FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Jarrett Stidham now stands where several others have before him — as a possible successor to Tom Brady as quarterback of the New England Patriots.
But like nine other drafted signal-callers before him, Stidham knows it’s best to concentrate solely upon making the football team first and worry later about what his role may be when the ageless Brady finally decides to hang up his cleats.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to learn under him and (backup) Brian Hoyer,” said Stidham, the Auburn quarterback selected Saturday by the Patriots in the fourth round of the draft.
“To be in the same room with those guys and to learn from them, it’s going to be great and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Stidham, a two-year starter at Auburn, was the 133rd overall pick, 66 positions higher than Brady’s selection in 2000.
Since then, the Patriots have drafted Rohan Davey, Kliff Kingsbury, Matt Cassel, Kevin O’Connell, Zac Robinson, Ryan Mallett, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett and Danny Etling.
Of them, only Cassel had any significant playing time with the Patriots, playing most of the 2008 season after Brady, who will be 42 in August, suffered a season-ending knee injury in the opening game against Kansas City.
The Patriots also signed Hoyer, their current backup, as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and brought him back to the team in 2017 after brief tenures with six other NFL teams.
“I don’t think I feel any pressure,” Stidham said. “I’m sure everybody wants to be as good as Tom Brady someday, but I’ve got to take it one day at a time. I’m going to work as absolutely as hard as I can to make sure I can do whatever it is to help this organization out.”
Nick Caserio, the Patriots’ director of player personnel, came away impressed with Stidham after a lengthy meeting with him at Auburn’s pro day.
“He’s a smart kid, pretty mature, picks things up well,” Caserio said. “So we’ll see how it goes. He’s going to transition into a system that’s a little bit different in terms of play-calling and some of the other things he’ll be asked to do here. But he’s an impressive kid.”
The Patriots made 10 selections in all over the three days, engineering seven trades, including three with the Los Angeles Rams, whom they defeated 13-3 in the Super Bowl.
