It is week 5 of the NFL season, once again there are health concerns regarding Jimmy G’s ability to play. Jimmy is currently in year 9 of his career, he has only started one full complete season without missing a game, that was 2019 and it was also the only time he played double digit games. His current team has already invested heavily in a rookie to replace him who may be getting his big moment to steal the job.
Not all of this is Jimmy’s fault. The majority of his time in NE he was back up to Brady when the legend famously got the second wind of his career. But he was granted a golden opportunity with the deflategate suspension and was set to lead the Pats in Brady’s place for the first quarter of the season. This was to be his big coming out party to make a case that he was the future the Patriots should invest in or get the interest of the rest of the league. He didn’t make it to the end of the first half of game 2.
After that he road the bench until a decision between him and Brady needed to be made. A lot of people in Pats nation lamented that we had given up our potential future in a shortsighted move to hold onto the present, a present that only had 2 more years anyways. It looked even worse when Jimmy finally started for the 49’ers and played very well, giving them a sharp turnaround to end an otherwise abysmal season. Then next year hope faded and Jimmy was quickly ruled out for the season. Yes he did play all of the next season in 2019 and led his team to a Super Bowl appearance displaying the talent many felt he had, but even then the defense was the show and tee’d Jimmy up for something he couldn’t close out in the decisive moments. The next season he came back in and out of the lineup only playing a scattered 6 games never getting over an aggravated injury.
The frustration of Jimmy’s injuries and lack of consistent and elevated play led for his team to explore elsewhere for their own future. Once again Jimmy is on the wrong side of an injury and it looks like the future is coming sooner than expected.
One has to think that had the Pats kept Jimmy in 2017 they may have one less SB win and now be in a purgatory of their own in a rebuild with a guy who may not have ever been the real answer for the future of the Pats QB role. It very likely could have been us in 2021 wondering if this guy pushing 30 was just a mirage that was only ever going to look good some of the time before an injury or bad play.