Is Jimmy Garoppolo ready to be the Patriots’ starting quarterback?

The quarterback who grew up with Tom Brady posters on his wall appears likely to be replacing him as the New England Patriots’ starter for the first quarter of the season.

Unless the NFLPA and Brady’s lawyers can get an injunction, or perform some magic in federal court, Jimmy Garoppolo will be taking snaps from center — or via the shotgun, and he and the Patriots are most accustomed — and throwing live bullets against the Pittsburgh Steelers in one of the most highly anticipated season openers in years.

Nothing but a chicken wing, eh?

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Garoppolo’s professional career (at least in games that count) is a 27-throw body of work — 17 in the meaningless regular-season finale, and the rest in mopup duty as a rookie backup to Brady. You know, Brady, the quarterback that everyone had dead to rights after four weeks of last season before he turned things so dramatically around to finish the season with a Super Bowl victory.

Nothing will come easily for Garoppolo following that act, plus the added attenion cloaking the Patriots with deflate-gate, but he’s a talented, quick-thinking trigger man who ran the Baylor spread offense at Eastern Illinois and set passing records at the school where Tony Romo and Sean Payton formerly quarterbacked. 

As for his skills, he has nice touch on his deep passes, though he lacked a laser arm on tougher throws — deep outs and comebacks, for instance — when last we saw him. Garoppolo has good athleticism to move within the pocket and escape pressure, but he’s not a runner, per se. He has good feel and touch on rhythm throws, but really we’re going off such a small sample size in real games, it’s hard to make a sweeping judgment.

Bill Belichick, notoriously silent in situations such as these, has had little of substance to say of his potential substitute QB. But Belichick did offer a sense Garoppolo has improved from Year 1 to 2:

“He’s made a lot of progress,” Belichick said. “Now we’re into a second year, and we’ll see where that continues and where we’re able to pick up on the learning from last year. And that goes for all of our second year players. We’ll see. It’s different being out there in pads, different being out there in a competitive situation, which we haven’t gotten to yet, but that will be coming shortly.”

Garoppolo reportedly has looked more comfortable coming out from center in OTAs and early training camp practices after almost exclusively working from the shotgun in college. He’s regarded as smart and mentally tough — teammates praised the way he bounced back as a rookie from a disastrous practice session one day (five interceptions) to turn in one of his better sessions the following day.

Up first are the defensively rebuilding Pittsburgh Steelers, who might play more cover-2, in the opener. Next up: at the Buffalo Bills, in what could be a low scoring game and a mental challenge against Rex Ryan, who is sure to mix up his defensive looks, and a fearsome front seven. Weeks 3 and 5 (the Patriots are on bye in Week 4) are two different types of tests, with the young, aggressive Jacksonville Jaguars at home and at the Dallas Cowboys, who also could have a strong rush, playing in front of 100,000 fans in Jerry World.

We know Belichick is a master at coming up with Plan Bs, and he’ll have Garoppolo mentally prepared. The Patriots also can lean on a solid run-game system, good two-TE groupings with Rob Gronkowski and Scott Chandler, and a solid top three at wideout with Julian Edelman, Brandon LaFell and Danny Amendola. The offensive line could feature two rookie guards, which is a concern, but the tackles are solid and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is sure to employ plenty of six-man protections and give Garoppoloi outlet options out of the backfield.

Will Garoppolo be Brady? No. But can he be Matt Cassel circa 2008? That team won 11 games, and though it missed the playoffs, the Patriots were far more effective than people expected that season.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm