Josh McDaniels: ‘no bad days’ for Jimmy Garoppolo now

Patriots back up quarterback back Jimmy Garoppolo takes a snap during OTAs. Staff/Photographer Jonathan Wiggs The Boston Globe

By Erik Frenz

June 12, 2015

2 minutes to read

Most people would chalk five interceptions in one practice up to a bad day.

Not offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

Second-year quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw those five picks in during OTAs last week, but McDaniels thinks mistakes can be just as effective of a teaching moment as a successful play.

“I think in Jimmy’s situation, there are no bad days,’’ McDaniels said on Thursday after practice. “We’re either going to get better from some mistakes we made or we’re going to make progress and be happy about that.’’

Garoppolo did not have much of an opportunity to build off those mistakes this week, in a practice session that moved decidedly slowly. There was only one team session on Thursday, and Tom Brady and Garrett Gilbert were the quarterbacks running the offenses on the two separate practice fields.

This time of year, practice isn’t as much about evaluating performance as it is about teaching. In that respect, Garoppolo is already light years ahead of where he was last year.

“Last year at this time, as a rookie, it’s hard to say that you ever came to the practice field feeling like you knew a whole lot about what you were getting ready to go into,’’ McDaniels said. “This year, most of the things that he’s hearing, he’s heard before. And he’s heard them, I would say, plenty of times before. It’s not that first experience with anything. Experience is something that you can’t really teach them in the classroom; you have to gain it on the field. He gained a lot of that last year in practice, training camp, the preseason, and this is another OTA, spring for him where he has an opportunity to go out, learn, make mistakes and get better from them. He’s just much further ahead.’’

The improvements may not be tangible yet, but these practices lay the foundation for the development that’s still to come from an execution standpoint. And even if there are some flaws in that execution right now, McDaniels still sees improvement in the mental aspects of Garoppolo’s game.

“He’s making decisions quicker,’’ McDaniels said. “He’s more sure of what to do, and at the same time, there’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t make mistakes that we can correct and try to improve his play off of.’’

That won’t do much to ease the worries of Patriots’ fans who want their team to stay afloat during Tom Brady’s suspension — however long that may be — but these early days of practice are hardly the time for panic or consternation over looming doom and gloom.