New England Patriots: Why there is still hope for Jarrett Stidham

Jarrett Stidham showed some promise against the Chargers on Sunday and Cam Newton’s comments only showed why New England Patriots fans shouldn’t give up on him.

2020 seemed to be the year that Jarrett Stidham realized that he wouldn’t be the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots. Now it seems like there might be some hope for the young QB.

Stidham was the talk of Training Camp. That was until New England signed Cam Newton and Stidham threw a disappointing amount of interceptions in training camp on top of getting injured.

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Since then it has seemed like New England would have to look elsewhere for their quarterback of the future. It seemed as though the Patriots would have to use a premium pick in the 2021 NFL Draft to find their next QB.

Now the Patriots will still select a quarterback in the draft, they would be stupid not to. Even if New England has some newfound confidence in Stidham, selecting a young QB is a great backup plan.

But we finally saw why Stidham was hyped up so much. Against the Chargers, he showed some actual talent. Stidham was 2/3 with 61 yards and a passing touchdown. Compared to Newton who has only eight more yards with 16 more attempts that is rather impressive.

On Monday, Newton showed just how great of a leader he is. The starting QB was very kind to Stidham when talking about his performance against LA.

"“Oh, man. I’m so proud of Stid, man. We had a chat in the QB room, and obviously his growth and his development is something that caught my attention.”"

It might seem obvious but right now Stidham seems like a better passer. Instead of creating a gameplan revolved around the run game, New England could become much more balanced.

If the Patriots were able to make things work with Stidham, that would be great for Bill Belichick and the rest of New England’s brass. It would show just how talented Belichick is as a coach.

Also, it would prove that New England might have actually had a plan for Tom Brady’s departure. It might have taken longer than expected but Stidham is showing that he might be the right guy.

If I was the Patriots GM (which is a scary thought) it would still be hard to trust Stidham after just one decent performance. If New England is out of the playoff race, they should try and get him some extended playing time. The question is what effect that will have on Newton and the rest of the roster?

The Patriots need to use an uncharacteristically high draft pick and package it for a top 10 selection. Then New England would have the ability to select a franchise-altering player.

So even though the Patriots will still use a high draft pick on a QB, not all hope is lost when it comes to Stidham.