New England Patriots: Why counting on Jarrett Stidham is a huge gamble

BUFFALO, NY - OCTOBER 29: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots looks on during pre-game warmups prior to the start of NFL game action against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field on October 29, 2018 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
BUFFALO, NY - OCTOBER 29: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots looks on during pre-game warmups prior to the start of NFL game action against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field on October 29, 2018 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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New England Patriots are gambling that they will find a revelation in untested quarterback Jarrett Stidham.

The New England Patriots and their head of football operations, Bill Belichick, the Emperor Palpatine of New England, are betting the empire, the house, the farm, whatever on quarterback Jarrett Stidham.

They’d better be right or the team and their head coach’s reputation will bottom out in the improving AFC East.

If bouncing their all-time great quarterback to the curb wasn’t enough, now the Patriots brain trust has bet all the marbles (at least up to now, there’s still hope of a Cam Newton sighting) on an NFL quarterback who has thrown a total of four passes in his NFL career.

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Brilliant.

Now before Patriots sycophants jump all over me, we all are hoping that Stidham is the next Tom Brady or at least a facsimile of Brady or some other top-notch quarterback. If not, we are in for a long cold winter, and then some.

I’ve written before how I thought that the Patriot’s treatment of Brady was abominable. That view hasn’t changed. But since they made that ridiculous move, one might have assumed that they would be aggressive in trying to ensure that his successor, whomever that might eventually be, is legit.

Now Stidham maybe that guy. If so, great. So they’ve seen him for one season in practice and in preseason games. Good. But the guy has essentially no NFL experience against NFL opposition. Really None. Wouldn’t it have made a semblance of sense to bring in some competition? Real competition?

Now competition, that’s a word. They seem to be cognizant that it makes sense at least in some positions. But, why not in the most important position on the team when you’ve just made the most important change in that position in NFL history?

The New England Patriots quarterback “competition” is a joke

I call the New England Patriots quarterback competition a joke because there really isn’t any competition at all. They have just handed the keys to the car to an untested essentially schooled rookie. Oh, you say, they brought in Brian Hoyer.

True enough. And does anyone out there really think Hoyer is a legitimate starting NFL quarterback on a playoff team? If so, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you may be interested in buying.

But wait, the draft. Indeed! They had what,13 picks on day 2 to bring in some competition for Stidham. So they must have selected a couple, right? One, at least? Maybe? Wrong! They didn’t draft a quarterback. At all. ZERO.

Look back, in 2019, they lost the greatest tight end in NFL history only used one back-up extensively, the one-dimensional Dwayne Allen, a good blocker whom they didn’t re-sign. So how many tight ends did they draft to replace Rob Gronkowski and Allen? A position in which they were, shall we say, deficient? The answer, ZERO.

How’d that work out for them? Ah, not so good. Their tight ends were probably the worst in the NFL. (My view.) No worries. They had high hopes. And that’s what they have with Stidham, high hopes. Just high hopes.

New England Patriots: The key ingredient for success in 2020. dark. Next

All of us New England Patriots fans hope their hopes are justified. But I’d have liked to have seen some legitimate competition, wouldn’t you have? Or maybe not. Maybe the popular belief is that all is well and will be well into the playoffs in 2020.

Just trust in … blah, blah, blah.

Just for the record, I don’t think so. We’ll see.