Scarnecchia reveals Stidham's key advantage over Tom "The Buccaneer" Brady

Finding something to write about as a sports writer is hard. It's even harder to write when you're predominantly a football writer. Unlike normal years, where the Patriots keep the NFL relevant during the offseason; there is nothing to write about.

As per usual, the other 31 NFL teams are a waste of time, and is why people didn't watch superbowl 54. This offseason has been about Covid-19 and Tom Brady. Speaking of Brady, he's now a Buccaneer now and Stidham is likely going to be his heir to the Patriots thrown.

Scarnecchia, Patriots former offensive line coach told Sirius radio that Stidham will make mistakes for being inexperienced but admitted all young quarterbacks are like that. He then praised Stidham's mind for the game, talent level and work ethic.

“He’s a bright kid, and he’s a guy that, when he doesn’t know, he’ll take off. He showed in the preseason last year that he’s got some skills. He knows when to get out of there and where the escape points may be, and when he gets out of there, he also knows when he’d better get down, because he knows better than to try to run through guys as well.”

Scarnecchia has been around the NFL for approximately 40 years. According to Dijo Songco of Clutch Points, "The five-time Super Bowl champion coach does know a thing or two about the Patriots’ offense, as he spent more than three decades as part of the great Bill Belichick’s coaching staff."

So when Scarnecchia speaks, people tend to listen and respect what he has to say. So when he said that he was impressed by Stidham, his talent level and athletic abilities, we should be also.

Stidham was impressive during his inaugural preseason, posting better numbers than all of Brady's previous backups. There's not enough tape against NFL talent though, college is a different story.

Stidham's college career had it's ups and downs. It started good in 2015, after being declared the second best quarterback coming out of high school above the likes of Lamar Jackson and Sam Darnold. Stidham played good his freshman year at Baylor.

After Stidham left Baylor and took a took a year off but when he returned, he was rated above current AFC east division rivals in 2017. He had a great season and was considered a first round quarterback. However, he chose to return to Auburn; why, we don't know. Just another bad career decision by Stidham.

Entering the 2018 college season he was again ranked above division rivals, including Tua Tagovailoa for the second straight year by many analysts and scouts. Stidham entered 2018 being expected to be the first quarterback off the board according to CBS sports. 

We all know about what happened at Auburn, and how Stidham ended up a fourth round selection. There is plenty of film to show what Stidham does well, how Auburn used him wrong, and of course everything that Stiddy needs to improve on.

Songco also wrote, "With that said, 2020 will be the true test of Stidham’s character now that he’s pushed to lead the mighty Patriots into a new chapter in their franchise."

It wasn't Stidham's talent or intelligence that kept Stidham from being a first round pick, ask any scout or analyst. In fact, Chris Simms did what almost every analyst did over the course of 2017 and 2018, he ranked him higher than Tua on a talent level.  

So don't be surprised with the help of Josh McDaniels and Belichick, when Stidham lives up to the hype from Scarnecchia and finally plays passed the Trevor Lawrence / Justin Fields talent level.