Patriots owner Robert Kraft denies ordering Bill Belichick to trade Jimmy Garoppolo

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has strongly denied a report that he ordered Bill Belichick to trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

Garoppolo, who had backed up Tom Brady for three and a half seasons in New England, was traded to the San Francisco 49ers earlier this season in exchange for a second-round pick and proceeded to win each of the five games he started to close out the season.

A report by ESPN earlier this week cited growing tensions between Kraft, Belichick and Brady, prompting them to release a joint statement on Friday calling it "flat-out inaccurate".

The report states Belichick saw Garoppolo as the future of the franchise and was keen to find a way to move forward with him after this season but Kraft ordered the Patriots head coach to move him out of loyalty to Brady - something Kraft flatly denies.

Kraft told MMQB: "Until Monday at the trade deadline - I believe that was October 30 - the last time I talked to Bill about Jimmy's situation was in a group with Bill, [club president] Jonathan [Kraft], [director of player personnel] Nick Caserio … a small group of us, I think in June.

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"That is the last time I talked to Bill about it. I would see Nick occasionally and say, 'Anything going on?'

"I assumed once the season started, we'd talk again at the end of the season about it. The next time I spoke with Bill about it was the Monday before the trade deadline.

"He called me on that Monday and said he got a deal with San Francisco, Jimmy for a second-round pick and [quarterback] Brian Hoyer. Turns out they had to cut Hoyer and then we got him.

"But really, this was basically a second-round pick and Brian Hoyer for Jimmy.

"Bill asked me if I was OK with this. I was really taken aback a little bit. I wanted to think about it. I talked to Jonathan, who was okay with it, and I called Bill back and said, 'OK.'"