Jarrett Stidham, Auburn QB, drafted by Pats in fourth round

The New England Patriots finally decided to address quarterback in this year’s draft, selecting Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham with the No. 133 pick.

The New England Patriots used their seventh pick in the 2019 NFL Draft to add a little depth and competition behind Tom Brady in their quarterbacks room. Jarrett Stidham, a two-year starter from Auburn University, was drafted by the team with the No. 133 overall pick towards the end of the fourth round.

Stidham will now challenge Brian Hoyer and Danny Etling for the top backup job behind Brady in 2019.

Hoyer remains the odds-on favorite to stay second on the QB depth chart – if only for his abundance of years playing in the league, as well as his actual starting experience for the Pats and for other teams. The early expectation is that the training camp and preseason battle will come down to Etling versus Stidham for the No. 3 job, and that one of the two of them (maybe even both) could be waived and/or signed to the practice squad when it comes time to make final roster cutdowns before the regular season begins.

Fans should be wary of reading too much into Stidham’s selection. If Bill Belichick had used a higher draft pick on either one of the draft’s first two days for a quarterback, then it would have been fair to wonder if perhaps he considered that prospect to be a potential heir to Brady. But using a pick at the end of the fourth round – New England’s seventh pick in this year’s draft, to be exact – on a quarterback shouldn’t signal anything more than what it is: another challenger for backup duties in 2019 and beyond.

This isn’t to say that Stidham couldn’t one day grow into a role where the Patriots would feel comfortable turning the reins over to him. At least based off his college resume though, that growth and maturity would have to be pretty impressive to warrant such a serious look.

Stidham certainly wasn’t bad over two years at Auburn and one year at Baylor, but he also definitely underwhelmed compared to the expectations that were thrust upon him. When he transferred into the SEC and took over the starting job for the Tigers, the hope was that Auburn under his leadership could make some noise in the country’s toughest conference and perhaps challenge for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

That never came to be. The Tigers went 10-4 in 2017, losing in the SEC Championship Game to Georgia and then falling in the Peach Bowl to UCF. They regressed further in 2018, going just 8-5 and finishing fifth in the SEC West division just a year after winning it previously.

Stidham’s numbers also took a hit between his first and second years at Auburn. His completion percentage fell almost a full six points between 2017 and 2018, and he passed for nearly 400 less yards. In both seasons he tossed 18 touchdowns, and he had relatively the same number of interceptions both years (six in 2017 and five in 2018).

On the bright side of things, he was ESPN’s fifth-ranked QB in this year’s class, above Duke’s Daniel Jones who went No. 6 overall in the first round to the New York Giants. So there’s that.