Garoppolo Just Focused On Getting Better
BOSTON (CBS) -- There's a pretty good chance that Jimmy Garoppolo, in just his second year as a professional, could find himself the starting quarterback of the NFL season opener.
Tom Brady's four-game suspension was upheld on Tuesday, casting a shadow of uncertainty over Gillette Stadium. When the Patriots host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday, September 10, it may be Garoppolo taking snaps from Bryan Stork, and not the man who has started every opener for New England since 2002.
But on their first day of practice for the 2015 season, that thought never crossed Garoppolo's mind.
"We're not really looking that far ahead. I don't think anyone is," he said. "It's the first day of training camp; got out here with the guys and it felt good to get out here with all of them."
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Garoppolo said he didn't have much of a reaction when the league announced Brady's suspension was upheld.
"I just stay focused on what I can control and what I'm trying to learn right now and improve on," he replied.
With Matt Flynn on the non-injured football list to start camp, it's just Brady and Garoppolo on the depth chart. They nearly split snaps on Thursday, something that may change when it becomes clearer who will be taking the snaps in Week 1.
But until that point, the 23-year-old will continue to learn as much as he can, both from his experiences on the field and from soaking up anything he can from Brady.
"There's tons of stuff you try to learn. You don't want to ask too many questions because he's got a job to do, too, so you kind of want to see it from afar," he said. "See what he does, see how he does it and just put it towards your game, really."
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Garoppolo looked good on Thursday, but had a bad interception on a throw over the middle during seven-on-seven drills. He was quick to accept that it's a throw he shouldn't be making, and moved on from the bad pass even quicker.
"I had to forget about it quickly; there was a lot of practice left, lot of seven-on-seven and a lot of team [drills], so just forget about that fast and move on," he said. "I think I did alright. There's plenty of room for improvement, there always is. Just got to keep going one step at a time."
Garoppolo saw action in six games during his rookie season, completing 16 of the 27 passes he attempted for 182 yards and a touchdown. The NFL is much different from anything he saw at Eastern Illinois, but with a year under his belt and a full training camp ahead, he's confident he'll be ready for whatever comes next.
"I feel a lot more comfortable. There's still a long way to go, a lot of little things to improve on and just one day at a time we will keep fixing those," he said.
That comfort carried over to his brief media session as well. Asked if he had a preference for the football -- hard or soft -- he casually laughed it off.