New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick commented on the team's trade of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers once all the trade papers were filed Tuesday, offering high praise for the fourth-year player viewed as the future of San Francisco's offense.
"The 49ers are getting a good player, and they're getting a good person, and they're getting a great teammate, and they're getting a good quarterback," Belichick said, according to Nora Princiotti of the Boston Globe.
With 40-year-old Tom Brady looking sure to spend several more seasons at the helm of New England's offense, Belichick stressed it was time for the Patriots to move Garoppolo in "the last window that we had," since he's set to enter unrestricted free agency at the end of the season. The team got back a second-round pick.
"We probably had, in my opinion, the best quarterback situation in the league for the last - let's call it two-and-a-half years," Belichick said. "It's just not sustainable given the way that things are set up. It's definitely not something that we wanted to walk away from and I felt like we rode it out as long as we could."
Belichick described the choice to trade him as "looming for the last couple of years" and said Garoppolo's "career is moving forward" now that he has the chance to be the 49ers' starting quarterback.
