2026-03-02T01:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/785587\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:12:16","slug":"cardinals-eyeing-free-agent-qb-jimmy-garoppolo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/785587\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Eyeing Free Agent QB Jimmy Garoppolo"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we\u2019ve discussed free agent quarterbacks and which teams could target which free agents, we\u2019ve separated things a bit into tiers. Essentially, the thought has been that teams who can afford to go big for a free agent passer will be pursuing Packers quarterback Malik Willis<\/a>, while those who aren\u2019t looking to spend that much may be looking for a more affordable option like veterans Joe Flacco<\/a>, Marcus Mariota<\/a>, or Jimmy Garoppolo<\/a>. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Initially, we pegged Arizona as a team willing to spend<\/a> and tied them to a likely run for Willis, while a team like the Dolphins, with limited cap space, would be pursuing a veteran like Garoppolo<\/a>. According to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, though, a closer look at the setup in Arizona reveals some connections between the Cardinals and Garoppolo, and he reports that they have their eyes on<\/a> the 34-year-old as a possible free agent addition.<\/p>\n

General manager Monti Ossenfort was director of college scouting in New England when the Patriots drafted Garoppolo out of Eastern Illinois in the second round 12 years ago. Additionally, new head coach Mike LaFleur coached Garoppolo over the past two years in his previous role as the offensive coordinator of the Rams. These connections clearly show familiarity with the veteran passer, giving the Cardinals an easy option outside of the expected top-tier targets on the market.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say the Cardinals won\u2019t still pursue Willis. Arizona could pursue and successfully sign Willis and still choose to bring Garoppolo in as a dependable backup. Having watched the veteran back up reigning MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford<\/a> over the past couple of years, no one has a better idea of his abilities as a QB2 than LaFleur. It could also alter Arizona\u2019s pursuit of Willis, though. Knowing Garoppolo is a connected option, the Cardinals may stop themselves from overspending on Willis if they know they can still fall back to Garoppolo and rely on him.<\/p>\n

As the new league year fast approaches, we\u2019ll certainly start to see free agent communications pick up soon. It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals go after Garoppolo because of his connections with team leadership, and if they do, it will be interesting to see how it affects their pursuit of Willis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we\u2019ve discussed free agent quarterbacks and which teams could target which free agents, we\u2019ve separated things a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,7841,4097,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-785587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-jimmy-garoppolo","14":"tag-malik-willis","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116156927982202552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}