Jimmy Garoppolo was one of the most sought after commodities in football over the past few years, but the New England Patriots refused to give up him until it was absolutely necessary. Despite many teams viewing him as a potential franchise quarterback and the Patriots already having one in Tom Brady, the team viewed Garoppolo as too important to the team's future to move until they simply had no other options.

To some, that meant taking a subpar deal from the San Francisco 49ers at the trade deadline. The Patriots got a second round for their backup quarterback, but Ian Rapoport of NFL.com appeared on the Not Sunday podcast on WEEI and reported that, before the draft, the Cleveland Browns actually made a superior offer to what the 49ers actually gave up at the trade deadline.

Rapoport didn't say whether or not the supposedly better offer included the No. 12 overall pick, as many fans have speculated about since before the draft. He did say, though, that it ultimately did not matter, as the Patriots did not make Garoppolo available ahead of the draft. In fact, they even tried to sign him to a contract extension in the spring before both sides realized the efforts were fruitless.

Garoppolo wanted to play, and the Patriots didn't have a place for him to. Perhaps in the back of their minds, some front office executives wanted Brady to fall off this season so that they could keep Garoppolo and move forward with him as the quarterback. That is why they didn't trade Garoppolo at the draft, to make sure that Brady didn't have that sort of drop.

But once it became apparent that wasn't going to happen, trading Garoppolo became a necessity. At that point, the value of previous offers wasn't important. All that mattered was getting the best offer that they could in that specific moment. The Browns were either afraid to trade with New England at that point, or they were fixated on A.J. McCarron, who, despite having less value league-wide, they were willing to give up more for than the 49ers paid for Garoppolo.

We'll never know for sure what the Browns really offered near the draft, but no amount would have been worthwhile if Brady had gotten hurt early this season or simply didn't look like himself. The Patriots paid a premium for the insurance that Garoppolo provided. When they needed that policy to pay out, they just took whatever they could get.

The New England Patriots just moved to 8-2 after dominating the Raiders in Mexico City!Take a second to sign up for our FREE Patriots newsletter!