Patriots' Confidence In Garoppolo As Starter Evident On Day 1 Of Camp
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots don't typically deal in absolutes. They rarely express the roles or performance of specific players with as much certainty as they did on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium as players reported for Thursday's start of 2016 training camp. Somewhat surprisingly, that level of certainty came at the quarterback position.
That's not to say that Jimmy Garoppolo was ever going to be a legit threat to Tom Brady for his Week 5 return, or that rookie Jacoby Brissett would have been a realistic option over Garoppolo in the first four weeks of the season. But most of the time you ask Patriots head coach Bill Belichick anything about a specific player, he gives you some variation of "Everyone's working hard" or "The whole team is [doing whatever you peons asked about]." He rarely strays from keeping things about the team as a whole, and it's a small sliver of why he's been so successful in New England.
Things changed a bit on Wednesday as the questions about Brady's suspension, Garoppolo's status, and all the surrounding factors of the team's QB situation started pouring in from reporters. Belichick was as definitive as any time in his career talking about specific players in his opening statement and answers to questions from the media.
"We have, finally, some definition with Tom's situation, so our priority now then is to get Jimmy [Garoppolo] ready for the start of the season, for the Arizona game, so that'll be obviously a comprehensive process," Belichick said in part to open his press conference. "Tom will return as the starting quarterback when he comes back, but in the meantime we have to prioritize the first part of our schedule and that'll be to get Jimmy ready to go."
Translation: "I don't want to hear anything about a QB controversy with either of these guys, so just save yourself the time and energy. For the sake of my soul and your life force."
It's not too striking that Belichick would declare Brady the starter for Week 5 regardless of Garoppolo's performance - and kind of "controversy" between those two would be misguided and horribly contrived, at best - even if Garoppolo plays just like Dan Marino, he's still no Brady. The part that struck me was that Belichick showed his confidence in Garoppolo by declaring the priority of the team as getting Garoppolo ready for Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals.
If Belichick didn't want to speak with any certainty about specific players of positional battles, he would not have been so definitive. He would have said something to the effect of, "We're trying to get all of our quarterbacks ready for Week 1." But he specifically stuck with Garoppolo, which speaks volumes to how the team must feel about Garoppolo as the starter for Weeks 1-4 and potential Brady successor.
It wasn't just Belichick that exuded that kind of confidence; team captain Matthew Slater said as much when asked about the situation.
"[Garoppolo] has prepared himself for a moment to play since he got in this league," said Slater. "He's worked for it, and we believe in his abilities, and we know that he's going to go out to give us everything he has."
Fellow captain Devin McCourty echoed Slater's sentiment when asked about playing without Brady for four games.
"Jimmy has been here a couple of years now, so I think as a team we'll just come together, go out there and figure out a way to win," said McCourty. "That's what it comes down to; we can't stick on that subject, just prepare and get ready to play."
McCourty and/or Slater could just as easily have said "We're all just here trying to get better" and "Everybody's getting ready to play Week 1." They didn't have to show so much confidence in Garoppolo, but they did. Of course, there's no way to definitively know how Garoppolo is going to perform once he's taking real, meaningful snaps under center in the regular season, but the fact that the team has already confided in him so greatly can only be a good sign for his preparedness as he gets ready for the Arizona Cardinals.
The Patriots didn't have to be so definitive about Garoppolo's ability to quarterback the team in Brady's absence, but they were. And while it may have just been meant to quell any manufactured "controversy" or outside noise, it just as easily could mean the team feels good about what Garoppolo can do when he takes the field. Now it's just a matter of actually doing it.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.