The year we drafted Jimmy, Tom Savage was one of my draft binkies as a mid-round option. Good arm, excellent work ethic, demonstrated leadership traits... but green. Not so different from Garoppolo, actually.
After the 2014 draft, it was widely believed that the Texans were targeting Garoppolo at the top of the 3rd round, but Belichick stole him from them at the bottom of the 2nd. The Texans ended up with Savage in the 4th instead, as their Plan B.
I thought at the time, and continue to think, that Bill O and Bill B were drafting their QBs to the same profile, and the same strategy-- get a kid with good fundamentals that we can groom into an NFL player. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that the Patriots had Savage on their draft board.
Irony is that the Pats didn't need a QB urgently, and would have had the time to groom Savage into a pro. Garoppolo was a luxury selection. Whereas, the Texans weren't drafting for luxury, they were (and still are) looking for a starter. Garoppolo would have been a nice fit for them, and would probably be starting for them, long before now, if things had worked out differently.
In an alternate plausible reality where the Texans traded up in the 2nd to take Garoppolo a few spots ahead of the Pats, I imagine that Tom Savage would have been the pick that the Pats spent instead on Bryan Stork in the 4th.
This is all to say, don't disrespect Savage as a prospect. There are valid reasons to believe that his ceiling is higher than his statistics say. In the same way that people who aren't watching Garoppolo in practice every day will question his legitimate trade value, the people who aren't watching Savage in practice every day will question his ability to perform.