I don’t believe this report for a second, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that the Patriots are still not giving up on the idea of QB Jimmy Garoppolo playing this Thursday against the Texans.
Still a longshot, but Patriots have not given up hope yet that Jimmy Garoppolo can play Thursday, per team source. https://t.co/eOveFwaxAu
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 19, 2016
I’m going to chalk this up to gamesmanship, so the Texans will have to plan for the just in case scenario that Garoppolo can play. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is going up against former Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and former Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, so Belichick is cooking up whatever edge he can get.
Don’t count on Garoppolo playing this Thursday. Instead, consider the real possibility that Garoppolo isn’t ready to start, but could be fine enough to serve as the back-up to Jacoby Brissett so the Patriots don’t have to add a random veteran off the street for a week.
Either way, it looks like the odds of Garoppolo playing in week 4 against the Bills are better than they appeared last night.
Edit: The Patriots look like they’re not interested in signing a quarterback right now:
Adam Schefter on SportsCenter just now: "As of this morning, the Patriots did not have any plans to bring in any other quarterbacks."
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) September 19, 2016