The New England Patriots made 10 selections during the 2020 NFL Draft, but none were a quarterback. It’s the most important position in the NFL, and New England appears — at least for now — to want to roll with second-year quarterback Jarrett Stidham and journeyman Brian Hoyer.
The Patriots added a pair of undrafted free agents, Louisiana Tech’s J’Mar Smith and Michigan State’s Brian Lewerke, but it’s likely the Patriots are going to start Stidham or Hoyer to start 2020.
“I like both those players. We’ve had Brian a couple times,” coach Bill Belichick said this weekend after the NFL draft. “I think (Hoyer) certainly gives us a very solid level of play. We have a lot of confidence in him. And Jarrett had a good year last year. He improved a lot. We’ll see where that takes him. Yeah, I have confidence in both players.”
The Patriots’ contentment seems to be one reason why New England didn’t draft a quarterback. If Belichick felt the situation was dire, perhaps the Patriots would have traded up to target a quarterback. Instead, they didn’t pick a player at the position. Why?
“That’s a long answer there,” Belichick said. “We could talk about that for a long time. But the bottom line is that we’re evaluating that position along with all the other ones. If we feel like we find the right situation, we’ll certainly draft them. We’ve drafted them in multiple years, multiple points in the draft. Didn’t work out last three days. That wasn’t by design. It could have, but it didn’t.”
During the course of the draft, Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio indicated New England had interest in some of the quarterbacks in this year’s class. It just didn’t come together where the Patriots could match their big board with the draft board.
Now that the draft is over, it also signals a second wave of free agency. The NFL’s compensatory formula, which awards draft picks to teams for their outgoing free agency departures, is no longer tracking transactions. Teams can sign players without sacrificing their compensation, and the Patriots are likely to get a big haul, as usual. This year, they saw linebackers Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy depart. And of course, Tom Brady joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which is how the Patriots found themselves amid so much uncertainty at quarterback.
But Belichick teased the idea that the search may not be over.
“There are multiple ways to build your team,” he said. “We’ll see whether or not we get word of another that comes up at a different point in time. I don’t know. We just tried to do the best we could with what we had this weekend.”
Perhaps New England will go back to exploring free agency options. But with practically no cap space, the Patriots may have to get creative to make a signing at the quarterback position, a spot where talent never comes cheap. It really seems like it’s time for Stidham (or Hoyer) to shine.
[vertical-gallery id=85710]