While Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen seems as close to indestructible as anyone in the entire NFL, the reality is that he's very much mortal — even if he seems closer to Superman than a normal man.
The reality for the Bills is that if Allen were to go down for even 1 game, their backup quarterback situation isn't ideal, and NFL.com's Grant Gordon sees the fix as signing 34-year-old free agent Jimmy Garoppolo .
Right now, the Bills have Kyle Allen and Shane Buechele as Josh Allen's backups, neither of whom inspires much confidence.
Garoppolo has spent the last 2 seasons as the backup to NFL MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford on the Los Angeles Rams .
"A life of leisure and looking good doing it no doubt awaits Jimmy G. He was contemplating retirement but is now interested in another go," Gordon wrote. "Whether that's during the summer or waiting for an injury to open a slot remains to be seen."
In terms of finances, Garoppolo is also a cost-friendly option. He's played the last 2 seasons on a pair of 1-year, $3 million contracts.
Garoppolo is in the twilight of his career, after a decade-plus in which he's accumulated $156.2 million in career earnings while being the starter for 3 different teams.
Garoppolo was a 2nd-round pick (No. 62 overall) by the New England Patriots in the 2014 NFL draft out of Eastern Illinois after winning the 2013 Walter Payton Award as the top player in FCS. He spent 4 seasons with the Patriots and won 2 Super Bowls as Tom Brady 's backup before he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers midway through the 2017 season.
Garoppolo went 5-0 as the 49ers' starter to close out the 2017 season and signed a 5-year, $137.5 million contract extension with the franchise in February 2018.
He tore his ACL 3 games into the 2018 season but returned to start every game in 2019 and lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl. He signed a 3-year, $72.75 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders in March 2023 but was released one year later.
Allen finally took the No. 1 spot from Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on ESPN's annual position rankings as voted on by league executives, coaches, and scouts.
"Allen has long pushed to supplant Mahomes, but he had to fight for every vote to finally make that happen," ESPN's Jeremy Fowler wrote on July 13. " … Once among the game's most generous at gift-wrapping footballs for defenders, Allen has assuaged the turnover problem, averaging eight interceptions per season since 2024 (down from an average of 15.7 from 2021-23). He fumbled 12 times over the last two years, an improvement from his 20 from the previous two seasons — and a small consideration against the backdrop of 41 rushing touchdowns since 2023."
One remarkable stat about Allen speaks to how consistently productive he's been.
He's the only quarterback with at least 25 passing touchdowns and 10 rushing touchdowns in 3 consecutive seasons in NFL history, which he's done each of the last 3 seasons.
Allen seems like he's in the prime of a career that should 1 day land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Pro Football Reference's QB Hall of Fame Monitor is "a metric designed to estimate a player's chances of making the Pro Football Hall of Fame using AV, Pro Bowls, All-Pros, championships, and various stat milestones," and Allen seems to be closing in on some pretty rare air.
Through just 8 seasons, Allen's 66.5 overall rating from the HOFm already puts him ahead of a pair of quarterbacks already in the Hall of Fame: Troy Aikman and Joe Namath.
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