Getty Jimmy Garoppolo signals for motion during the 49ers' road win on November 21, 2021 in Jacksonville.
Willie McGinest knows a thing or two about reunions involving past New England Patriots.
After all, the three-time Super Bowl champion defender finished the tail end of his career with a “Patriots Way” atmosphere in Cleveland, playing for former Pats defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel when the longtime Bill Belichick assistant took the head coaching reins for the Browns.
All the more reason why he believes San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo would be “adaptive” in a New England-type reunion involving the AFC team McGinest mentioned on the Monday evening, July 11, edition of NFL Total Access on the NFL Network.
Place Would Bring Garoppolo & Executive Back Together
McGinest shared the table with Super Bowl winning running back Robert Turbin debating on top destinations for Jimmy G.
While McGinest did partially like Turbin’s idea of the 49ers keeping Garoppolo, he went with this destination as an ideal spot for the 30-year-old veteran quarterback: The Houston Texans.
The reason? Garoppolo’s familiarity with the general manager in the Texans’ office.
“Another spot is Houston. Nick Caserio is the guy who drafted him along with others in New England. He’s very familiar with him,” McGinest said.
The 46-year-old Caserio was not the GM when the Patriots drafted Garoppolo. However, he had a near two decade stay in Foxboro — serving in roles from personnel assistant, area scout, director of pro personnel and director of player personnel…the latter title he held in New England from 2008 to 2020 before moving on to Houston.
The Texans’ Situation
Houston has a young quarterback in Davis Mills who completed 66.8% of his passes and threw more touchdowns (16) than interceptions (10).
However, there’s been this constant debate on whether or not the former Stanford Cardinal can be a franchise savior for the Texans moving forward, having gone 2-9 overall as a starter last season and playing for an offense that was 32nd in total yards. Mills is one of two reasons why McGinest believes Garoppolo can be a fit in “H-Town” — the other being the past relationship Garoppolo has with Caserio.
“Davis Mills is a young player in his second year. He’s shown that he can go out play at a high level and do some things, but we don’t know if he’s a franchise guy. We don’t know that with a lot of these younger guys,” McGinest said. “And yeah maybe there’s some inconsistency at the coordinator and some of the skill positions for him. But Jimmy G would go in and fit right in because Nick understands him and knows him.”
McGinest adds that Garoppolo would have no trouble adjusting to the Texans if he were to join them, considering the past offensive minds Jimmy G has played for.
“He can form around any system because remember, he played under Josh McDaniel (in New England) where it changes every week and Kyle Shanahan which is another difficult system. So he’ll be adaptive to any system he goes to,” McGinest said.
The multiple Super Bowl winner isn’t the only one who cited Houston as a possible destination should the ‘Niners move on from their $137.5 million quarterback. Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports also wrote down the Texans in his list of potential landing spots, placing Houston as the third best scenario for Garoppolo.