Jimmy Garoppolo’s trade to the San Francisco 49ers caught a lot of people off guard.

The New England Patriots accepted the rather modest price of a second-round pick for their highly regarded backup quarterback.

They did also get veteran Brian Hoyer as a backup, who was released from San Francisco as part of the trade deal. 

Even so, it’s fair to say the 49ers got the better deal, especially after seeing what Garoppolo’s been able to do in a few short months in California.

He led his team to close out the regular season with five wins from five games - giving the 49ers their first winning streak since 2014. 

Without their new quarterback, it's likely the team would have finished with a record worse than 6-10. 

The 26-year-old has a chance to lead the 49ers from the beginning next season and it's fair to say the future looks bright for San Francisco with their new quarterback. 

The 49ers gain is everyone else's loss, that is, according to Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com, who believes there's more to the Garoppolo trade than meets the eye.  

Pluto claims that there were a number of teams interested in trading the Patriots quarterback earlier this season, but coach Bill Belichick was desperate to keep hold of his back up. 

So desperate in fact, that he turned down a huge offer from the Cleveland Browns. Pluto states that the Browns offered to 'part with Houston's first-round pick and other goodies' in exchange for Garoppolo.

They even are said to have been willing to help Belichick shop around for a backup quarterback to help the trade work. 

But the Patriots coach turned that offer down and froze Cleveland out of any potential deal. So the trade to San Francisco must have caught the Browns completely off guard. 

And the reason Belichick made that trade, is because he was forced to by Patriots owner Robert Kraft. 

That's according to ESPN, who claimed the pair had a meeting that decided Garoppolo's future.  

"It ended with a clear mandate to Belichick... trade Garoppolo because he would not be in the team's long-term plans... Belichick was furious and demoralized... he did his job. One morning in late October, Belichick texted 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan to call him..." 

And the rest is history. Garoppolo moved to the 49ers for a modest deal that in hindsight, could have seen the Patriots do much better if they hadn't frozen Cleveland out of a trade.