A quarterback controversy was on the horizon in New England, but the Patriots nipped it in the bud before it had a chance to the see the light of day.
All signs pointed to Jimmy Garoppolo being Tom Brady’s successor as the Patriots starting quarterback until New England decided to trade the young signal-caller last October to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a second-round pick.
Brady effectively gave the Pats no other choice but to do away with Garoppolo, as TB12 has shown no signs of declining despite being over 40. But if you ask one former Patriot, the franchise made a rather foolish decision when they shipped Jimmy G out of town.
.@damienwoody thinks the Patriots made a huge mistake when they traded Jimmy G. pic.twitter.com/Y2peV54GM2
— First Take (@FirstTake) September 19, 2018
Woody is right in one regard: there’s no way of knowing if the Patriots will be able to draft and groom a capable quarterback once Brady hangs up his pads, whenever that time comes. That said, it’s also far too early to make a clear-cut judgment of Garoppolo, despite his impressive sample size.
All told, we’ll likely have to wait at least a few years before we can decisively say that the Patriots made the right or wrong choice to keep rolling with Brady under center instead of Garoppolo.
