Today is the day. Or, at least the Raiders and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo hope it’s the day.
As noted by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, Raiders quarterbacks report for training camp today. Step one will be a physical.
Usually, it’s perfunctory. For Garoppolo, it’s monumental.
It’s significant because he failed his physical in March. It prompted the team to rescind his $11.25 million signing bonus and push it into base salary, contingent on eventually passing a physical. It forced Garoppolo to get surgery on a foot injury for which he previously hadn’t had surgery.
It opened the door to the possibility that Garoppolo eventually will be released without a penny paid by the Raiders to him.
And while the usual, box-checking, this-is-fine optimism currently hovers over the situation, the same doctors who said “nope” in March will now be asked to re-examine the foot and decide that it’s healed sufficiently to pay Garoppolo $22.5 million in 2023.
If he doesn’t pass the physical, it doesn’t mean he’ll be cut. The far more likely outcome would be placement of Garoppolo on the Physically Unable to Perform list, with the ability to join the 90-man roster whenever he passes the physical.
The real question is whether he passes the physical before the rosters reduce to 53, or whether he starts the regular season on reserve/PUP.
That could all become irrelevant today, if the surgery and rehab worked — and if the team doctors who decided not to clear Garoppolo in March decide to clear him now.