We don't need to get into the reading comprehension comment (let's not do that), but I 100% agree with you on your premise in terms of it absolutely being a discussion worth having, especially given the ascension of Josh Allen and potentially Tua in Miami. It's a bizarre state of affairs and I definitely agree with you in terms of this season being hard to argue in that I think Newton barely edged out Darnold. That's an odd situation to be in.
Heading into next season, my gut initially believed Garoppolo would be the quarterback in 2021 but someone on WEEI mentioned the possibility of San Francisco being in play. He suggested the Texans sending Watson there while giving Houston Garoppolo for the sake of getting Watson out of the conference vs making a deal with Miami. That obviously makes sense, which sets up a potential landing spot I hadn't thought of.
Outside of Jimmy G - I don't really feel like the Patriots will have enough trust to pay anyone else a large sum. They just don't do it, which essentially takes them out of the market for top-tier quarterbacks. I don't really have a sense yet as to who they might target in the early or lower rounds of the draft because I haven't delved into that yet, but given that they don't really have anyone other than Stidham and Hoyer heading into next year, barring an improvement with the Jets, the Patriots could very well be battling it out in terms of QB talent at the bottom of the division.
As for their record? Belichick is obviously the wild card. But when it comes to the QB, there's reason to be a little concerned because there aren't any guarantees. To make matters worse, this is such a key season for New England because they really need to do something to make some sort of forward progress. This season was irritating because they walked away from this year with really nothing to show for it. As I mentioned before, at least at the end of 2008 we walked away from it having seen Matt Cassel grow and develop, which they were able to turn into a decent draft pick, not to mention that watching his development over the course of the season was a nice subplot and made the year enjoyable to follow. And they ended up building an asset that they were able to cash in.
This year? They took a chance on Newton which clearly did something - according to all the reports we heard - to seemingly affect whatever confidence Stidham had heading into training camp. I never would have guessed after what he showed in rough times in Carolina that Newton would have been the more mentally tough player yet Stidham didn't seem to rise to the challenge, which is incredibly disappointing. I was excited for a season of watching a young guy develop and seeing where that went. The more I've had time to think about it, the fact Belichick (who historically roots for the underdog if he can get equal/better play for similar money) completely gave up on him speaks volumes.
As a result, they head into this offseason with essentially Hoyer (if Belichick is really done with Stidham) and that's it. Stidham might fetch a conditional 7th if they're lucky because he was just good enough to make many of us wish he was out there thanks to a few good plays.
So yes, while we have no one "yet", it's hard not to agree with
@mgteich that New England could very well finish with the 4th best QB in the division next season. And - while, again, it's a strange situation to be in - none of us can believe otherwise until they do something about it.
