It’s hard to believe the New England Patriots regret traded Jimmy Garoppolo for the San Francisco 49ers for a second-round selection in the 2017 NFL season.
Of course, the Patriots are still thinking very highly of Garoppolo, who will return to New England on Sunday for a Week 7 showdown, and Tom Brady has left the organization ever since, signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in firm loose beyond the off-season. But the Patriots made consecutive Super Bowl appearances after Garoppolo’s game, winning the ultimate football award at the end of the 2018 campaign.
Still, it’s fair to wonder what would have happened if the Patriots hadn’t traded Garoppolo and passed him the keys to the New England offensive at some point. After all, Garoppolo replaced Brady suspended and prospered in two starts with the Patriots in 2016, another season that ended with New England raising the Lombardi Trophy.
Chris Simms, a former NFL quarterback who now serves as an NBC Sports analyst, believes the Patriots would have won a Super Bowl with Garoppolo as a quarterback.
“I’d probably say yes,” Simms told NBC Sports Bay Area. “The Patriots of New England are bigger than Tom Brady. When Tom Brady didn’t play, they were 14-6 without him, so it’s not like this team did. The year Brady completed his four-game suspension for Deflategate, Garoppolo was phenomenal in the first two football games. It was. So, yes, I’d say yes, and of course, we see how close it was last year (with San Francisco) and all that.
So why did the Patriots, who decided on Garoppolo in the 2014 NFL Draft moment circular, become the young signaller?Well, because his appearance coincided with a revival of Brady’s career. And there was no way New England would opt for Jimmy G than TB12, even if it was an idea that could have crossed Bill Belichick’s mind.
“When he was selected in the 2014 draft in past years, in 2011, 2012, 2013, Tom Brady was very average,” Simms told NBC Sports Bay Area. ‘They didn’t select Jimmy Garoppolo because they said, ‘Brady’s still football’s most productive quarterback,’ Garoppolo said simply to sit on the bench for five years. ‘No, they picked him up because they said, ‘Damn it, is this the end with Tom Brady?
Overall, everything went well for the Patriots, now Quarterback Cam Newton, and Garoppolo, who signed a lucrative contract with the 49ers after arriving in San Francisco. The Niners probably won’t complain too much either, as they qualified for the Super Bowl last season. , wasting the Kansas City Chiefs.
And who knows? Life is sometimes fun. Maybe Garoppolo will one day return to Foxboro as a member of the Patriots.