New England Patriots: Will Jimmy Garoppolo ever force Tom Brady out?
By Randy Gurzi
With Jimmy Garoppolo still in a New England Patriots uniform, the question has been raised about whether he can actually force Tom Brady out of town
The New England Patriots have a problem on their hands. Albeit a good problem according to most teams — they have two capable starting quarterbacks on their roster. One of those is the five-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady. The other is Jimmy Garoppolo, who they selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft out of Eastern Illinois.
While no one may ever debate that Garoppolo is better than the sure-fire Hall of Fame gun slinger in Brady, the fact is he has way more tread on the tires. Brady will be 40 years old before the 2017 NFL season starts, and Garoppolo is just 25 years of age. The younger of the two also has proven to be a talented player in his limited playing time.
Filling in for a suspended Brady in 2016, Garoppolo went 2-0 as a starter and for his career has completed 67 percent of his passes for 690 yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions. After his performance last year, the belief was teams would come out of the woodwork wanting the backup to be their main guy. However, the Pats never budged and held on to him.
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With Garoppolo now entering the final year of his deal and Brady acting as though he wants to play for ten more years, what will the outcome be? Patriots insider Tom Curran of CSN New England asks that very question and wonders aloud if the team ever would choose Garoppolo over Brady:
"“More probable than not? Not quite. But with the draft passing and Garoppolo remaining in New England, the Tom Brady Doomsday Clock inched closer to midnight. The decision the greatest coach in NFL history will eventually make about the greatest quarterback in NFL history will alter their legacies and color the perception of all they built in a nearly two-decade collaboration with the Patriots.”"
Curran believes that had Brady not orchestrated five Super Bowl rings he would already be gone. As it stands, Brady has done just that including a ring last season. Ideally the team drafted Garoppolo with the hopes that he could take over when Brady retired, but that doesn’t appear to be coming any time soon.
The question now becomes will the Pats give in and re-sign Garoppolo with the intention that he’s the starter, or will they let him walk and ride the Brady train for a few more years. It would seem that after all he has done for the franchise that the team would let Brady trot out onto the field as long as he wanted to. Then again, the same could have been said about Joe Montana with the San Francisco 49ers, who was eventually dealt to the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Curran raises an interesting point, and it’s one to keep an eye on. Especially if Brady suddenly begins to look like a 40-year old on the field.