New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has appeared on the injury report this season with limitations. His elbow injury has hampered him during the second half of the season with a few missed practices. And so Bill Belichick made an admission which he doesn’t usually make during a press conference on Tuesday morning.
“There have been a couple examples where Tom hasn’t been able to do a lot this year, so that’s given [Jarrett] Stidham an opportunity to go with our first-team group and run our plays and run our offense,” Belichick said.
Belichick’s admission is notable in a season when Brady’s accuracy has been surprisingly erratic. He’s typically one of the most accurate passers in the history of the NFL, but he’s also 42 years old and, apparently, dealing with a pesky elbow problem. If Brady is playing through pain, that could limit what he’s physically capable of. It could partially explain why Brady’s completion percentage is 60.1, the lowest it has been during his career. His injury also limits his ability to prepare with his top pass-catchers, Mohamed Sanu and Julian Edelman, who have been limited at practice, as well.
Prior to Brady’s injuries, Stidham, a 2019 fourth-round pick, ran the scout team for most of the season while Brady presumably took almost all of the first-team reps. When Stidham is operating the scout team, he’s running the upcoming opponent’s plays while emulating the opposing starting quarterback. While replacing Brady, Stidham gets a chance to be himself while playing in the Patriots offense, a rarity for the rookie.
And the chain reaction continues.
“That’s given Cody [Kessler] a chance to run scout-team plays, because Jarrett’s not running those,” Belichick said. “And again, quarterbacks are always looking for more work, so they’ve taken advantage of it, and it’s helped them. You don’t always want to do it that way, but sometimes it’s best to do it that way.”
Belichick admitted the three quarterbacks have come in handy. New England has tended to carry two quarterbacks under Belichick’s 20-year tenure. A shallow quarterback group helps create depth at other positions on the roster. But they’ve needed all three signal-callers. Brady’s injury has led to part-time promotions for Stidham and Kessler. There are some hiccups, however. As Brady, Stidham and Kessler are at different developmental stages, the Patriots coaching staff has been careful to attend to their individual needs.
“You need to go over things with them that, honestly, you’ve been over with Tom 400 times,” Belichick said. “Try to be more efficient and work with those guys. … You don’t want to down to the guys that have a lot of experience and you don’t want to talk about the guys who don’t really know what you’re talking about. So as a teacher, you try to bridge that.”
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