I don’t envy New England Patriots quarterback Jarrett Stidham.
It’s impossible to harbor such feelings towards a man slated to serve as the successor to Tom Brady, Boston’s Captain America. It’s hard to empathize with someone expected to make their first career start for an NFL team with six Super Bowl banners already hanging from the rafters. It’s mind-bending to attempt to make sense of the pressure that comes with being the face of an organization that isn’t used to losing.
A cozy year spent living in Brady’s shadow is suddenly being replaced with a beaming spotlight in a no man’s land of premature negativity for Stidham. As if playing the hardest position in the NFL wasn’t already tough enough.
The Twitter fingers and keystrokes are surely warming up, ready to dub the former Auburn quarterback a fourth-round failure. A sharpening of tongues is commencing for every talking head waiting to bury him for tripping in Brady’s footsteps. The angry mob of spoiled fans is already at the door, lashing out with the same pain-shrieking austerity as nails running along a chalkboard.
It’s actually surprising few have stopped and considered one alternative: What if Stidham — or “Stid,” as Belichick likes to call him — actually proves to be a good NFL quarterback?
It would almost certainly be a gut punch to an entire league anticipating a 2020 funeral for the Patriots. But crazier things have happened this year than Stidham proving to be a fourth-round steal.
So you might want to leave those black suits and dresses in the closet for the time being.
From strictly a numbers perspective, Stidham had the greatest preseason ever for a rookie quarterback in the Belichick era in New England. He finished with 731 passing yards, four touchdowns and only one interception. The passing yard total dwarfs even Jimmy Garoppolo’s in 2014, when he posted 618 yards as a rookie.
Granted, those numbers are a bit skewed with Stidham seeing more repetitions behind center, but the objective isn’t to get into a shouting match regarding the chances of the 23-year-old having a higher ceiling than Garoppolo, who was literally a throw away from winning Super Bowl LIV.
Quite the contrary, he’ll have an even steeper hill to climb given the lack of quality receivers and less experience as a full-fledged starter. The similarities are encouraging, however, and give rare insight into what Belichick might have been thinking when resisting the urge to push all of the chips on the table for one of the marquee rookie quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Yes, Stidham was partially responsible for killing the pipe dream of Tua Tagovailoa becoming a Patriot, but he could make up for it by at least following in Garoppolo’s footsteps. Brady is a unicorn with the sort of resume that may never be topped in the NFL, but the Garoppolo ceiling might actually be within reaching distance for a guy like Stidham.
Perhaps he can raise the roof high enough to make Stid stick like Jimmy G.
Make no mistake, Belichick isn’t going full Wile E. Coyote in this cliff-diving experiment. There are a couple of safety nets in place to keep things from completely blowing up in his face. An obvious backup plan is longtime veteran Brian Hoyer, who should know the Patriots system like the back of his hand at this point. He’s a reliable backup capable of serving as the right emergency glass break option if Stidham flounders as a starter.
And don’t expect the Patriots to suddenly morph back into a pass-heavy offense with such a young and inexperienced arm leading the way. Belichick was planting the seeds for what’s to come when unleashing running back Sony Michel back in 2018 on the team’s sixth Super Bowl run. Michel, Rex Burkhead, James White and even Damien Harris will fortify a terrifying backfield for the Patriots, assuming the offensive line holds up.
Outside of Brady, longtime offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia might end up being the biggest loss for the team. His absence at such a critical juncture for the organization could have a significant trickle-down effect, especially if the unit can’t keep grass stains off Stidham’s jersey.
It’s only one of many concerns in a post-Brady era few expected.
This heir to the throne isn’t the one Patriots fans envisioned when replacing an all-time great quarterback. He isn’t a first-round draft pick with a Heisman Trophy sitting on his mantle or a veteran player down on his luck and looking to become Belichick’s next renaissance project. It’s simply a young player hoping to prove his talent runs deeper than a mid-round selection.
Belichick believed in Stidham enough to let Brady walk out the front door for Tampa Bay. He had enough faith to trade out of the first round and pass on drafting a quarterback entirely. Envying Stidham is one thing but doubting Belichick is something else entirely.
An architect of the greatest dynasty in NFL history—his opinion has to count for something.
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