New England Patriots: NFL scouts offer high praise of Jimmy Garoppolo

New England Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is being held in high regards among NFL scouts entering the 2017-18 NFL season.

As the New England Patriots prepare to open training camp, attention is set to be turned on the team’s quarterback situation.

No, there won’t be a quarterback controversy, but the defending Super Bowl champions will enter camp with perhaps the two best quarterbacks in the AFC East. Sorry Ryan Tannenhill and Tyrod Taylor, but some NFL scouts believe Bill Belichick knows he has something special.

This is evident in a recent post by CSN’s Mike Girardi where he put together a panel consisting of NFL scouts, a former Patriots player and a front-office member. They were all asked why Jimmy Garoppolo was still in New England and hasn’t been traded to a team like the Cleveland Browns.

FOXBORO, MA – JANUARY 22: Tom Brady /

While the answers and comments were in high praise of Garoppolo, the common answer to that question was that Belichick feels he has the perfect predecessor to Tom Brady.

One AFC scout laid it with the following response, via CSN:

"“Bill thinks he’s got the next great one. I watched his snaps. I think he can be that. [Garoppolo] has a great base, and his mechanics are close enough to [Brady] that you appreciate his willingness to learn and the coaching he’s gotten there.”"

I know Patriots fans don’t want to admit it, but the Brady era is coming to an end. At 40 years old, the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback has found a way to shield father time, but he is human and eventually (perhaps sooner rather than later) age will catch up with him on the field.

The second coming?

According to the anonymous members of Girardi’s panel, a player like Garoppolo doesn’t come around easily. As the front office representative said, Belichick knows something many around the league don’t know, which is why he isn’t entertaining a deal for the Eastern Illinois alum.

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"“Bill knows something we don’t,’ the representative said. “That’s the way I read it. Whether it’s Brady’s future, or what they didn’t see in Brissett, or something about the makeup of Garoppolo, he just couldn’t part company with him. I can’t say as I blame him. Finding one good QB in this league is hard enough. Two? Maybe only a handful of teams in the league can say that.”"

There is only a small sample size of what Jimmy Garoppolo can do in a real game situation, but those six quarters prove he can lead the Patriots’ offense. It is not fair to say he can lead the team as well as Brady, but it looks like he has the tools to do it when his opportunity does come around.

Like the former New England Patriots player commented, “he is a gamer,” who is good enough to make even the Cleveland Browns a playoff contender if he was traded there.

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If that doesn’t show how high people around the league are on Garoppolo, I don’t know what else would.

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