Jarrett Stidham is the big winner of the New England Patriots’ draft
The New England Patriots abstained from selecting a quarterback in the 2020 NFL Draft — which is great news for second-year man Jarrett Stidham.
The New England Patriots had the opportunity to draft a highly-rated quarterback in last week’s NFL Draft.
Rather than doing so, the Patriots ultimately elected to pass on upgrading the quarterback position, thus proving their stance that they still believe in what Jarrett Stidham can bring to the table for the team moving forward.
Stidham, who was drafted in the fourth round out of Auburn in 2019, was given the golden opportunity to sit behind Tom Brady for a year to learn how to run the complicated New England offense.
At this point, with more than a year under his belt in studying the playbook, Stidham is the best option at the moment and it’s at least worth seeing what he is capable of.
Most people were under the impression that since Stidham was drafted using a premium pick and backed Brady up last season that he was automatically going to become the next starting quarterback for the Patriots this season.
Although that is not the case, Stidham has to be feeling ecstatic that the Pats refrained from taking one of the great quarterbacks coming out of the draft this year.
The New England Patriots, however, were always interested in adding another quarterback to their roster this offseason. Although it did not happen during the draft, the Patriots have since signed two undrafted rookie free agents: J’mar Smith out of Louisiana Tech and Brian Lewerke out of Michigan State.
If the Pats do want to carry three quarterbacks this season, then both of these rookies are going to be capable of making the final 53-man roster.
The Patriots are set to enter their offseason program with four quarterbacks on the roster for the first time since 2009 with Jarrett Stidham, Brian Hoyer, J’mar Smith, and Brian Lewerke. It is still unknown at this time of who the starter is going to be, but the Patriots do have all intentions of carrying three quarterbacks on their roster this season apparently.
It’s worth mentioning that over the last two years, the New England Patriots have done an excellent job of upgrading and obtaining additional depth along the offensive line in preparation of a few different outcomes.
The first is that the Pats want to establish a more solid running attack with their new quarterback, and the second is they want to protect the young and inexperienced quarterback that is set to play this year.
After a reliable offensive line, a quarterback’s best friend becomes a quality and talented wide receiver — to which the Patriots are still trying to manufacture the best receiving group that they can in order to surround Stidham (or whoever) with as much talent as possible. With that being said, five out of the nine receivers currently on the roster are undrafted players.
The other four are Julian Edelman, Mohamed Sanu, N’Keal Harry, and recently-signed veteran Marqise Lee.
Next. What we think the Patriots offense will look like this year. dark
To me, it seems as if the New England Patriots are trying to retool and establish a core group of players as they head into a new era in their franchise. In consideration to Stidham and being in his second year with the team, the Pats are surrounding him with talented players who are essentially on the same “level” as Stidham, in hopes of growing the future with a core group of guys.
With this logic, Jarrett Stidham, N’Keal Harry, Jakobi Meyers, and Gunner Olszewski all have one year’s experience in New England … and they could be the building blocks of that core group for years to come.