New England Patriots held on to Jimmy Garoppolo as long as they could

The New England Patriots made a somewhat surprising move by trading Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers. According to Bill Belichick, it was a move they had to make.

Late Monday night, the New England Patriots made their first splash before the NFL trading deadline, as they sent Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a second-round pick.

Due to the 49ers being one of the worst teams in the NFL, this draft pick will likely be valuable for the Patriots, as it should be one of the first five picks in round two. Despite getting a good pick in return, the Patriots were certainly hesitant to move Garoppolo.

As the Patriots know, the quarterback position is the most important one in football. Finding a franchise player at the position is not an easy thing to do, but it is something that the Patriots have had for more than a decade with Tom Brady.

Since Brady is north of 40-years-old, the Patriots were trying to hold on to Garoppolo for as long as possible. Unfortunately, the time had to come to send him away. Recently, Bill Belichick spoke with Mike Reiss of ESPN.com about the decision to move Garoppolo.

"It’s definitely not something we wanted to walk away from,” he said. “I felt like we rode it out as long as we could. Over a period of time, we explored every option possible to try to sustain it. But at this point, felt like we had to make a decision.“It’s a very complex situation on multiple levels. This is really the last window that we had [trading deadline Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET], and we did what we felt was best for the team.”"

Since Garoppolo was set to become a free agent at the end of the season, the Patriots would have likely had to use the franchise tag to keep him. Using the franchise tag on a backup quarterback would have really hurt the Patriots in the offseason, as it could cost them a player like Malcolm Butler and also limit what they could do in free agency.

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With both Garoppolo and Brissett gone, the Patriots will now have to find a backup quarterback for the rest of the season. Since the 49ers released Brian Hoyer shortly after trading for Garoppolo, he makes a lot of sense for the Patriots with his history there.