Get ready for another week of quarterback questions, New England Patriots fans.
With Jimmy Garoppolo (shoulder) and Jacoby Brissett (thumb) both dealing with injuries and one game still remaining on Tom Brady’s Deflategate suspension, it remains to be seen who will start under center when the Patriots host the Buffalo Bills this Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
“I don’t know that,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Monday on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan.” “I haven’t seen (Garoppolo and Brissett) in a few days. Hopefully, all those guys continue to get better. We’ll see them (Tuesday). Hopefully, they’re all ready to go. That would be the goal, that would be the hope as we head into this week. But as of right now, I don’t know that.”
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported Monday the Patriots do not plan to sign T.J. Yates — whom Rapoport called their “free-agent quarterback of choice” — meaning Garoppolo and/or Brissett should be ready to go against Buffalo. Each has played roughly six quarters this season.
McDaniels also hinted that wide receiver Julian Edelman, a former college quarterback, could be an emergency option. Edelman, whom many speculated was New England’s backup quarterback for Thursday night’s game against the Houston Texans, did not take a snap or throw a pass in the Patriots’ 27-0 win.
“You have to have somebody ready to go, and Julian’s certainly been in that position before,” McDaniels said on “Kirk & Callahan.” “There’s always a couple of other things you can do in terms of there’s a lot of schemes that are available to people if that situation should ever come up, whether that be putting a running back back there in the Wildcat, which we’ve seen a number of teams do, or something like that.
“It might not have been one thing, it might have been multiple, different things that we try at that point. But we had more than one guy who was ready to go if we needed to be in that situation.”
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio also reported during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast the Patriots “actually would prefer to go with a Julian Edelman” rather than signing a free-agent QB, citing Edelman’s familiarity with the offense and the team’s unwillingness to release a player from its 53-man roster.
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
