Since suffering a foot injury that forced him to miss the end of the 2022 season in San Francisco, Jimmy Garoppolo has continued to struggle with setbacks that have kept him from reaching his former glory.

His career with the 49ers ended after that campaign and he was signed by Las Vegas in March 2023. After his first year with the Raiders, in which he lost his starting job to Aidan O’Connell midway through the season, news broke that Garoppolo would be suspended for Weeks 1 and 2 of the 2024 regular season.

The quarterback was cut by the Raiders in March 2024 despite signing a three-year, $67.5 million contract with the team a year earlier. However, it didn’t take long for Garoppolo to sign a deal with the Rams, where he signed as a backup to veteran Matthew Stafford.

Here’s everything you need to know about Garoppolo’s suspension, including why the Rams backup quarterback is sitting out the team’s first two games after violating a PED policy.

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Why is Jimmy Garoppolo suspended?

In mid-February, while still with the Raiders, the quarterback was suspended by the league for the first two games of the 2024 season for violating the league and NFL Players Association’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

After being released by Las Vegas and then signed by the Rams, he addressed the situation during his press conference in Los Angeles.

“I just blew the TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption),” he said. “I just blew the TUE when I first got to Las Vegas. Just bad timing, I guess.”

The TUE is a waiver players can receive that essentially gives them access to treatment under the league’s PED policy while continuing to compete. The timeline provided coincides with when Garoppolo was treated for the injury with the 49ers at the end of the 2022 season, when he was ultimately replaced by Brock Purdy.

It appears that the treatment he received fell outside the window set out in his exoneration, and that was ultimately the punishment imposed on him.

Jimmy Garoppolo contract

Less than a week after being released by the Raiders in March, Garoppolo signed a one-year, $3,178,750 contract with the Los Angeles Rams, according to Spotrac. The 33-year-old joins a quarterback room that includes starter Stafford and fellow backup Stetson Bennett.

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Jimmy Garoppolo Stats

During his time with the Raiders, Garoppolo will begin the 2023 season as the team’s starting quarterback, reuniting with then-Vegas head coach Josh McDaniels, who served as offensive coordinator while with the Patriots.

After going 3-5 through the first eight games, McDaniels was fired and Garoppolo sat on the bench for the remainder of the season, save for a brief appearance in the team’s final game of the year.

Check out how the veteran performed in Sin City here.