HENDERSON, Nev. — New Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is not taking part in organized team activities as he continues to recover from a broken left foot.
Coach Josh McDaniels said Thursday that Garoppolo could be held out until July when training camp begins.
McDaniels said Garoppolo is one of a number of players being held out of OTAs.
“We’re always going to err at this time of the year on being smart,” McDaniels said. “We don’t play a football game for 3 1/2 months, so try to rush (players) out there in May, it’s a poor decision.”
Garoppolo sustained the injury late last season, but said after signing with the Raiders in March that he wasn’t concerned about being available.
“You hate being in that situation,” Garoppolo said. “But once I got past that initial part, especially once we started to make a little bit of a run in the playoffs last year, I was getting ready to ramp up again and be ready. But things didn’t work out, and I’m glad with how things ended up.”
• With Tom Brady zeroing in on an ownership stake in the Raiders, McDaniels said there’s something the legendary quarterback must do first.
The Raiders’ coach said Brady “100%, no question” has to admit the Tuck Rule play was actually a fumble, and not an incomplete pass. A personnel assistant on the 2001 Patriots, McDaniels made that admission when he took over in Las Vegas, and said Brady will have to as well.
On a more serious note, McDaniels is thrilled to be linking up with his longtime quarterback once again.
“I think everybody knows how I feel about Tom the person,” McDaniels said. “So if that comes to fruition, obviously I’ll be incredibly excited about just him being somebody that’s in Raider Nation and has a vested interest in us doing as well as we can do in trying to bring a championship football team here to Vegas.
“So I don’t know exactly where all that stands. I think that’s a question that’s way above my pay grade in terms of that stuff. But, obviously, had a great history with the player and an even better one with the person. So it’ll obviously be a tremendous honor to partner up with him again.”
Brady and Raiders owner Mark Davis have agreed to terms for the quarterback to become a minority shareholder, and the next step is getting approval from the NFL, which shouldn’t be terribly challenging.
PATRIOTS: New England placed linebacker Raekwon McMillan on season-ending injured reserve Thursday after he suffered a partially torn Achilles at one of the Patriots’ OTA practices.
The veteran signed a one-year, $2.2 million extension this offseason and was expected to be a contributor on New England’s defense.
McMillan appeared in 16 games for New England last year, serving primarily as a depth piece at off-ball linebacker. He registered 35 tackles, five tackles for loss, and scored a touchdown against the Cardinals on a fumble return.
LIONS: Detroit receiver Jameson Williams, suspended for the first six games of the season, said he was unaware of the NFL gambling policy that he violated.
“It hit me out the blue,” Williams told reporters Thursday. “And, it hit a couple other players around the league and on my team out the blue.”
The league suspended former Lions players Quintez Cephus and C.J. Moore, along with Washington’s Shaka Toney, for the entire 2023 season in April for betting on NFL games last year, adding they may petition for reinstatement. Williams, the No. 12 pick overall in 2022, and teammate Stanley Berryhill were benched for six games for betting on non-NFL games at a league facility.
“I wasn’t aware of this situation,” Williams said, insisting he didn’t recall what he bet on or where he gambled.
STEELERS: Pittsburgh has long-term plans to play a regular-season NFL game in Ireland, the team said during a visit to trumpet its long-standing ties with the Emerald Isle.
The Steelers touched down in Dublin days after the NFL gave the team marketing rights for Ireland and Northern Ireland, all part of the league’s aggressive push to expand its audience internationally.
Ireland has never hosted a regular-season NFL game, but the Steelers beat the Chicago Bears 30-17 in a preseason matchup at Croke Park in 1997.
Croke Park, home of the Gaelic Athletic Association, holds 82,300 and would almost certainly be the site of any future Steelers game.
JAGUARS: Jacksonville signed Brandon McManus in hopes of upgrading its special teams, two days after Denver dropped the veteran kicker and former team captain.
The Jaguars waived kicker Riley Patterson to make room on the 90-man roster for McManus, who had been scheduled to count nearly $5 million against Denver’s salary cap in 2023.
McManus, 31, was the last holdover from the Broncos team that won Super Bowl 50. He finished his nine years with Denver as the second-leading scorer in team history (946 points). He connected on a franchise-most 42 field goals of 50 yards or longer in the regular season and the playoffs.
TV: DirecTV didn’t punt the entire “NFL Sunday Ticket” package of professional football, after all.
The satellite TV provider and EverPass Media announced they would distribute Sunday Ticket games to more than 300,000 business establishments in the U.S. – sports bars, casinos, restaurants and offices – through a new multiyear television rights package with the NFL. The contract begins with the new fall season.
The NFL in December announced it was shifting the popular Sunday Ticket offering for residential consumers to Google’s YouTube TV.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
