Jimmy Garoppolo is an intriguing option for the Browns. Should they make a trade for him?
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns will have a big decision to make come April 27 when they go on the clock with the No. 1 pick -- assuming they don't trade out of the top spot. They'll have to decide if they want take a quarterback with the top pick or Myles Garrett, currently the consensus top talent in this class.
That quarterback decision, though, has many layers, and one of them involves Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Garoppolo is currently Tom Brady's backup, has thrown 94 passes in three seasons and gave us a tantalizing glimpse of what he could be as a starting quarterback at the beginning of the season when Brady was serving his four-game suspension for Deflate-gate.
The Patriots could decide to trade Garoppolo, who is set to become a free agent after the 2017 season, instead of committing starting quarterback money to him or losing him for nothing if Tom Brady is still going strong.
There's also a chance that the Patriots won't trade Garoppolo because, well, Brady turns 40 in August and Father Time is undefeated.
Some are quick to point to other Patriots backups who haven't exactly gone on to have illustrious careers, including Matt Cassel, Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett. They point to the Patriots system and coaching staff, all legitimate points.
The goal here, though, is to look strictly at Garoppolo in the context of the Browns quarterback decision this season because, when it comes to making this choice, Garoppolo has something that none of the potential draft picks have: NFL film -- not a ton of NFL film, but NFL film nonetheless. So, let's take a closer look at Garoppolo and see what he did in his six quarters with the Patriots this season and if there is potential that the 25-year-old could become a longtime starter in the NFL.
Let's start by looking at the numbers. In his two starts, first at Arizona and then at home against Miami, Garoppolo completed 42-of-59 passes (71 percent) for 496 yards and four touchdowns. He didn't throw an interception. He also rushed four times for 12 yards and he even caught a pass -- a batted pass of his own that he caught on the first offensive play of the second half against the Cardinals.
If you're a Pro Football Focus fan, Garoppolo graded at 68.7 against Arizona and "when provided with a clean pocket, he connected on 20-of-26 attempts for 216 yards, one touchdown and a 113.6 NFL QB rating." He graded at 84 against Miami and was described as the as the best player on the field: "Garoppolo pitched the ball all over the field and was especially impressive facing the blitz where he was 14-19 for 197 yards and two TDs."
Now, let's take all those numbers and throw them out the window. Let's dig in and take a closer look at his six quarters, what we can learn from them and what stood out, good and bad.
The usual caveats are, of course, I'm not a coach, I don't know the plays that were called and these are simply observations.
We'll start with Arizona. Garoppolo was missing two notable offensive pieces, tight end Rob Gronkowski and left tackle Nate Solder.
The gameplan was clear early in this game. Garoppolo was given short, quick throws out of plays that mostly asked him to read one side of the field. Here's an example from his first series, facing his first third down situation, a 3rd-and-10 from New England's 26-yard line.
The Patriots put three receivers to Garoppolo's left, with Malcolm Mitchell on the outside, Julian Edelman closest to the line and Danny Amendola in between.
Julian Edelman is the player circled in red.NFL Game Pass
The Cardinals play it man-to-man and Edelman's out route plays perfectly against Deone Bucannon and Garoppolo makes the quick throw to him for a first down.
This sort of play design was the bread and butter of New England's first-half plan. Garoppolo was rarely asked to drop back and read the entire field. Almost every throw was a quick throw in which his head stuck to one side of the field. It worked, for the most part, but not all the time. Here's an example on 3rd-and-3 in the first quarter from the Cardinals' 29-yard line.
Garoppolo locks on to the left side of the field and throws incomplete to Amendola. Had he worked his way around to tight end Martellus Bennett to the right, he would have had a first down conversion. The Patriots settled for a field goal after this play.
It is worth noting, however, that the right tackle misses his block and there's a pass rusher coming from that side, though the guard comes back and picks him up, so may the throw to Bennett isn't all that easy.
The game's play-by-play confirms the impression of short, quick throws throughout the first half. Only two of Garoppolo's first half passes are classified as deep in the official gamebook. One of them is this touchdown pass to Chris Hogan. It's an easy throw, but Garoppolo deserves credit for recognizing the one-on-one coverage by a rookie corner, recognizing the corner's hesitation early and delivering a perfect throw:
The other is a miss on a play action pass thrown behind Mitchell.
It might be hard to tell from that angle, but I think he got spooked by Tyrann Mathieu, who was hanging out in the middle when Mitchell started to come across the field. Here's the sideline angle.
Want one last bit of proof the Patriots played it safe early? The kings of deferring and maximizing the end-of-first-half/start-of-second-half possessions got the ball at their own 31-yard line with 1:24 left in the half and three timeouts. They chose to run the ball two straight plays to start. The drive was eventually derailed by penalties.
