NFL draft: Jimmy Garoppolo mentored by QB guru who teaches Tom Brady’s delivery

Eastern Illinois product Jimmy Garoppolo was tabbed by the Patriots to learn in the shadow of Tom Brady. (Steven Senne/AP)

The New England Patriots didn't hide the fact that they were looking to select a quarterback during the 2014 NFL draft, but few expected them to pick one as high as the second round.

That's what New England opted to do, selecting Jimmy Garoppolo out of Eastern Illinois with the 62nd overall pick.

Is Garoppolo destined to be the eventual replacement for Tom Brady? If that's to be the case, it's going to be a while -- Brady doesn't seem interested in hanging up the cleats anytime soon. But if Garoppolo finds himself under center anytime in the near future and looks a lot like Brady, there's a reason for it.

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Much like the Pro Bowl signal caller, Garoppolo also played baseball as a youth and developed a "crow hop" to his throws on the gridiron as a result. Garoppolo hired former NFL quarterback Jeff Christensen to help fix his throwing motion, and as The Boston Herald revealed on Sunday, Christensen teaches his clients the mechanics of Tom Brady and has tutored Garoppolo using Brady's delivery as a model.

“I came to the conclusion after Tom won his second (Super Bowl), just watching him, how he does what he does, that mechanically, in my mind, Tom had the best motion in football,” Christensen told the Herald. “At that point, everything I taught the kids was based off of what Brady does.”