The Team Trusts Stidham

With Utah State quarterback Jordan Love on the board and the Patriots sitting on the clock with the 23rd overall pick, New England traded their first-round draft selection to the Los Angeles Chargers– missing out on Love.

With college stars like Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts and Washington’s Jacob Eason still on the board with New England’s second-round pick– the Patriots drafted a safety, Lenoir-Rhyne’s Kyle Dugger. 

The Patriots had their chances to draft a quarterback, but they didn’t. They had their chances to sign a big-name free agent at quarterback, but they didn’t. The New England Patriots look like they’re committed to Jarrett Stidham in 2020, and maybe that’s a good thing.

Stidham wasn’t a highly decorated player in college, nor was he a highly sought after name in the 2019 NFL Draft, but none of that is because he was a bad player. The stats from his year at Baylor and his two years at Auburn aren’t eye-popping, but he was an accurate quarterback who took good care of the football, and maybe that’s all that Bill Belichick needs.

Unless the ultra-competitive veteran head coach with something to prove to the world is actively tanking, why would the Patriots not address the quarterback position at all unless they truly believe in Jarrett Stidham? At this point, we’ve seen him throw four total passes at the NFL level. Nobody’s seen enough from him to make a declaration on his skill– aside from the New England Patriots, who look like they’re about to give him complete control of the offense.