Tag: Brian Hoyer

Former Spartan QB Brian Hoyer delivers a big block on Monday Night Football

New England Patriots QB and former Spartan Brian Hoyer had a big block in the first half of the Monday Night Football game this week.

[jwplayer A8I2iwtU]

Three former Michigan State Football quarterbacks started in Week 4 of the 2020 NFL season, including Brian Hoyer of the New England Patriots. It wasn’t the best day at the office for Hoyer and the Patriots, but he did have a nice highlight in the first half, albeit an unconventional one for a quarterback.

In the first quarter, the Patriots ran a reverse to rookie wide receiver Isaiah Zuber. Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Derrick Nnadi had sniffed out the misdirection and was on his way to break up the play before he ran into a brick wall by the name of Brian Hoyer.

If you ever wanted to see what it looks like for an unstoppable force to meet an immovable object, check out the highlight below:

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Patriots bench Brian Hoyer to play Jarrett Stidham vs. Chiefs

Brian Hoyer had a truly awful start to the game.

The New England Patriots benched Brian Hoyer at the end of the third quarter of the team’s Week 4 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. Jarrett Stidham saw game action for the second time in his NFL career.

Hoyer left the game completing 15 of 24 passes for 130 yards and an interception. He also took two sacks. One of the sacks came at the end of the half when New England didn’t have a timeout. Because Hoyer went down, the Patriots couldn’t attempt a field goal. He then made another major mistake, taking a strip-sack at the 10-yard line during the third quarter. The turnover led to a Chiefs’ touchdown drive.

On Stidham’s first drive, he and the Patriots scored a touchdown, a 4-yard pass from Stidham to receiver N’Keal Harry.

The Patriots were left to play Hoyer and Stidham after Cam Newton tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

[vertical-gallery id=95815]

Twitter called for Patriots to bench Brian Hoyer after awful first half vs. Chiefs

How bad could Jarrett Stidham be?

Brian Hoyer had a truly terrible first half in the New England Patriots’ Week 4 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs. He was 10 of 16 for 73 yards and an interception, with New England’s offense struggling to move the ball when it wasn’t handing the ball to its running backs.

NFL fans were questioning the Patriots’ decision to start Hoyer over Jarrett Stidham following the news that quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for COVID-19. But by halftime, Twitter was calling for New England to bench Hoyer, and give Stidham a try.

What was the tipping point? Hoyer took a sack at the end of the first half when the Patriots had no timeouts left. New England was in field goal position, but Hoyer’s sack led the clock to run out. The Patriots couldn’t get points on the drive. A field goal would’ve tied the game.

It was an awful end to a rough first half for Hoyer.

Yikes.

[vertical-gallery id=95441]

Report: Brian Hoyer would start for Patriots vs. Chiefs in place of Cam Newton

The New England Patriots are prepared to hand the keys to the offense to Brian Hoyer.

Where have you gone, Jarrett Stidham? Once regarded as the replacement for Tom Brady, the former Auburn QB isn’t considered the person to step in for Cam Newton if/when the New England Patriots play the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4.

According to a report, Bill Belichick will replace the COVID-19 positive Newton with Brian Hoyer rather than Stidham should the game postponed from Sunday be played Monday or Tuesday.

Hoyer has been in the Patriots’ system before and backed up Brady from 2009-11 and 2017-18. He has appeared in 23 games as a Patriot, throwing 51 passes.

Hoyer has never started a game for New England. That could change in the next few days.

Here’s what Jarrett Stidham is working on behind the scenes

Jarrett Stidham, now QB3, is impressing coaches behind the scenes.

Jarrett Stidham’s standing with the New England Patriots has gone into free fall since the signing of quarterback Cam Newton. At that time, Stidham was the presumed starter. Now, he’s the third quarterback on the depth chart. He has yet to be active for a game this season.

But behind the scenes, he’s been impressive, his coaches said.

“He’s a pleasure to work with because all he wants to ever do is get better and all he wants to do is improve and find a way to be more a part of playing,” quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch said Tuesday. “And he’s done a tremendous job there in terms of his work ethic, watching film, spending extra time in the meeting room, spending extra time on the practice field, staying later on the field, making sure pregame warmup he’s always available before, you know, before kickoff, so to speak.

