Patriots Jimmy Garoppolo: ‘Each day gets easier and easier’
With the pressure turned up and the NFL volume on high, Jimmy Garoppolo excelled.
He had been struggling at practice — admittedly against a tough group of cornerbacks. His confidence was waning leading into the Patriots week 1 preseason game. Then he burst onto the scene with an excellent night, going 9 of 13 for 157 yards and one touchdown. Since then, the NFL game has changed.
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“Each day is easier and easier. I’m trying to learn more and more with the offense as we pick it up,” Garoppolo said, via NESN.com. “It’s one of those things, if you keep getting better, it’s gonna slow down. It goes hand in hand.”
Practice makes perfect.
“It’s one of those things — each opportunity you get, you gotta learn from it, get better each time, and if you do that, you just naturally gain more confidence,” Garoppolo said Wednesday at Gillette Stadium after practice.
“If you don’t have confidence, you go out there and you’re just not yourself … If you have confidence, you can be a good quarterback.”
Garoppolo is improving at a rate that makes quarterback Ryan Mallett obsolete. Mallett, the Patriots No 2. quarterback, has held Garoppolo at bay and retained his job beneath Tom Brady on the death chart for the last two years. If Mallett’s hit his developmental peak, then he may be on a different roster within the next few weeks. Garoppolo is gunning for his job.
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