FOXBORO, Mass. — It could take a while for New England Patriots quarterbacks Cam Newton, Mac Jones and Brian Hoyer to get to know tight end Hunter Henry on the same level as backup QB Jarrett Stidham.
Stidham let Henry, and eventually the tight end’s wife, crash at his place for the start of the offseason workout program. Henry signed a three-year, $37.5 million contract with the Patriots as a free agent this offseason.
“Hunter actually — whenever he got up here, he actually lived with my wife and I for like the last month or so until his house was ready and stuff,” Stidham said Monday.
“April, mid-April, he lived with us — jeez probably for three or four weeks and then whenever his wife moved out here they were with us for a week, week-and-a-half. And then their house got ready, so they’re moved out of the house now, but it was fun. It was kind of like a college roommate experience one again.”
Stidham also set up a Patriots offseason camp in Newport Beach, Calif., which Henry attended, after free agency this offseason.
“It was really just a way to get all the guys together,” Stidham said. “Last year, we didn’t have an offseason. It was just kind of different. A lot of things were different. We weren’t able to build some of those bonds at the beginning of the offseason like we have this year. So I wanted to just get guys together, kind of get the newness out of the way and just start building connections on the field and off the field. Just getting to hang out with those guys off the field was great and obviously getting to know those guys on the field, especially the new guys. Just getting everybody together, creating camaraderie and just trying to get that going for us.”
Stidham and Henry surely know each other very well off the field at this point after living with one another for more than a month. We’ll find out this summer in training camp and the preseason if that chemistry made its way onto the field.
