Has the dream been ruined, Bears fans?
NFL.com’s Adam Schefter tweeted out this morning that the New England Patriots are unlikely to trade backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo at this time.
In a move that will have a ripple effect on all QB-needy teams, Patriots are not expected to trade QB Jimmy Garoppolo, per league sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 1, 2017
Well, guess we should take the Patriots at their words, right?
Yeah, right.
This has marketing ploy written all over it, though it is an interesting one from head coach Bill Belichick and the Patriots’ front office considering that Garoppolo will be an unrestricted free agent in 2018 and, while he’s remained as good as ever, Tom Brady will be 40 years old next season.
Likely, the Patriots are pushing for a team like the Chicago Bears to deliver a king’s ransom for Garoppolo, such as trading away their #3 overall and perhaps multiple 2nd/3rd round picks for him as well.
Garoppolo is, after all, a former 2nd-round pick himself (#62 overall), which, combined with his solid play in relief of Brady, gives the Patriots leverage to maximize the return on their investment.
I still don’t believe the talk the Patriots will not trade Garoppolo. I think they are trying to drive up the price. Smart move.
— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) March 1, 2017
In this scenario, the Cleveland Browns—if they wanted him—would have the Bears outgunned in terms of tradable assets, as they have three picks in the top-50 overall (#1, #12, #30) and the #52 pick as well. Therefore, if Ryan Pace and the Bears badly want Garoppolo, they’re going to have to blow the Patriots away with their offer.
And if no one does, he will stay the Patriots’ backup for another year unless, in some strange twist of fate, Brady is injured for any length of time or just decides next year is enough for him and retires.
And if Brady does keep playing, the Pats try to trade Garoppolo again next offseason to avoid losing him for nothing. Then, if the Bears haven’t found a suitable quarterback, they could theoretically make another run at him.
So while it’s not a completely foregone conclusion that the Bears won’t get Garoppolo, it might be time to start reading up on the top-5 quarterbacks in this year’s draft. Because, it’s still likely that the Bears’ #3 overall pick is a defensive player, it may have just gotten more likely that the Bears could use one of their first two picks to find their signal caller of the future.
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