It’s no secret that the Patriots spent the final month of the season chasing Denver for the AFC’s top seed, and the two teams are now set to meet in the AFC Championship with the right to go to the Super Bowl on Sunday.
That meeting was expected to include Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, who had led Denver to where they are right now after what’s certainly been an impressive playoff run.
Unfortunately for Nix, the shocking news that he suffered a broken ankle during their overtime win against Buffalo definitely changed things. Instead, Nix will now be a spectator following the injury, which thrust back-up Jarett Stidham into the starting role this weekend.
Back in New England, the thought process is that the Patriots caught a break by not having to face off against Nix, who has been a solid and consistent player in Sean Payton’s offense. With him out of the line-up, they’ll now battle Stidham, who was obviously drafted in the 4th round back by the Patriots in 2019 with the 133rd overall selection.
He was later dealt to the Raiders in 2023, reuniting him with former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
But so far, Stidham hasn’t secured a starting role during his NFL career, which did include the 2020 season, where he was surpassed on the depth chart by Cam Newton, who ultimately became the starter that season. From there, whatever starts he’s seen have come after the player above him on the depth chart faltered.
Needless to say, the prospect of playing against Nix would likely have been more daunting.
Still, with so much at stake, the players here in New England already know what’s on the line. While it might not be Nix they’ll be going up against, head coach Mike Vrabel didn’t have any doubt his guys wouldn’t still be putting forth the same effort with Stidham at the helm.
“I think this is a pretty motivated group, I just think, to try to continue to play together with the speed that they have the last couple of weeks,” said Vrabel when asked how he’ll make sure his team doesn’t ‘take a nap’ against the Broncos’ backup QB. “I’m confident that they’ll remain excited and ready to go.”
While he might not be the starter, Stidham has still spent time this year learning under Payton in that offense. The fact that he’s also made it this far there and was their backup certainly signals that Payton has confidence in him.
Vrabel also touched on Stidham’s experience, noting that the former Patriots QB had a fair amount of interest across the league this offseason before landing in Denver.
“He’s got the snaps that he has, the 400-so snaps that are in regular-season action, and then they have a lot of snaps on what they want to do. We’ll have to be prepared for the plan and the things that they’ve shown,” said Vrabel. “I’m sure there’ll be some things that they haven’t shown.”
“He’s more than capable to go out there and operate. It’s why he’s a backup and one that was coveted around the league.”
Vrabel said on Monday that the team did some work on Stidham this offseason as they explored their options behind Drake Maye. He gave a little insight to reporters in those conversations as he and Stidham’s agent discussed the possibility of him coming back to Foxboro.
“Well, I guess it was kind of ironic. Just speaking with his agent, they’re like, ‘Well, if you don’t want your starter to get hurt, sign Jared,’ because that was before yesterday or two days ago,” said Vrabel, referring to back before Nix got hurt. “Just going back to when Josh had him and playing against that. Just think, he sees things really well. I think he’s athletic enough to extend. We talk about a lot of quarterbacks, the accuracy, I think the decision making was really decisive in the games that we went back and watched. This is even going back to when I was in Tennessee as well.”
Given that McDaniels had him as a player both here and in Las Vegas, he has a sense of what Stidham is capable of. Vrabel was asked about whether or not that might give them an advantage, but Vrabel dismissed it, noting any edge they have, they’re definitely going to explore heading into this weekend.
“I think every week we try to use every resource that we have at our disposal,” said Vrabel. “Josh coached him a couple of years ago. Anything that we have that we can use to help us, we’ll try.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
Stiddy is Payton’s “guy” for backup. He’s just completed 3 full seasons in Payton’s system. Check out what his backups have done after extensive experience with his system. There won’t be any limitations to the Broncos’ offense.