“And he’s truly motivated to improve and truly motivated to continue to get better. And he’s done a really good job of that every day and really taken to working a lot alongside of Cam and spending a lot of time with him as well. So it’s been a real cool thing to watch, and I’m really impressed with how motivated he has continued to be to get better and be, continue to be a participant on the offense.”

New England drafted Stidham with a fourth-round pick in 2019, and he made the team’s roster as Tom Brady’s backup last year. He initially made the team over Brian Hoyer, who had intended to return to the team after they cut him before the Colts swooped in and signed him with a much bigger offer. So that left Stidham as Brady’s lone backup. But this year, Hoyer has beaten out Stidham for the job backing up Newton. Stidham had been in the mix for QB1 and QB2 but a hip injury set him back during training camp. But even with the last few weeks of health, Stidham still hasn’t overcome Hoyer.

“Stid has done a great job since he got here,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Tuesday. “He’s a great kid and loves the game football. Works really hard. Has put a lot of time and effort into his craft. He’s really an unselfish guy. Competed his butt off this whole year trying to learn and improve as a football player. Really continues to work really hard and prepare just as he would if he was starting, which is what he did last year as a rookie. He’s an unselfish guy. He will do anything to help the team. Practices well, practices hard, prepares every week to be ready to go. I have a lot of confidence in Jarrett and I see a lot of growth in him each week that he’s here.”

[vertical-gallery id=95441]

Report: Cam Newton named starting QB for New England Patriots

Cam Newton will begin the season as the New England Patriots starting quarterback.

This might not come as shocking news to many but Cam Newton has reportedly won the starting quarterback job with the New England Patriots.

Per The Boston Globe’s Jim McBride, the decision was announced by head coach Bill Belichik on Thursday during a team meeting.

Newton, the 2015 NFL MVP and 2011 Offensive Rookie of the Year, was signed by the Patriots during this offseason and immediately found himself in a battle with another former Auburn quarterback in Jarrett Stidham for the starting position.

The Patriots open the season on Sept. 13 against the Miami Dolphins.

Cam Newton: ‘Absolutely doesn’t feel like Patriots’ starting quarterback’

The former Auburn star is battling with Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer for the Patriots starting job.

Cam Newton is currently battling for the starting quarterback job for the New England Patriots and, despite all reports that he has taken the lead ahead of Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer in the competition, the former Auburn star isn’t writing his name in that spot yet.

“Absolutely not. Every day is a workday for me. That label is not important to me right now,” Newton said per ESPN. “I have so much I need to get better at, so much I need to learn, so much I need to be comfortable with. Throughout this process, that’s the last thing that I’m pretty much worried about.”

Newton, the 2015 NFL MVP, joined the Patriots this summer after being released by the Carolina Panthers. In nine seasons with the Panthers, the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner broke a plethora of records while leading the team to the 2015 NFC Championship.

He knows he is in for a battle with both Stidham and Hoyer.

“There are certain things when I come to the line of scrimmage and it’s just not as firing mentally as I would want it to be,” he said. “… I see a person like Hoyster go to the line, and he’s as sharp as can be. For me, asking him questions, and he answers them. Stiddy [too]. There are things I know I need to become better at. Until I get those things done, everything else is irrelevant.”

Patriots coach Bill Belichick has seen the potential in Newton, especially when it comes to his leadership skills.

“I think that’s Cam’s personality,” Belichick said. “You see that in the morning going into the squad meeting or the practice field or the dining room or whatever it happens to be.”

Here’s a look at the Patriots’ quarterback stats through 9 practices

Cam Newton has statistical advantage in latest numbers released on Wednesday.

As the New England Patriots enter a quarterback competition for the 2020 season, we are beginning to see how Cam Newton, Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham are doing numerically. As noted in a tweet from the Providence Journal’s Mark Daniels, the trio have managed decent completion rates throughout the first couple weeks of practice.

One interesting note with the statistics is that Cam Newton has had the most pass attempts. As training camp continues forward, it is becoming clearer that Newton has a clear path to the starting job as the Patriots get set to take on the Miami Dolphins September 13.

It will be interesting to see if the trio’s numbers can remain as consistent over the next couple of weeks. With no preseason, these practices mean that much more.

[vertical-gallery id=93611]

The Patriots weren’t lying: The QB competition is, indeed, wide open

Sometimes Bill Belichick can be misleading. This time, he doesn’t seem to be.

