‘Bill is not prone to hyperbole’: How Bill Belichick described Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers
"You're going to love this kid. His teammates love him."
In 2017, Bill Belichick helped sway San Francisco 49ers leadership on the Jimmy Garoppolo trade by offering some straightforward praise.
Garoppolo, now set to start Super Bowl LIV for the 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, arrived in San Francisco in a 2017 midseason trade in which the Patriots received a second-round draft pick in return.
While Garoppolo is now a central pillar in the 49ers’ setup, team general manager John Lynch took some convincing before committing to the deal with New England.
“We felt it was a reasonable cost — albeit a high one, a second-round pick — to have an opportunity to find a franchise quarterback,” said Lynch to reporters on Thursday.
One of the decisive points that made the trade happen, as Lynch recalled, was Belichick’s appraisal of Garoppolo.
“It [was] one thing in our conversations with Bill Belichick,” Lynch explained. “When I talked to him, when Kyle [Shanahan] talked to him, ‘You’re going to love this kid. His teammates love him.’ And Bill is not prone to hyperbole. He doesn’t say things just to say them. If he says something, he means it. And so that stuck with me.”
John Lynch recalling the Jimmy G trade: “That was one thing in our conversations with Bill Belichick, (he said) ‘You’re going to love this kid. His teammates love him.’ And Bill is not prone to hyperbole. He doesn’t say things just to say them. … So that stuck with me.” pic.twitter.com/YiVYtR5V5u
— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) January 30, 2020
The 49ers ended up starting Garoppolo for the final five games of the 2017 season. The young quarterback went 5-0, further solidifying his position with the team. In the 2019 regular season, Garoppolo threw 27 touchdown passes and completed 69.1 percent of his passes to lead San Francisco to a 13-3 record.
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