The Jimmy Garoppolo Era

I remember when the Patriots drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in the 2014 NFL Draft. I immediately thought to myself, Eastern Illinois, Didn’t Tony Romo go there? Picking him in the second round with the 64th overall pick was a bit of a surprise to me. I mean I thought to myself, hey we still got Tom, this seems a little early to draft a project guy. A guy they probably wouldn’t need for another four or five seasons. I thought to myself we need to surround Brady with as much talent as possible.

We didn’t really get to see much of Jimmy during his three plus seasons in New England. We would all watch during the preseason to try and get a glimpse of what could be one day. But we all know you can only learn so much from preseason games. But once Brady had to finally serve his four game suspension from deflate-gate, it was finally time to see Jimmy in some real games.

He started week one against Arizona, and looked pretty good. Good enough for people to think hey, we might actually have something here. Then, Miami week two, He was fantastic for the first quarter and a half but then went down with an injury. Then that was it, Jimmy missed weeks three and four, and back on the bench he went once Brady came back. And that was what we were left with, Six quarters, of pretty good football. Enough for everyone to finally believe in what Bill had thought all along, Jimmy could be the guy to actually replace Brady.

In the end the Jimmy Garoppolo era came to an end in New England for one reason. Bill Belichick didn’t think that Tom Brady would be doing the things he is doing at age 40. It’s really that simple, Bill simply miss managed the timing just by a year or two. I really believe they felt Jimmy was the guy, and they held on to him for as long as they could. But he wants to play, and you really can’t blame him at all.

All in all I think the Jimmy Garoppolo era was a success. It gave Brady a little push, which is never a bad thing when you can grab the attention of your all time quarterback. I mean he was probably the best backup quarterback in football, especially the last couple of seasons. But most importantly, it should give you confidence in Bill. It should show you that Bill is capable of finding that next guy, picking through all the crap quarterbacks that come out every season. We just have to hope he can do it again.

So I say, Thank you Jimmy Garappolo. Wish you nothing but the best, an tons of luck. Unless it’s in the Super-Bowl against the Patriots of course.

Written By: Danny Dipietrantonio (donato05)