Jimmy Garoppolo Coming Along, Taking It Day-By-Day With Shoulder Injury
BOSTON (CBS) -- We still don't know who will be under center for the Patriots on Sunday when they host the Buffalo Bills, but things sound promising for Jimmy Garoppolo.
The third-year quarterback spoke to reporters inside the Patriots locker room on Wednesday (as did fellow injured QB Jacoby Brissett), and said he's making progress in coming back from a sprained AC joint in his shoulder he suffered in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins.
"It's coming along. Just taking it day-by-day now, trying to get to my best of ability on Sunday," Garoppolo told reporters. "Just trying to get better every day. That's all you can ask for with this."
Garoppolo thought he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him when Miami linebacker Kiko Alonso took him down to the ground hard, but quickly realized it was something much more severe. This is his first major injury on the football field, so dealing with it was uncharted territory for the quarterback.
"It was different, that's for sure. I've never really been in that situation, so it's not the funnest thing," he said. "All you can really do is, and this sounds very rhetorical, is get better day-by-day. If you start looking ahead, it's hard to predict what you're going to feel like in three or four days, so you just take it one day at a time."
Garoppolo said he'll be more cognizant of getting rid of the football more quickly. As for any lingering pain, he summed it up nicely.
"It's football; it is what it is," Garopplo said, borrowing Bill Belichick's classic phrase. "There is pain whenever you play. It's one of those things."
Garoppolo and Brissett (who is dealing with a thumb injury he suffered last Thursday against the Texans) both returned to practice on Tuesday, which Garoppolo called a good day on the field. He added that he didn't feel any pressure from the team to play last Thursday.
Reports say the Patriots will have both on the sideline for Sunday afternoon, but Garoppolo says we'll have to wait to find out for sure who will be taking the snaps against Buffalo.