Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 30, 2017 Sub-episde A - Emergency Jimmy Garoppolo Trade Edition

Episode Date: October 31, 2017

In a stunning development, the New England Patriots have traded backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2018 second round pick. Mark Schofield has his instant reaction.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome into a special emergency, emergency edition of Lockdown Patriots. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair, and this was going to be a bye week for me. This was going to be a nice, quiet week. I got the shows racked and ready to go. But news breaking here just in the last few minutes here on Monday night that the New England Patriots have traded Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2018 second round draft pick.

News breaking from Adam Schefter on his Twitter feed. The first tweet came out eight minutes ago. So about 8-18 on the East Coast. First tweet. Major quarterback shakeup. 49ers trade in 2018 second round draft pick to the New England Patriots for Jimmy Garoppolo. Follow-up tweet.

49ers and Patriots began talk and trade Monday morning and by tonight the trade was officially agreed upon. Garoppolo to San Francisco. Follow-up tweet to that. With Jimmy Garoppolo traded to San Francisco, the Patriots now buy-in into the idea that Tom Brady can play well into his 40s. Final tweet from Adam Schefter. To repeat, 49ers are traded a 2018 second-round draft pick

for Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Sources tell ESPN. Now this is a stunner. You know, this is our second emergency podcast here since I've been hosting Locked On Patriots. The first one was when the Patriots signed Taylor Heineke to the practice squad. And I recorded a quick episode on a Friday night,

partly because it was just a little bit of an interesting thing. But now, this is a stunning move by the New England Patriots. And think back to this past offseason when the Patriots, there were a lot of rumors that perhaps the Cleveland Browns would be interested, but stories came out that the Patriots were asking for a first-round pick in return. Couldn't quite get a deal done. And by holding on to Garoppolo, it seemed to me, and I've said this before in other shows, that Bill Belichick isn't afraid to get rid of guys, to trade guys,

when he thinks he can get something good in return, when he thinks he can get better value in return. Look at other deals that they've made, like Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins. But it seemed to me that by holding on to Jimmy Garoppolo, they were buying into the fact that he is the heir apparent. He is going to replace Tom Brady. Now, Adam Schefter seems to believe that this is a signal that they're buying in that Brady can play for another couple of seasons.

And that may be part of the equation. But I'm somebody that has always been of the mind that if you take a step back and you look at your roster 1-53, if you look at every position in your roster, say quarterback, running back, wide receiver, starters, then backups, and things like that, and you try to sit down and rank them in terms of importance, for many teams, yeah, starting quarterback might be the number one position, your most important position. When do you get to backup quarterback? Because I would argue for some teams, backup quarterback might be, if not your most important backup, it might even be more important than some starting positions.

Just because of the importance of the quarterback position and how quickly a team's fortunes can just change in a moment. A twisted knee, A rolled ankle. A hit to the back. And suddenly a playoff team is now sunk because they don't have an answer at the backup spot. By trading Jimmy Garoppolo, the Patriots have

one quarterback on the roster right now and that's Tom Brady. And so this is a bit of a storm because yeah they have a bye week now where they can go out and get a guy maybe they bring a Taylor Heineke back in the mold maybe they

make another deal find another team that has a guy that they could get in. You know, but to follow up the trade of Jacoby Reset with this deal, it's just a bit of a stunner. So it signals to me that, at least I I hope that they have a plan to sort of get somebody into the milden, get somebody into the mix quickly. Because again, you need a solid backup. You need a plan B. And sure, there are stories, you know, famous stories of Ted Marchabrota when he was the offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts. And he was asked by somebody who was observing practice,

you know, how come the backup doesn't get a lot of practice reps? How come Peyton Manning's backup isn't getting a lot of practice? And Machabrota turned to the person and said, because if 18 goes down, we're out of luck, shall we say. Although he used a much more colorful word. And maybe that's just the position right now.

Look, if 12 goes down, forget it. The Patriots, they're done. But I would disagree with that. I think you could still have somebody in the roster like a Jimmy Garoppolo who could come in and give you 80% of Tom Brady or 60% or enough that you can keep winning games. And so to me, this is a stunner so I'm very curious to see what the follow-up move is to this you know and here's the other thing now

as somebody who spends the bulk of his offseason studying and evaluating draft quarterbacks. You know, now that Jimmy Garoppolo is no longer a New England Patriot, now that the Patriots just traded away their backup quarterback, are the Patriots now going to be in the market for a quarterback in this draft class? You know, because it's something I've talked about on this show before. Look, in the 16 drafts since they drafted Tom Brady, they've taken a quarterback in eight of them.

