Does Bill Belichick actually think Jarrett Stidham can be a decent starting quarterback? Or is he right now pulling the ultimate Jedi mind trick?
New England has had Stidham for a year. He’s been in the building, learning their offense. At least four media members with access to the team say they believe Stidham will be New England’s opening day starter. And at least three current players have added that they think Stidham will be good.
Meanwhile Cam Newton and Andy Dalton are out there, twisting in the wind. It’s looking less and less likely that either will have the opportunity to compete for a starting job.
But what if Belichick (or perhaps the Jaguars) was actually interested in one of these quarterbacks? Maybe not as a starter, but as a good backup. Or perhaps as a player who would compete for the starting job.
If so, it would appear everything is going perfectly, with the price dropping every day. A few months back, it would have taken a trade to land one of these quarterbacks. Then it would have taken a big contract. Now it’s looking more possible that Dalton might have to sign a one-year deal for pennies on the dollar – perhaps he signs somewhere for $5 million or whatever.
Jay Gruden (in Jacksonville) got 33 TD passes out of Dalton one year in Cincinnati. He might be interested in him. And I would think the Patriots might be interested in a second quarterback with more upside than Brian Hoyer.
Methinks somebody will be getting a good deal with Dalton.
With Newton, I would guess that he would be more willing to sit tight, hoping for a starting job. Maybe somebody gets hurt in August, for example.
Of the last five years, 26 quarterbacks have started at least half the time. Newton has posted the best per-game numbers of all of those guys. (Not that he’s necessarily still that guy, but that’s what he’s done.) Dalton ranks 18th of those 26 in per-game production.
| QUARTERBACKS: POINTS PER START (2015-19) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Pass | TDP | Int | Run | TDR | Pt/G |
| Cam Newton | 63 | 232 | 1.59 | .86 | 35 | .40 | 24.0 |
| Drew Brees | 73 | 293 | 2.07 | .59 | 1 | .14 | 23.9 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 58 | 295 | 1.88 | 1.02 | 3 | .07 | 23.6 |
| Russell Wilson | 80 | 247 | 1.94 | .53 | 26 | .11 | 23.6 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 71 | 259 | 1.94 | .38 | 18 | .11 | 23.5 |
| Jameis Winston | 70 | 277 | 1.69 | 1.21 | 15 | .14 | 23.2 |
| Matt Ryan | 79 | 291 | 1.77 | .71 | 8 | .06 | 22.9 |
| Tom Brady | 76 | 280 | 1.96 | .47 | 3 | .11 | 22.9 |
| Dak Prescott | 64 | 247 | 1.52 | .56 | 19 | .33 | 22.4 |
| Kirk Cousins | 79 | 267 | 1.73 | .66 | 6 | .19 | 22.2 |
| Blake Bortles | 60 | 245 | 1.53 | .97 | 22 | .15 | 21.7 |
| Philip Rivers | 80 | 283 | 1.81 | .95 | 1 | .00 | 21.7 |
| Carson Wentz | 56 | 253 | 1.73 | .63 | 14 | .05 | 21.6 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 50 | 252 | 1.58 | 1.10 | 16 | .16 | 21.5 |
| Matthew Stafford | 72 | 268 | 1.74 | .68 | 8 | .04 | 21.5 |
| Jared Goff | 54 | 263 | 1.61 | .78 | 4 | .11 | 20.8 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 50 | 236 | 1.64 | .76 | 13 | .14 | 20.6 |
| Andy Dalton | 69 | 244 | 1.52 | .75 | 9 | .16 | 20.2 |
| Tyrod Taylor | 46 | 199 | 1.13 | .39 | 36 | .30 | 20.0 |
| Alex Smith | 56 | 236 | 1.27 | .45 | 21 | .16 | 20.0 |
| Derek Carr | 78 | 250 | 1.56 | .64 | 5 | .04 | 19.7 |
| Eli Manning | 67 | 258 | 1.60 | .88 | 2 | .03 | 19.7 |
| Marcus Mariota | 61 | 214 | 1.25 | .72 | 22 | .20 | 19.2 |
| Mitchell Trubisky | 41 | 209 | 1.17 | .71 | 21 | .17 | 18.5 |
| Joe Flacco | 59 | 246 | 1.19 | .86 | 3 | .10 | 18.3 |
| Case Keenum | 52 | 228 | 1.19 | .75 | 6 | .08 | 17.2 |
—Ian Allan