The Book On Stidham

If you're a member of Patriots Nation, most of the conversations around the team are about Tom Brady or Jarrett Stidham. Even the media cannot seem.to talk about anything else when it comes to the most dominant team over the last 20 years. I am going to take a look at an article by Deyscha Smith called "3 things we learned from bleacher reports Feature on Jarrett Stidham". I will be giving my opinion as we go.

"[They] believe he's ready to take over for Tom Brady."

Okay, so how often is a team interviewed and the team criticize and trash one of their own? It rarely happens in any sport. The Patriots need Stidham confident going forward and aren't going to say anything that could cause a set back to his development. So to start we must keep that in mind. Let's continue.

Stidham made a smart choice to leave Baylor. Taking a year off did not help him but being part of a scandal would've done considerable damage to his career.

Between 2015 and 2016, six schools had decent passing programs Arkansas. Ole miss, Miss st, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri. The passing in the SEC was nothing special, especially at Auburn. I don't know what Auburn offers educationally but from a pure football Prospective, Auburn was a bad decision to attend.

I have said before that prior to the start of the 2018 season Stidham was not only viewed as a first round selection but I also shared an article that had CBS Sports having him being selected the sixth player off the board. There were a lot of things that went wrong in 2018. It clearly was the wrong school and program for Jarrett to be a part of. 

The problem wasn't Stidham's talent level. That has been made evident. In almost every scouting report and article on Stidham, this is the one thing he seems to get praise for. Which begs the question, did his draft stock truly fall solely because he had a bad statistical year? If so, scouts never learned the lesson that stats don't mean everything.

The Patriots brought in Brian Hoyer to compete with Stidham and to mentor the young quarterback. Stidham got to sit a year behind Tom Brady and study the GOAT, while also practicing with the first string offense against the Boogeymen defensive unit. With that kinda experience under his belt, the Patriots might sit Stidham a year behind Hoyer to continue to develop before unleashing him into the NFL. 

One cannot say there will never be another Tom Brady. People said that about Joe Montana when he retired in 1994. While a better athlete, Steve Young was a playoff and superbowl winning quarterback but he did not have the intelligence or clutch of Joe Cool. It wouldn't be until the 2001 season before the NFL found someone who showed he could be something special. It's unfair to hold any quarterback including Stidham to that level at the beginning of their career. 

If Stidham truly is a playoff quarterback, that's a miracle in itself, that fans of the Patriots must appreciate because teams rarely have back to back franchise quarterbacks, and the Patriots would be on their third. Which in itself would be NFL history, going back to the gun slinger Bledsoe drafted in the first round back in 1993, nearly 30 years. When is the last time any pro sports team had a playoff caliber team for 30 years? The New York Yankees are probably the only with a legacy that out shines the Patriots.

Don't Write Off Stidham Yet

Jarrett Stidham the Patriots 4th round pick of the 2019 draft is being considered a bum. He is being written off. He has never had any real game time in a Patriots uniform except during the 2019 preseason where his pass catchers were dropping touchdowns. People forget that going into the 2018 draft Stidham was looked at as a first-round pick and possibly the sixth player off the board.

From 1979-1982 Joe Montana was 18-15 as a starter. He threw 52 TDs and 32 INTs over that span. Although he won a superbowl in 81, his stats don't scream elite during his first 4 years. Montana was the 82nd pick of the draft. He was considered the Goat of his era. Tom Brady was the 199th pick, and is now considered the Goat.

JaMarcus Russell, Tim Couch, David Carr, Sam Bradford, Jamis Winston, Jeff George, were all the first pick of their draft, thought to be the next elite quarterback. While Winston has a chance to turn things around, none of them have shown they were or are elite.

Everyone is now hyping Trevor Lawrence and saying the Patriots should tank to get him. The Colts did that to get Andrew Luck few years back, and he only played six years. It's not smart football, and it's very risky. 

Rich Gannon, Joe Thiessman, Dak Prescott, like Jarrett Stidham were all drafted in the 4th round. Don't knock Stidham before he has had the opportunity to show his ability. He could be a nobody but he also could be a future Hall of Famer.