Despite the fact that the New England Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo last week, Adam Schefter was right when he reported time and time again this offseason that the quarterback wouldn’t be moved for any price.
That might not make sense at face value, but Patriots head coach Bill Belichick confirmed Monday that he wasn’t willing to trade Garoppolo over the offseason.
“There was no market to trade Jimmy in April, on our end,” Belichick said on WEEI’s “Dale and Holley with Keefe” show. “I don’t really care what the offer was. I don’t even know what the offers were, or would have been. There was no interest on our end in making that deal. It didn’t really matter what the offer was, or would the offer would have been. I don’t really know what they were because we never entertained it.
“As I said, we had the best depth at that position probably of any team in the league, or at least we felt like we did. Maybe other teams felt different, I don’t know. We had great depth at that position. It was a tremendous situation to have two quarterbacks of the caliber we’ve had the past call it two and a half years from when Jimmy was ready. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t sustainable.”
Belichick therefore doesn’t know what the Patriots could have received for Garoppolo in a trade over the offseason. They received just a second-round pick for Garoppolo last week.
So, what changed? The Patriots reportedly got nowhere in contract extension discussions with Garoppolo and his agent, Don Yee. That makes sense from Garoppolo’s end because he wanted to start, and signing an extension with the Patriots would have meant continuing to sit behind Brady. So, the Patriots had no choice but to move Garoppolo for any price now at the last opportunity they had.
Thumbnail photo via Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports Images
