Patriots Quarterback Shopping

Some people have just blown this over or haven't seen it mentioned at all, but the New England Patriots attempted to sign Bears practice squad QB David Fales on Thursday. While to the average fan this may be absolutely meaningless, but to others it has us completely baffled. Why would the Patriots want to sign a QB that has to be on the 53 man roster at this point in the season? Especially one that is not only a rookie, but was a 6th round draft pick? Then today, they signed Garrett Gilbert, another 6th round draft pick rookie QB, to the practice squad to fill Casey Walker's void.

This is where the speculations begin. There are a few possibilities as to why such a move was attempted/completed by the Patriots. First of all, this was likely due to the internal knowledge that Dominique Easley was going to be placed on IR and that they would have an open roster spot. The Patriots likely feel that their roster is fairly complete at this point in the season and that adding a young QB could be beneficial going forward into the future.

Another thing to think about is that while Garoppolo is a promising young QB, it doesn't hurt to give him some motivational competition. Belichick likes to remind players that they can be replaced, and will be replaced, if they slack off or fail to improve, regardless of draft position or depth chart spot. Not saying Jimmy has slacked off or hasn't given his all, but the motivation is something Belichick desires for all positions in order to maximize everyone's potential.

One thing that is a bit interesting is that the Patriots could have drafted either of them in the 6th round if they wanted to. The Patriots selected OL Jon Halapio the pick after QB Zach Mettenberger was selected, but four picks before Fales was selected. Their next two picks in the round they used on Zach Moore at #198 and Jemea Thomas at #206, eight picks before Gilbert was selected. This means the Patriots possibly had interest, but did not want to have four quarterbacks going into camp.

Between Garoppolo, Fales, and GIlbert, all of these quarterbacks have similar builds and athletic ability, but in terms of intangibles the Patriots clearly valued Jimmy far ahead of the others and went with him as their back up for this season. At this point in time the Patriots are comfortable with their depth and chose to take a look at these young QBs for potential future contracts going into the offseason.

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