Time and time again, the New England Patriots, both directly and indirectly, have thrown their support behind Jarrett Stidham.
Barring any moves, the 2019 fourth-round pick will enter training camp with the Pats’ starting quarterback job his to lose following the departure of Tom Brady this offseason. New England has passed on signing veteran signal-callers like Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston and Andy Dalton, while it looks unlikely they’ll go after Cam Newton. And instead of drafting a quarterback, they just signed two undrafted players in J’Mar Smith and Brian Lewerke. Veteran journeyman Brian Hoyer is the only other quarterback on the roster.
When you put all those factors together, it’s hard not to think Stidham’s the guy. And that’s why ESPN’s Bill Barnwell named the Auburn product as one of the NFL’s biggest offseason “winners” in a story published Tuesday.
Here’s part of his reasoning:
Stidham is one of the most obvious victors of the past few months. We all knew the Patriots and Tom Brady would come to terms on a deal … until they didn’t. Then we all knew that the Pats were going to acquire Nick Foles or Andy Dalton or pull off some impossible run up the draft board for Tua Tagovailoa … and that didn’t happen either. Through the entire player acquisition window, the only competition the Patriots added for Stidham is veteran Brian Hoyer, who lost his last Tbattle with Stidham for the backup spot in training camp in 2019. Barring a last-second move for Cam Newton, Stidham is going to be the Week 1 starter for the Patriots.
Although Stidham’s saw little work during the regular season, he was sharp in the preseason and appears to be drawing rave reviews within the organization.
