Are New England Patriots fans already growing weary of Mac Jones? The 24-year-old quarterback went 6-8 as a starter in his second NFL season, with the team finishing its 2022 campaign with an 8-9 record, good enough for third place in the AFC East.
Fans might be ready for a quarterback change. Might Bill Belichick look to reunite with his former successor to Tom Brady?
Christopher Gasper of the Boston Globe speculates that Jimmy Garoppolo returning to the team that made him a second-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft should at least be under consideration (h/t to Peter Panacy of Niner Noise).
Gasper asks (rhetorically) if the Patriots building around Jones is the surest path back to contention.
"No, they should divest him for draft capital and invest in another No. 10-wearing QB, Jimmy Garoppolo," Gasper wrote, answering his own question. "Garoppolo is forever the One That Got Away for Belichick. He planned to bounce Brady and turn the team over to Jimmy G."
The Patriots traded Garoppolo to the 49ers in 2017. Brady left New England after the 2019 season. Now, Garoppolo is set to become an unrestricted free agent. He is there for the Patriots' taking, if they are willing to pay to get him.
Garoppolo has won 70.2 percent of the games in which he has started. His ability to rack up victories was never in question. The quarterbacks' ability to stay healthy has been.
Garoppolo has played a full season just once in his career, in 2019. He has missed 18 games (19 if you count this past season's December 4 contest against the Miami Dolphins, in which he exited in the first quarter) due to injuries in the following three seasons.
What of Jones? Gasper suggests the Patriots trade the former first-round pick. The writer doesn't view Garoppolo as a significant upgrade over Jones but suggests that Garoppolo plus the draft capital potentially obtained in exchange for Jones might represent an upgrade.
"It would be better to spend money on bringing back Garoppolo and trading Jones," Gasper explained. "Given that the quarterback market has gone crazy and Daniel Jones is asking for $45 million per season, Garoppolo could be a relative bargain. He would ostensibly accept a discount to rejoin Belichick, speculatively something in the $25 million-$28 million per year range."
Returning to New England, the team that might have reluctantly forced him out to make Brady happy, might be appealing to Garoppolo.
"A New England reunion with Garoppolo could be a chance for both sides to prove the doubters wrong," Gasper wrote. "But, more importantly, the Patriots would be able to build a better team around their Top-15-type quarterback if they went this route. When the quarterback carousel stops this offseason, some team is going to be left without a desirable option. That will make Jones, still playing on a rookie contract, appealing."