The New England Patriots are an organization built upon misdirection, among so many other things. Bill Belichick loves to mislead, whether it’s schematically disguising his defense, using play action to create bigger throwing lanes or endlessly praising a truly awful team in the week leading up to the matchup. At times, he intentionally sends the wrong message.

Maybe Belichick is misleading everyone once again when it comes to the quarterback competition. But his comments seem genuine for the most part. Belichick said every one of the quarterbacks would get a shot at competing for the starting job in training camp. That’s how he treats every position. That’s how he will treat quarterback, which seems to be an open job for the first time since 1992.

The Patriots’ quarterbacks split reps evenly for the first day of padded practice at training camp, according to reporters on the scene. It was one of many signals that there is no front-runner or previously-crowned winner. And the Patriots have done this. Tom Brady, of course, was the presumed starter for almost two decades. Even in 2016 with Brady heading on suspension, Jimmy Garoppolo seemed to win the job instantly, with Jacoby Brissett taking a developmental role.

But this year is different.

Another example? When the Patriots ultimately decided to let their quarterbacks speak with the media, the team elected to give them all at once — within minutes of one another. It could have been complicated to give one quarterback to the media first, second and third. So they didn’t create an order — the quarterbacks all spoke at once.

But now, after reporters attended practice, we have an order. Brian Hoyer took the first set of snaps in drills, followed by Jarrett Stidham, Cam Newton and Brian Lewerke. Even this ordering seems like a deferral. It seems to rank them by their experience in New England’s system (while also slowing the hype on Newton, one of the more touted free agent signings in recent memory). Newton is certainly the odds-on favorite to start — and maybe he’s even Josh McDaniels’ favorite, with the offensive coordinator privately chatting with Newton during one of Hoyer’s series of hurry-up offense.

Stidham had the best day on Monday. But that’s not what really matters. Every practice day may be important, but Belichick will be looking at which quarterback stacks good day after good day — and maybe even converts those good days into brilliant ones. (They have a high standard for quarterbacking in New England. (You’ve heard of Tom Brady.)) There are some indicators of who the Patriots are beginning to expect to win, with the team beginning to install new plays that highlight mobility, something Newton and Stidham have that Brady didn’t (and Hoyer doesn’t).

But we’re genuinely getting a position battle for the New England Patriots’ quarterback position. Belichick wasn’t lying.

[vertical-gallery id=92334]

Brian Hoyer says Cam Newton will ‘bring out the best in all of’ the Patriots

“It only makes us that much more competitive.”

Brian Hoyer took the first snaps at quarterback when the New England Patriots commenced their first padded practice at training camp on Monday. But few expect him to finish training camp at the No. 1 spot on the depth chart. He had a good shot — until the Patriots signed Cam Newton, who now seems like the favorite to win the QB1 job.

Hoyer discussed that competition and the addition of Newton while speaking with WEEI sports radio on Monday before practice.

“Look, I think Coach (Bill) Belichick says every position is a competition no matter what it is every year,” Hoyer told WEEI. “So I think for me, I know going in that I am always going to compete like I am trying to be the starting quarterback. I did that when Tom was here. I know that was never going to happen because of who he was, but that pushed me to be better.

“Adding another great quarterback like Cam to the room, it only makes us that much more competitive and that is going to bring out the best in all of us.”

For Hoyer, this opportunity — even with Newton likely to steal away the starting job — is probably the best thing for him. Certainly, the timing lined up nicely for Hoyer.

“When Tom left to go to Tampa and I was released by the Colts, I thought this possibly could happen and then when it did I was just real excited,” he said. “Like I said, the NFL, it’s ever-changing. If anyone knows that it’s me. I have moved around and had to deal with it a lot. Like I said, for me the opportunity to come back, I was just really excited to come back.”

Hoyer has the most experience in New England’s system among all quarterbacks in the competition. Jarrett Stidham, a 2019 fourth-round draft choice, beat out Hoyer for the backup job last year, so that bodes well for the youngster. But then, of course, there’s Newton.

Newton’s presence comes with a tremendous amount of energy, according to his new Patriots teammates. Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels have commented upon Newton’s tremendous experience. He has an MVP award and Super Bowl appearance, after all. But that success pales in comparison to the quarterback he’s trying to replace: Tom Brady (six Super Bowl wins).

[vertical-gallery id=92334]