Basically every other year. And two years ago, they drafted Jacoby Brissett. They didn't draft a quarterback last year. Maybe they're back in the market for a quarterback. And this might be an interesting draft class to have a second round pick, one that looks to be near the top of the second round, to potentially use on a quarterback. Because coming into this draft class, coming into this season,

people were talking about Josh Allen, Sam Darnold being surefire top five picks. And let me just tell you, two things can be true about Josh Allen, that he will get drafted in the first round, and that that he will get drafted in the first round and that he should not get drafted in the first round now sure some coach might see his arm see the arm talent, see the velocity

and buy in on him being a first round draft choice but I can't go there with Josh Allen right now Sam Darnold he has struggled at times this year thrown some interceptions, struggling with turnovers, rumors are that he's going Sam Darnold, he has struggled at times this year, thrown some interceptions, struggling with turnovers. Rumors are that he's going back to school.

So now where does that leave you as a team that might need a quarterback? Josh Rosen, okay. There are some question marks around Josh Rosen from a more off-the-field perspective, from a more attitude perspective, but I like what a more off the field perspective, from a more attitude perspective, but I like what I see on the field. Baker Mayfield, love the kid's competitive toughness. There are going to be questions that he's going to face about his height. Some people even wonder if he's going to even measure at six feet. Are you drafted a sub six foot quarterback in the first round? Maybe, maybe not. Lamar Jackson, again, another player who I love on the field, but he's going to face the style of offense type questions.

You're hearing it now. We've even heard people say that he should move to wide receiver. So if those are your top three quarterbacks in this draft class, they might fall. So maybe this is a situation where the Patriots are looking towards the top of the second round

and thinking a Baker Mayfield might fall to them. A Lamar Jackson could fall to them. So as somebody that's had his eye on this quarterback class for a while, that's seen how it's sort of shaken out on the field, that's seen that there's potential for a guy to fall to the top of the second round, not bad to have a draft pick at that spot. But still, a stunning move here tonight on Monday night with the Patriots

trading away Jimmy Garoppolo for a second round pick. We'll see how they address the backup quarterback position going forward. But it is a stunner. And they're going to need to get somebody into the building pretty quickly to start

getting ready because, as I was saying, you're just one twisted knee, one rolled ankle away from wondering who is the Patriots starting quarterback or who is going to take the next snap for this team when we come out of this injury timeout. Again, obviously, we all hope Brady plays for another five years. That would be fantastic.

But you need to have a plan B in this day and age. You need to have a plan B in case your guy goes down. Look at the Dallas Cowboys two years ago or three years ago. Tony Romo goes down. They don't have a plan B. They lose an entire season. Then they sort of stumble into Dak Prescott in the fourth round. But it's a question right now that they're going to have to answer.

And maybe the more long-term answer they will find with this second round pick at the top of the second round in the upcoming draft. But for right now, whether it's Taylor Haneke, whether it's another free agent, whether it's another trade, whether it's Colin Kaepernick, because we can throw that name out there right now too, they're going to need to get somebody in here quickly to figure this out. My instant reaction is that you can't really grade this trade until you see what they do to address the backup spot in the next couple of hours, the next couple of days.

It's a stunner to me. I thought that given how New England had held on to Garoppolo over the past couple of weeks, the past couple of months, all the trade rumors swirling around him, the fact that they dealt Jacoby Brissett right before the season started signaled to me that they were all in on Jimmy Garoppolo to be the quarterback for this team at some point in the future. But for whatever reason, the analysis, the calculus, the math on that has changed.

And now we wait and find out the final piece of this puzzle so we can fully grade it. But for right now, I'm stunned by this. Not a move that I saw coming. I wait to see how the Patriots address the backup position in the next couple of hours or days. As somebody that studies the quarterbacks, I'm just now very excited to go down to Mobile and to see some of these quarterbacks up close because there will be some fun episodes of Locked On Patriots to come in the offseason.

Because now we get to break down quarterbacks here and there are a few things I enjoy doing in life more than that. So buckle up, friends, because that's going to be some fun times. But for now, again, to recap, a stunning move with the Patriots traded away Jimmy Garoppolo. We await to see the follow-up move to that to address the backup spot.

They have a bye week, so it's probably the best time to do it. I guess I'll have another emergency podcast in the future so much for taking a nice little relax and bye week but when news happens, when news breaks here I'll run to the mic to give you my thoughts on it instantly and this has been some instant snap analysis of this trade there will be more to come just so I won't call it tomorrow we will all have lunch of this trade. There will be more to come.

Just so I won't call it tomorrow, we will all have lunch. But until we talk again, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.