![](\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/images\/us-presswire\/600w\/2020-Week-7-Jarrett-Stidham-wbYoe-600w.jpg\")
\nStidham never earned a starting role in 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran has covered this fairly closely, pointing out that Stidham never showed that type of fire and has instead remained an inconsistent player who turns the football over in practice and has already done the same in his limited time on the field.\u00a0 He was spotted recently working this offseason in preparation for 2021, but the bigger question may be whether or not Bill Belichick has seen enough and is willing to stick with a player who crumbled at the first sign of adversity after Newton’s addition.<\/p>\n
That being said, it remains a position of need.\u00a0 We’ve already seen a couple of dominoes fall after Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff swapped teams in the first major trade of the offseason, while Deshaun Watson, Derek Carr and Carson Wentz are all players who have been discussed as possible trade options by their respective clubs.<\/p>\n
Watson has already made it clear he wants out of Houston, but new GM, Nick Caserio, said they have no intention of moving him.\u00a0 Carr’s name has come up as the Raiders appear interested in moving him to acquire the draft capital to try and change Caserio’s mind, while the Eagles appear to be shopping Wentz and the Patriots have been reported as being among the teams who might be interested.\u00a0 The only problem seems to be the Eagles plan on being greedy and if they do, indeed, decide to part with Wentz, it looks like they’ll be looking for a significant amount to let him go.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, any deal that involves multiple first-round selections and a high price tag likely takes New England out of the mix for any of those players.\u00a0 Wentz seems like the most possible option, but not if Philadelphia shoots for the moon for a player they’ve already given up on.<\/p>\n
The Patriots have also reportedly looked into acquiring Carr’s backup, Marcus Mariota. If Gruden is looking to build up his draft stock, moving Mariota would certainly allow him to do so and it would at least give the Patriots a stable option. If he can make the same turnaround as his former teammate, Ryan Tannehill, it would give New England an experienced veteran and a player who is fairly athletic. He showed promising flashes at the end of last season and it would be interesting to see what he could do in this offense.<\/p>\n
One other name that potentially remains an option could be former quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who one year removed from a near Super Bowl win appears to have fallen out of favor in San Francisco.\u00a0 The 49ers recently added Josh Rosen and they appear to be exploring their own options heading into 2021.\u00a0 Belichick and Kyle Shanahan have a good relationship, so it’s not out of the possibility that a deal could get done to send him back to the East Coast.\u00a0 A reunion at this stage would be a major win for Belichick, who everyone knows was high on the former Eastern Illinois QB.<\/p>\n
If San Francisco stays the course, the next option would be for New England to go the path of the draft and potentially take Alabama’s Mac Jones at #15.\u00a0 The only issue they might have is Jones had a decent showing recently heading into the Senior Bowl before an ankle injury sidelined him.\u00a0 However, enough teams seem to have caught on and that could see his stock rise, which could be bad news.\u00a0 As it is, some mock drafts have even seen Washington make a deal to jump ahead of the Patriots and snag Jones at #14.\u00a0 That would be tough to swallow, especially if the other top QBs are gone by the time New England makes their pick.<\/p>\n
Getting back to potential free agents, another possibility could be Mitchell Trubisky, who appears to be on his way out of Chicago and will be a free agent this offseason.\u00a0 Trubisky has been the epitome of inconsistency during his tenure with the Bears and that might lower his asking price enough to put him in range for Josh McDaniels to begin a reclamation project.\u00a0 The former first-round pick has shown flashes during his NFL career, but just hasn’t quite been able to get things turned around.\u00a0 A change of scenery would probably help him, but anyone who honestly believes he could be what gets the Patriots back on a path to greatness is definitely quite an optimist.<\/p>\n
Either way, there’s no answer that seems definitive at this point and New England faces an uphill battle in fixing a position that everyone else in the league is also focused on this offseason.\u00a0 But after watching their former starter be the difference-maker in making the Buccaneers a Super Bowl champion, the Patriots have to know that getting it right this time in the coming months will be critical if they ever hope to get back to that level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone who watched Tom Brady go out and do Tom Brady-esque things on Sunday night woke up Monday morning with one sobering thought.
\n The Patriots still need a quarterback heading into 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22259],"tags":[22260,34,661,855,1693,22419,1546,516,2013,14,276,22264,22418,44,1536,2299,13],"class_list":["post-35107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2021-patriots-offseason","tag-2021-patriots-offseason","tag-bill-belichick","tag-brian-hoyer","tag-cam-newton","tag-carson-wentz","tag-derrick-carr","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-drew-bledsoe","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-jimmy-garoppolo","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-mac-jones","tag-mitchell-trubisky","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-patrick-mahomes","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tom-brady"],"yoast_head":"\n