When the New England Patriots played in Week 1, they did not have quarterback Jarrett Stidham on the active roster. He was a healthy scratch, which meant that he was the team’s third-string quarterback. That’s a long fall for a player who seemed to be in the mix for the starting job when Tom Brady left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But Cam Newton won the starting quarterback job and Brian Hoyer beat out Stidham for the backup role. Patriots quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch was complimentary of Stidham’s work this offseason, even with the 2019 fourth-round pick’s stock fading.
“Jarrett’s (did) a really nice job in camp, all three of those guys did, and they’re all competing every day in practice,” Fisch said on a video conference call on Thursday. “Jarrett and Brian are taking a lot of reps and competing with one another. Just the way the numbers games work in the NFL is that it’s difficult to dress more than two QBs for any given game, but they’ll continue to compete with one another and continue to try to make each other better and make Cam better. As I said earlier in camp, rising tides lifts all ships.”
The tipping point for Stidham seemed to take place early in training camp when he went to the hospital for hip injury. He was limited for a significant portion of the workouts that followed, which was when Newton’s command of the offense seemed to grow exponentially. Fisch was asked how much the injury played a factor in Stidham’s inability to win the QB1 or QB2 jobs.
“I don’t know if I would say that was an impact,” Fisch said. “I think it was a matter of just they’ve continued to really compete with one another and at that moment in time last week, the decision was made that Brian was going to be the No. 2.”
Stidham’s battle to serve as the No. 2 quarterback may not be over.
[vertical-gallery id=94685]