Oh the re-writers of history. Let's review what was really going on:
BB wanted to keep Jimmy G. and hoped he would sign another contract with the Patriots, and thus did not seriously shop him around until he had no choice. By then the 49ers were the only trade partner. (Remember they supposedly wanted Brady instead and BB laughed? Is that part true? Who knows?)
Brady has done something no other QB has been able to do (and what BB was hedging against with Jimmy G) and that is play at an elite level into his 40s.
Jimmy G. had looked good in 1 1/2 starts but then he got hurt and nobody knew: a) if that short window showed his true ability to play; or b) whether he was going to be injury-prone.
There's no way BB turned down the 12th pick in the draft for Jimmy G. Nobody offered this (see above). BB has traded with Cleveland before (and after) - why wouldn't he do it again? Just stupid.
More fantasy click-bait about the Patriots. No wonder BB hates the media...
For full season yes. But he was traded with only 8 games left. We wanted that flexibility and it had a cost. Teams were willing to pay if they got more games from Garropollo at rookie contract to test him.
The market for Jimmy was pretty high in the 2017 offseason. I don’t know about the recent report that the Browns offered #12 for him, but was closely following some beat writers like Mary Kay Parker who claimed to have the inside scoop and said the Browns were frustrated because the Patriots were basically demanding a ridiculous price. I think Parker did in fact report the Browns were offering a first round pick but not #1. And Schefter has already reported that was the Patriots plan, to keep him unless someone offered them “a King’s ransom.”
I thought the Browns should have traded the #1 pick for JG and argued for that all offseason. With QB being the most important position by far, a defensive end (Garrret) won’t move the needle, and Garoppolo I thought was better than the crapshoot college QB route. Turns out Mahomes and Watson were there, but they weren’t on the radar as a the top pick (Trubisky was...wtf)
Anyway, I don’t think Garoppolo’s value was as risky as some make it out to be. He practiced with the team frequently and looked not just good, but phenomenal, against Arizona and Miami, before getting hurt. And the Patriots didn’t exactly hide their excitement when they drafted him in 2014. As a point of reference, a ****ty QB like Sam Bradford fetched a first round pick as emergency option. The Bengals claimed they turned down a second round pick for AJ McCarron. Considering all the options, the idea that Garoppolo was the best prospect available, with some fair certainty, wasn’t that far fetched.
The Patriots essentially knew JG’s value would plummet if it were a mid season trade. It’s understandable they wanted all the time possible to assess Brady’s physical condition and be certain they were making the right decision. But it is also a very odd story, that doesn’t seem to be disputed, that they took much less from the 49ers than they could have, which could have been a conditional first round pick or additional picks. I think Bill knew how good Garoppolo was, so while I get why the 49ers made sense (NFC, takes away SF as a later option for Brady, Hoyer as backup), I still feel like they could have gotten a lot more, and that lack of draft capital has finally caught up with them.
