Bill Belichick was in no mood to discuss Jimmy Garoppolo’s second consecutive DNP during his Monday morning conference call with reporters.
Repeatedly asked about the decision to sit Garoppolo, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, the New England Patriots head coach offered a series of terse responses.
Here’s the full exchange, as transcribed by the Patriots’Â media relations staff:
Question: How close was Jimmy Garoppolo to playing? What went into the decision to keep him inactive?
Belichick: “Well, the decision to make him inactive was just like the decision to make the other six players inactive. I mean, we do that every game. Every game there’s seven inactives.”
Q: Was that a surprise to you that he was inactive?
Belichick: “We listed him on the injury report with everyone else. That’s what we based it on on Friday when we were required to list that. So that’s what we did, just like we did with everyone else that was or wasn’t on it. If they weren’t on it, then that was their status. If they were on it, then that was their status from what we knew at that time.”
Q: Do you feel like he had a chance to play?
Belichick: “We listed the inactive players as inactive. Inactive players can’t play. They’re inactive.”
Q: I’m talking about more if you thought he had a chance on Friday or Saturday?
Belichick: “We listed him as questionable. So, when we list a player as questionable it’s 50-50 that we think they can play. That’s why they’re listed as questionable. I mean look, you can’t do an injury report every five minutes. So five minutes after the injury report or five minutes after that, and you know at some point that 50-50 either goes to they can play or they can’t play. We listed him on the injury report based on what we knew at 4 p.m. on Friday or at whatever time the injury report was turned in. That’s what it was.”
Jacoby Brissett started at quarterback for the Patriots in place of Garoppolo and the suspended Tom Brady. He completed 17 of 27 passes for 205 yards as Buffalo shut out New England 16-0 at Gillette Stadium.
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
