ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter was a guest on sports radio WEEI in Boston on Thursday, and he discussed the NFL draft with hosts Tim Benz, Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria.

One part of the discussion that caught our attention was when New England Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's name came up.

Schefter’s take:

"I was talking to somebody in the league about that situation the other day; they were saying last year the Patriots [took] Garoppolo because the quarterback classes are weak the next couple of years. I was thinking 'That’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve heard.' Lo and behold, there are two first-round-worthy quarterbacks this year, and next year, most people believe there are only two first-round quarterbacks again. So there’s a shortage of quarterbacks in two years and that’s why there have been people, over the last year around the league, that have expressed interest in Jimmy Garoppolo. I don’t know what kind of quarterback he is going to be, we’ll all see, but people thought the Patriots were forward-thinking with that move and I think that has been borne out -- though we still don’t have any idea what kind of player he is."

Schefter then made the point that there wasn’t any realistic trade that was going to happen with Garoppolo, but it was more exploratory in nature to see if he might be available.

"The point is that quarterbacks are commodities. I don’t know how well Jimmy Garoppolo has or hasn’t performed in practice -- what they think of him, how that pertains to the quarterbacks in this draft class ... but if there was somebody that wanted Jimmy Garoppolo and was willing to give up a one for him -- and I don’t think this is happening -- and [the Patriots] identified this quarterback from this conference that they thought they could get in Round 4 [to replace him], they would do something like that. Any team would. Quarterback is the most valuable position.

"So when they drafted Garoppolo, while some people didn’t like it, obviously because they would have liked to get [Tom] Brady some immediate help, I think you draft him as a commodity and you see something in him that makes you think that one day he could be the guy. It doesn’t mean he will be. It’s exactly why Tennessee has no choice but to take Marcus Mariota at two today. If they wanted to auction him off, they could get back right away at least two ones."