New England Patriots Sign Brian Hoyer After Trading Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers

In a surprising move, the New England Patriots have agreed to ship backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a 2018 second-round pick.

Now the Patriots have only one quarterback on the roster, and that's Tom Brady. The 12-time Pro Bowler has been one of the most durable quarterbacks, but he can't possibly play the rest of the year without a backup.

Fortunately, the Patriots have a bye week and this should give them more time to search for a suitable backup for Brady. In fact, they may have already found the perfect candidate.

The 49ers also released veteran quarterback Brian Hoyer when they acquired Garoppolo, and it didn't take long for him to sign with the Patriots once the 49ers made the move official.

Hoyer actually began his career as Brady's backup in 2009 when the Patriots signed him as an undrafted free agent, and he was a member of the team for three seasons. He's not the most talented quarterback and he struggled so far this season, but the Patriots aren't looking for a star. They are looking for someone who can backup Brady and Hoyer is a fit in their system.

Meanwhile, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has admitted that the decision to trade Garoppolo wasn't easy. However, he didn't think it was a "sustainable" scenario.

"It's definitely not something that we wanted to walk away from and I felt like we rode it out as long as we could. We over a period of time explored every option possible to try to sustain it, but just at this point felt like we had to make a decision. It's a very complex situation on multiple levels and this is really the last window that we had and we did what we felt was best for the team," Belichick said, via NFL.com.