FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The numbers of note with the New England Patriots this preseason are 113, 77 and 16. Those are the snaps played by quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett and Tom Brady, respectively, over the first three preseason games.

Which brings us to Thursday night's finale against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium (7 p.m. ET) and how coach Bill Belichick plans to split up repetitions.

All three quarterbacks traveled to the game, and Belichick has said that all could benefit from playing. But serving a reminder that there are only so many snaps to go around, he stopped short of detailing his plan and said there's no "perfect solution" for the situation when preparing to open the season with Brady serving a four-game suspension.

Because Brady is not due to play until Oct. 9 in Cleveland, some believe that makes him the lowest priority of the group, but listening to Belichick on sports radio WEEI-FM 93.7 on Wednesday, it doesn't sound as though he subscribes to that line of thinking. Not even close.

"I think it's obvious, playing in games is different from practicing," Belichick said on the "Dale & Holley Show with Thornton."

"Your backup quarterback can play in preseason and who knows when he's going to play again [after that]? But whenever he does, it's going to be very important. We know when Tom is going to play again and that's going to be important, and I think these [regular-season] games, even though they're not right on the doorstep, they are still an important part of his preparation and the team's preparation with him at quarterback. That's why we do it."

That might be the strongest indication that Belichick is planning to play Brady at least a little bit against the Giants.

That approach would be consistent with the message Belichick has annually repeated during this part of the team-building process over his 17-year coaching tenure: Training camp and preseason is about preparing for the regular-season opener and also building a foundation for the entire 16-game regular season.

So while Belichick has made it clear that getting Garoppolo ready for the Sept. 11 regular-season opener at Arizona was the team's priority, that doesn't mean it's an all-or-nothing type of deal. Brady, who will be starting 75 percent of the team's regular-season games against Garoppolo's 25 percent (assuming good health for both), needs his work, too, as football isn't the type of game where a quarterback can simply expect to show up Oct. 9 and pick up where he left off on Jan. 24 without some foundation of game reps in between. New teammates such as receiver Chris Hogan and tight end Martellus Bennett also benefit from playing with Brady, as evidenced by the work that went into the impressive 33-yard Brady-to-Hogan touchdown last Friday.

That's why Brady playing quarterback snaps in the preseason finale for the first time since 2011 and only the third time since 2004 isn't a far-fetched thought. One could envision Belichick thinking the ideal scenario would be to get Garoppolo positive momentum early after some rocky moments last week, then Brady some more work with the big picture in mind, before turning it mostly over to Brissett to clean it up.

Specific to Brady, the question is similar to what some ask at the blackjack table: At 16, do you hit or stick?

Consider Belichick the dealer in this case, and while he's kept his intentions under wraps to this point, it would be far from a shock if it's a hit.