Martellus Bennett slams former Patriots QB Jimmy Garoppolo for missing a game in 2016

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Martellus Bennett has always been a straight shooter, and also he did not pull any punches during a recent appearance on the Double Coverage podcast. Talking to former New England Patriots teammate Devin McCourty and his twin brother, Miami Dolphins defensive back Jason McCourty, Bennett went hard after another ex-Patriot: Jimmy Garoppolo.

The topic of the conversation was the 2016 Patriots, who featured Bennett, Garoppolo and Devin McCourty, and who went on to win the Super Bowl after a 14-2 regular season.

That season started with Tom Brady sidelined for four games; the plan was for Garoppolo to take over until the future Hall of Famer would return. Garoppolo, however, started only two games before missing the other two due to a shoulder injury.

According to Bennett, however, he certainly could have played in one of those games — a Week 4 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“We lost two games. One of them was because Jimmy Garoppolo was being a b—-. He quit before us… decided not to play right before the game. Jacoby [Brissett] came out and played with a f—ed up thumb and played his heart out, but Jimmy was just being a b—- about it all,” Bennett said.

“You can’t win with a b—- for a quarterback, first of all. That was the whole thing with him: He didn’t want to come out and do anything because his agent was trying to protect his body or some s— like that. Which, I can’t fault him for that. But, like, you should have made that decision on Thursday not on Sunday.

“So, anyways, he’s not going out there, so now Jacoby straps up and we lost to the Buffalo Bills. We shouldn’t have lost. It was just last-minute, trying to make adjustments for what Jacoby could do.”

Even with that loss against the Bills — a 16-0 shutout — the Patriots survived Brady’s four-game suspension just fine. Sitting at 3-1 when he returned, the team went on an impressive run and lost only one more game for the rest of the season (a 31-24 thriller against Seattle).

The year ultimately ended with the legendary comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51. The following season, Jimmy Garoppolo was traded to the San Francisco 49ers.