Garoppolo Not Thinking About Season-Opener Yet, Just Getting Ready For Giants
BOSTON (CBS) -- For Jimmy Garoppolo, there really is only one more game of "will he play or won't he play" left before the reins of New England's starting quarterback job temporarily belong to him.
In 13 days, Garoppolo will suit up as New England's starting QB in place of the suspended Tom Brady, as the Patriots kick off their 2016 season in Arizona against the Cardinals. But that's nearly two weeks away, too far into the future for Garoppolo or the Patriots to give even a wrinkle of thought.
Instead, Garoppolo is focused on the next three days and what he needs to do to get ready for the New York Giants -- if he even plays, that is.
It kind of sounds like New England's starting quarterback in Weeks 1-4 will be suiting up for one final tuneup in the preseason finale on Thursday night. But once again, Garoppolo doesn't know what his status will be for an upcoming preseason game.
"It's really not my call," Garoppolo told reporters at Gillette Stadium on Monday. "You always want to be out there with your guys. It's just the nature of the beast; you're a competitor, you want to be out there, but whatever Coach [Bill Belichick] asks me to do, I'll do."
Garoppolo has known for months that he's going to start the first four regular season games of the season, but that hasn't stopped a guessing game from taking place this preseason. After he got the start against the Saints in the first preseason game, his status was up in the air against the Chicago Bears until Brady cut his thumb with a pair of scissors right before kickoff. Then on Friday, Garoppolo was once again left to wonder if he'd be the first quarterback on the field or if those honors would belong to Brady.
Both times, he was under center following kickoff. But Garoppolo will once again be on his toes leading up to Thursday night in New York, with Belichick's master plan still a great unknown.
"You don't know if you're going to start, you don't know if you're going to come off the bench. At first it was a weird - I can remember back in my rookie year it was a weird thing not knowing," Garoppolo explained on Monday. "You just get used to it after a while, mixing and matching with all the different guys, knowing guys' tendencies and how they play, and you just react to it, really."
It probably wouldn't hurt to give Garoppolo another go Thursday night after a disappointing effort in Charlotte. He admits that there were ups and downs in the 19-17 New England win, and hopes to learn from those mistakes.
"There was good and bad, obviously. We didn't score as many points as we'd want to, but we started off the first drive with points. That was something that we were looking to do the last couple of weeks and we finally got that done. There were obviously some positives, but there are negatives, too, that you have to come away with," he said of his 9-for-15, 57-yard night.
"It's been a good training camp so far for sure. We've made a ton of progress as an offense and as a team. We've just got to keep moving in the right direction," he said. "We're worried about the Giants right now, we're not worried about opening day yet, so we'll get there when it comes."
It's coming soon, just not soon enough to think about yet.
