An unpopular possible scenario nobody in Patriots media is willing to take on.

I wrote off Cam Newton midway through the season and the Patriots 2019 fourth round draft pick after the second Bills' game of the 2020 season, when he entered the game and continued to look equally as horrible of a passer as the quarterback who had started fifteen games at quarterback for the Patriots in 2020. 

There is something that has been on my mind this season and even though I wrote of Stidham, after listening to the defense of Cam Newton almost daily since the season ended; this question has to be asked. It's in the image below.

Because it's still in the realm of possibility, regardless of how unlikely. There are logical reasons why Bill wouldn't hand the reigns over. From wanting more time to develop, to protecting Stidham's confidence, to not wanting to lose his locker room, or, to justify the Newton signing, and to a plethora of other possible reasons. It is quite possible to justify why Bill never replaced Newton.

Keep in mind, Stidham didn't have a real offseason program, didn't have a preseason, and got injured and lost the competition by default in August due to that injury. Ran the scout team playbook instead of the Patriots' playbook in practice, and had weapons that supposedly "No quarterback could've worked with" and that would've caused all quarterbacks to "be as bad" as Newton, which all of Stidham's performances were comparable to.

Personally, I think it's a slim possibility. Belichick saw Stidham in practice. Praised how far ahead he was after the 2019 season and said "He improved from last year", back in November. On Top of that, McDaniels was "confident he knew" what he had in Stidham but left it up to Belichick because it was Bill's team.

So what do you think, could Stidham be in another competition for the job before week one and how would Patriots nation take it? Would they accept it or would they riot and call for an immediate firing of the hoodie?