Raiders QB Garoppolo ‘good to go’ vs. Lions

HENDERSON, Nev. — Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who missed last week’s game with a back injury, is “good to go” for Monday night at the Detroit Lions, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said Saturday.

“Yeah, I think he’s got a little pep in his step,” McDaniels said. “Again, he’s much the same as everybody else is…he wants to get us headed in the right direction and start doing some things that we haven’t been doing as well better. But good leadership, good energy at practice, good execution. Working with everybody across the board, and just really trying to put our focus where it needs to be and have good days and stack them this week and hopefully finish with a good one today in the red zone, some of our work down there, and in the scoring area.”

Garoppolo was injured just before halftime of the Raiders’ win over the New England Patriots on Oct. 15 at Allegiant Stadium and left in an ambulance for testing and scans at an area hospital as the team feared an internal injury.

He sat out the Raiders’ 30-12 upset loss at the Chicago Bears last week — 15th-year veteran Brian Hoyer started at quarterback — but traveled with the team as it fell to 3-4.

“You get the feel of what’s going on, the situation of the game, you get to watch a little bit of the defense once we can talk through our stuff,” Garoppolo said Thursday. “But it’s a weird feeling. I don’t enjoy it by any means, but it is what it is. And like I said before, you got to make the best of the situation, so that’s what I was trying to do and help the guys out in any way I could. Just now trying to get ready for Detroit, that’s a big one this week for us.”

Garoppolo also missed the Raiders’ Week 4 24-17 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers as rookie Aidan O’Connell started that game.

Having signed a three-year, $72.75 million free agent contract with the Raiders this offseason, before he underwent surgery on his left foot in March, Garoppolo has passed for 1,079 yards while completing 68.0% of his passes with seven touchdowns and eight interceptions.

The Raiders are in a wait-and-see mode, though, with All-Pro Daniel Carlson nursing a groin injury suffered during pregame warmups at Chicago. He has not practiced this week, and the Raiders signed James McCourt.

“He’s had a good week and fits in with our guys,” McDaniels said of McCourt. “He’s done a really good job in practice, strong leg. He’s worked with our snapper and our holder and got plenty of repetitions in. So, really like what he’s done, and he’ll be ready to go if we need him.”

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