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The Patriots made the trade of Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco official but Bill Belichick offered little clarity as to why during his conference call with the media Tuesday morning. The coach expressed nothing but respect for Garoppolo and indicated he did not want to part ways with the former second-round pick, but felt the time had come to do so.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jimmy. I couldn't ask for him to give us any more than he has given us," Belichick began. "The 49ers are getting a good player, they are getting a good person and they're getting a great teammate and they are getting a good quarterback, and Jimmy is getting a good coach.

"His career is moving forward, he's a talented individual. He is a great person to coach. I met with him weekly. As his career moves forward, we have to look at our team, this year and beyond. We probably had in my mind, the best quarterback situation in the league for the last 2 1/2 years. It is just not sustainable the way things are set up. "Not something we wanted to walk away from. I felt we rode it out as long as we could, over a period of time, explored every option possible to sustain it. At this point, felt like we had to make a decision. Very complex situation on multiple levels. This is really the last window that we had, we did what we felt was best for the team. There were many things involved in this whole process."