The gameplan stayed the same to start the second half, but Garoppolo did get a shot to show off his mobility on this third down run. Again, he looks strictly to one side before scrambling, but one thing that stood out, and you'll see this more as we move along, is that he usually only scrambles when necessary and keeps his eyes downfield. This might have been an instance where he could have hung in the pocket longer, but it's rare that he escaped too early.
This is another unimpressive deep throw. He fails to set his feet and throws short of the receiver. There were offsetting penalties on this play, including the interference you see in the endzone.
That not setting of his feet and just slinging the ball also seemed rare. This was during a bizarre series of plays in which Garoppolo's reads to one side weren't always there and he became hesitant. In this case, it just seems like he rushed things.
Speaking of getting his feet set, here was his most impressive throw of the night. Trailing 21-20 after Arizona took the lead on the preceding drive with less than ten minutes left, Garoppolo took a sack on first down followed by a second down incompletion. That put the Patriots in a 3rd-and-15 from their own 20-yard line. Watch Garoppolo use his mobility, plant his feet and deliver the ball to Amendola for a first down right before he takes a hit.
That's a big-time throw in a high-leverage situation. The Patriots came away with the go-ahead field goal on that drive and won the game, 23-21.
During the game, analyst Cris Collinsworth praised Garoppolo's release time -- they ran a side-by-side of him and Brady and it was eerily similar -- and his willingness to pick on rookie cornerback Brandon Williams making his first start.
On to Miami
The Patriots had 80 offensive snaps in this game. Garoppolo played 42 of them. That number is going to be increasingly frustrating as we really dig in, because I know I would have liked to have seen more. Note that he still didn't have Gronkowski, but Solder was back for this game.
Remember that Arizona game plan? Throw it out the window. Josh McDaniels took the reins off of Garoppolo against the Dolphins and he thrived. It started delivering this throw with a blitzer bearing down on him.
He capped the first drive by stepping into this throw, taking a hit and delivering the ball away from the linebacker to Amendola.
This is the type of throw I really liked from Garoppolo. He doesn't abandon the pocket. He steps up and delivers the ball down the field with a defender in his face. His receiver takes a hit, but the ball is high enough that only the receiver is coming down with it.
"You're going to make your offensive lineman very happy if you just slide a little bit," color analyst and former NFL quarterback said following the play. "That's what the line's trying to do, they're trying to push the defenders by you and if you can just slide in the pocket, buy yourself time, keep your eyes upfield and that's exactly what Jimmy Garoppolo's been able to do."
That pocket presence and patience stood out with Garoppolo. He trusted his protection and was aware of where pressure was coming from and where to go while still looking to throw down the field.
Moving on: This might have been my favorite throw of his in the six games. It's the touchdown on the second drive to Bennett. He drops back, scans the field and throws a strike to Bennett in the back of the endzone. The protection is good, but, again, he doesn't see the hole in front of him and run -- a tendency for young, mobile quarterbacks. Instead, he stays in and delivers a score.
Those are the types of plays and throws that make you really think there's something there.
It wasn't all good, of course. Garoppolo had this bad miss to Matthew Slater. I'm still not sure about his accuracy on throws like this.
Here's a throw a few plays later that Trent Green described like this: "That's one of the few times I've seen Jimmy Garoppolo miss his read. Julian Edelman is actually open to the right, he's doing a post stop where he's running up the field, just sits down in front of the safeties and Garoppolo gets off of him too quickly, getting to the backside. As I said, he hasn't missed very many, but that one he missed Edelman open to the right side."
He followed that throw up with an accurate throw over the middle for a first down to Edelman and, later, hits Amendola on a nice throw while running to his right to get away from a blitzer coming unblocked off the edge.
There were some negatives after that. New England got the ball at Miami's 48-yard line and Garoppolo and the offense were unable to get a first down. On the Patriots' fifth drive, he threw to the wrong side of the receiver on this play and it nearly cost him:
Then, of course, with his escapability and ability to throw on the run on full display, he hurt his shoulder:
And that was it. Garoppolo has thrown four passes since and we officially have a small sample size.
It would have been ideal to get four full games out of Garoppolo, for sure, but this is what we have to work with in judging his value. Still, there is plenty to unpack.
Did he simply thrive because of New England's system and McDaniels putting him in favorable positions? Can he consistently deliver the ball down the field? Can he stay healthy?
Then there's the contract situation. You're not trading for Garoppolo unless you're also extending him. To do otherwise would be foolish. What will that cost? Brock Osweiler got $37 million guaranteed from the Texans, though that was a free agent deal with no trade involved. Osweiler also had a larger sample size than Garoppolo, too.
So....should the Browns trade for Garoppolo and, if so, what should they give up? Here's what I think:
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