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It’s the end of June. It is quiet. We are looking for content. Then… BAMM! Julian Edelman turns back the clock 5.5 years and lets us know how pissed some Patriots were that Jimmy Garoppolo said “No mas” in Week 4 of the 2016 season.
In a vacuum, Edelman’s comments offer a glimpse of how much Garoppolo’s stock may have fallen after this week among some teammates. It also shows the NFL’s ever-present peer pressure to play injured.
But it does more than just that. It offers more backstory to the Brady-Garoppolo-Belichick machinations that were in full swing at the start of the 2016 season.
Think back to September/October 2016. Jimmy is in Year 3. With Tom Brady serving out his four-game Deflategate suspension, the Patriots are on the verge of having hard evidence that Jimmy is who they think he is. And they think he’s really good.
Brady, on the other hand, is 39 years old, a bit expensive, and because of an alleged air pressure manipulation program in football that dragged on… and on… and on.
Whether he did it or not, the whole situation had been a millstone for 20 months. Meanwhile, Bill Belichick checked his watch, studied actuarial charts, and concluded that Brady was more than likely expecting a slip.
How long could Brady endure shots like the Broncos’ in the 2015 AFC Championship game, when he was pressured 19 times and completed 48 percent of his passes? This game, in which Brady played bravely, made everyone watching wonder how close the sell-by date was.
Then Garoppolo goes out in the opener and leads a Sunday Night Football win in Arizona. He comes back in Week 2 and plays madly into the second quarter against Miami before getting knocked out by Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso.
It’s important to note that Garoppolo injured his To the right shoulder on the punch. Edelman says on the I Am Athlete podcast that it was his Left Shoulder. Not correct. And an important distinction.
More from Tom E. Curran: The Impact of Deshaun Watson on Patriots
Anyway, Jimmy is definitely out of the week three game against Houston. But the proof for Belichick is right there. He has his man. Though Brady signed a team-friendly, two-year, $41 million extension ahead of the season that would see him through 2019, the Patriots made sure to introduce $1 million options ahead of 2018 and 19, which would allow them to get Jimmy off the ascended.
If Brady slipped on his return in 2016 or even 2017, the Patriots’ succession plan was in effect due to the second-round dice roll at an eastern Illinois kid. It seemed likely to Belichick that he had pulled off the same kind of feat that the 49ers did from Montana to Walsh and the Packers from Favre to Rodgers.
The Patriots would get a quarterback that was cheaper, younger, more mobile, and not suffering from BB burnout like Brady did after 17 seasons.
At the start of week 4, Garoppolo is released for practice and throwing. He does so on Wednesday, but the decision as to whether Garoppolo and his injured right shoulder or Jacoby Brissett and his injured right thumb get the start will await.
Ultimately, Garoppolo is unable to leave, although – as his training time has shown – he has been cleared to participate. But you can see why Belichick would be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Garoppolo was nothing but a good soldier behind Brady. He showed great progress in three seasons. He had just shown how good he really was. And he was the future.
But there’s a locker room full of guys who understand the landscape Brady faces. Brady is in exile. The team has made no non-binding contractual commitment to him. The last time his teammates saw him in a game, he was beaten mercilessly by Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware and never came close to getting out.
Everyone understands that a Tom vs. Jimmy showdown is underway. And Garoppolo – in the minds of some teammates – failed to answer the bell.
But even when Brady came back from his suspension and began tearing up the league again, Belichick’s fixation with Garoppolo lingered.
In November, Belichick said, “Certainly we have a good quarterback in Jimmy and Jimmy could go out there and run anything Tom can run. We saw that. I’m not saying he isn’t able or qualified to do it. That’s him. And he’s doing a great job. And when we put Jimmy in there, it’s really seamless. You can’t, unless you actually looked at the position, when you could just blank out that position and say what guy was in at the quarterback, I don’t know if you’d know that often.
So even though damage was done to the rest of the team – damage easily remembered almost six years later – Belichick didn’t budge from his place. And he proved it the following spring by adamantly refusing to negotiate Garoppolo before the draft.
As it turns out, Brady’s MVP performance in 2017 saved Belichick from picking the wrong man. Although Belichick was Die To make it work, he just couldn’t find a way.
And no, Kraft didn’t force Belichick to trade Garoppolo. By the time Jimmy was shipped to San Francisco, it was clear that Brady was at the peak of his powers and Garoppolo was no longer interested in a “bridge deal” to sit around and wait. As a source close to the negotiations told me, “They had no plan.”
Of course, when Jimmy was traded in October 2017, there was considerable bitterness. Which lasted through 2018 and 2019, and you know the rest.
Fast forward to now and it’s ironic that the player Belichick was willing to bet long term (Jimmy) that he’s a spare in San Fran. Brady has won three Super Bowls and played in four since October 2016. And the Patriots still have their quarterback of the future.
This team fascinates again and again. Thanks Jules
