Last year was going to be the year of Jimmy Garoppolo.
After his in-season trade to the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, Garoppolo was arguably the best quarterback in the NFL down the stretch that season. While his five-start sample was small, he did post a league-best Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per drop back (0.35) and the league's best Passing Success Rate (56.45%) in that time.
He was rewarded handsomely, signing a contract that gave him the highest salary-cap hit for any quarterback in 2018. Unfortunately, his 2018 season never got off the ground as a torn ACL in Week 3 ended his year.