BY NICK ST. DENIS
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady still has plenty left in the tank, but if that tank starts to get progressively lighter in the next few years, the team think it has a pretty good backup plan.
The Patriots drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round of this year's draft, in hopes of developing him into Brady's successor.
A few of the team's top offensive skill players, while they may not even be donning Patriots digs when and if Garoppolo takes over, have been impressed with the young signal-caller through the first half of OTAs.
"I'll tell you, he shocked me, man," Patriots tailback and active pass-catcher Stevan Ridley this week, via CSNNE.com. "He came in and he was confident. He is a rookie, though. Everybody's going to make mistakes, but he's quiet, and he has been working hard."
Veteran receiver Danny Amendola added that the well-decorated former Eastern Illinois signal-caller has absorbed Josh McDaniels' offense with relative ease--or at least it seems that way.
"He's a smart player," Amendola said. "He's coming in with -- I don't know if they ran the same offense in college or what, but he's picked up the system really well. I know he's putting his time and his work getting in the books. He's been doing good so far."