Notebook: Garoppolo on difference between practice, game performance

FOXBOROUGH — As we detailed here earlier on Friday, Jimmy Garoppolo wasn’t good in the intra-squad scrimmage. At all. For a variety of reasons. While it hasn’t all been bad, it has followed a curious pattern for the signal-caller, who has occasionally struggled in practice but has looked very sharp in games. After Friday’s session, he was asked about that trend, and he kind of shrugged.

"Yeah, I try to come out and perform the same every day -- whether it's game, practice, whatever it may be,” he said. “But, you know, I don't know what it is. It just seems to work out that way."



He added: "You're never happy about incompletions or interceptions or anything like that. But it's training camp. We'll learn from those. We always go back and watch the film, diagnose what happened, and what we can do to fix it."

—Tom Brady has already made a number of impressive connections with newcomer Brandin Cooks over the course of the first week or so of training camp, including a sweet pass play in the corner of the end zone during Friday’s scrimmage.

“That was a great catch,” Brady said of the reception, which went for roughly 50 yards. “If we can build those things into our offense and make some of those down-the-field plays, that takes some more pressure off other parts of the offense. Certainly, when guys are making plays that far down the field, they’ve got to cover and they’ve got to respect it.”

One of the biggest questions that some have asked is whether or not a newcomer like Cooks could acclimate to the New England offense. That includes whether or not the newcomer might bristle if he’s not the primary focus of the passing game. To this point, Brady said it’s been all good with Cooks.

“He’s been great. [He’s] just so fun to be with, so fun to work with,” Brady said. “He comes in every day with a great attitude and wants to work hard and is unselfish and been out here every day practicing and working on different things. He and I are building up a rapport but that takes a lot of time to be built.

“We’re working hard at it. We’re talking about things,” added Brady. “There’s a lot of things that go on to try to improve the learning curve, but he’s just been so much fun to be around. He really adds to a great group of other receivers that I’ve been fortunate to play with for a long time.”

—Brady was asked about Brett Favre, and if the two quarterbacks had talked at all about how to best find success late in a career. Brady said they were able to connect through former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll, who also spent time with Favre when they were together with the Jets.

“I’ve become friends with Brett. Brian Daboll coached him at the Jets and became friends and Brian Daboll was here, and Brett and I found a way to connect through Brian,” Brady said. “He’s been someone that I’ve always talked to, so I really enjoy it. I just loved his style. I admired him for so long. We talked about certain things, but yeah, I mean, he was incredible playing as an older quarterback, and he still had a great love for the game. He was a phenomenal player. I always looked up to him.”

For what it’s worth, Favre is likely in Brady’s sights when it comes to the best regular-season performance of all-time for a 40-year-old quarterback. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, here’s our pick for the top 5 regular-season stat lines for 40-year-old signal-callers.

1. Favre, Minnesota, 2009: 16 starts, 363-for-531 (68 percent), 4,202 yards, 33 TDs, 7 INTs, 107.2 passer rating. Almost got the Vikings to a Super Bowl. For what it’s worth, he’s the only quarterback age 40 or older win a playoff game.

2. Vinny Testaverde, NYJ, 2003: 7 games played, 7 starts, 123-for-198 (62 percent), 1,385 yards, 7 TDs, 2 INTs, 90.6 passer rating. Testaverde and Chad Pennington combined to lead the Jets to a 6-10 mark. It was his last year in New York — he’d actually go on to play pretty well as a 41-year-old the following year with Bill Parcells in Dallas, when he threw for 3,532 yards in 15 regular-season starts.

3. Matt Hasselbeck, Indianapolis, 2015: 8 games played, 8 starts, 156-for-256 (61 percent), 1,690 yards, 9 TDs, 5 INTs, 84.0 passer rating. Pressed into service after an injury to Andrew Luck, he went 5-3 as a starter in the last year of his career.

4. Sonny Jurgensen, Washington, 1974: 14 games played, 4 starts, 107-for-167 (64 percent), 1,185 yards, 11 TDs, 5 INTs, 94.5 passer rating. Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer split quarterbacking duties that year for a Redskins’ team that finished the year 12-4.

5. Warren Moon, Minnesota, 1996: 8 games played, 8 starts, 134-for-247 (54 percent), 1,610 yards, 7 TDs, 9 INTs, 68.7 passer rating. Moon and Brad Johnson went back-and-forth over the course of that season. Like Testaverde, Moon would continue to play well into his 40s — he threw for 36 touchdowns and 5,310 yards between the ages of 41 and 42 with the Seahawks.