FOXBORO, Mass. — Jimmy Garoppolo doesn’t have Peyton Manning’s Louisiana drawl, but the rookie quarterback must do a pretty solid impression of the Denver Broncos signal-caller.
Garoppolo had a black New England Patriots practice player of the week jersey hanging in his locker Tuesday after imitating Manning leading up to the Patriots’ Nov. 2 win over the Broncos.
Garoppolo drew raves from teammates.
“He didn’t do the ‘Omahas,’ but he did a really good job as far as all the mannerisms that Manning does,” Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower said last week. “He did a really good job with that.”
Garoppolo said last week that he had a good time playing Manning on the scout team in practice. The most difficult aspect of his task was “how many different words (Manning) uses, probably. He’s all over the place, so I tried to expand my vocabulary a little bit and have some fun at the same time. Didn’t use ‘Omaha’ this week. I had my own set of words.
“Not every quarterback does what he does at the line of scrimmage, so I tried to do my best this week to help the defense out and give them a good look and hopefully it pays off on Sunday.”
It obviously did. Manning threw for 438 yards, but the Patriots held him to two passing touchdowns, and they picked him off twice.
Garoppolo was taken 62nd overall in the 2014 NFL draft, and with Tom Brady still playing at a high level, the rookie is expected to sit for a few years. He completed 9 of 10 passes when the Patriots were being blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4, throwing for 92 yards and one touchdown. He also took kneeldowns in the Patriots’ wins over the Cincinnati Bengals and Chicago Bears.
Photo via Elise Amendola/Associated Press
