The rumors and discussion will not go away.
Really ever since the middle of last season, there's been a lot of talk of Jimmy Garoppolo returning to the Patriots for the 2021 season. Of course, he would need to be released or traded for that to happen, but some continue to think it will happen.
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show Friday morning, former Patriots outside linebacker Rob Ninkovich was asked if Bill Belichick had his way, who would be his starting quarterback next season?
“I think Jimmy G all the way," he said. "Last year was telling when the 49ers just destroyed the Patriots, I’ve never really seen Bill go up to a player and really embrace him, give him a hug, talk to him like he did with Jimmy G after the Patriots got beat the way that they did. Yeah, sometimes you see it when the Patriots beat up another team badly and then Bill walks up and talks to everybody and he has the ‘we just won face on, it’s great.’ But when the Patriots get beat badly, you don’t see that often at all, ever. When I saw that I was like, ‘alright, well Bill really respects Jimmy G. He really does.’ And even the way they traded him. They could have traded him away somewhere else, but they put him in a position like the 49ers where they felt it was a good situation for Jimmy G.
"I really think that if he’s available and they can get him for not a crazy amount — they can’t give away their whole draft — but if they can get him for a reasonable amount of draft picks they will go and get him. And if they don’t get him, they will have to go get a young quarterback. Just the way the roster is set up right now, the people they brought in and what they are paying Cam, it looks like they would go draft somebody or go get Jimmy G. You don’t spend [$160 million] in free agency and then your quarterback is making $5 million.”
