The Patriots will look different this season with Tom Brady now on the Buccaneers, and coach Bill Belichick answered questions on Monday for the first time about Year 1 of life after Brady.
Belichick expressed appreciation for the quarterback he won six Super Bowls with, and also brought up the instances over the last 20 years in which the Patriots have been successful with different quarterbacks under center. In 2016, Jimmy Garappolo and Jacoby Brissett combined to go 3-1 while Brady served a four-game suspension. In 2008, the Patriots went 11-5 after Brady tore his ACL in Week 1.
"Everything we did, every single decision we made in terms of major planning, was made with the idea of how to make things best for Tom Brady," Belichick said. "Now, with that being said, we've had several situations where we had to play and we knew Tom wasn't going to be the quarterback. In those situations ... we geared everything towards doing what was best for him, just like we always geared everything for doing what was best for Tom and to help our offense there."
The current candidates on the roster to succeed Brady are Brian Hoyer, who has been around the organization for multiple seasons, and Jarrett Stidham, a 2019 fourth-round pick out of Auburn.
"We've spent quite a bit of time with both Brian (Hoyer) and (Jarrett Stidham). I think (Josh McDaniels and myself) certainly have a pretty good feel for both those players," Belichick said. "The circumstances will be different this year, and we'll see how everything plays out. But again, to start with, I think the main thing is to give everyone a chance to compete, to get people comfortable with the position and the skills that they're playing, the communication that's involved."
Neither Hoyer nor Stidham seem like the obvious choice to be the starter, but then again, neither did Brady. It's easy to wonder if the next Patriots starter is even on the roster yet. The Patriots have the 23rd pick in next week's NFL Draft and are in a serious position to consider a quarterback in the first round for the first time this century.
"There's quite a range of players and some of the systems that they play in in college are different, either than what we run or what traditional NFL systems would look like, and some are more closely schematically to that," Belichick said. "Each guy has his own set of skills; he has his own circumstances. Some players have played well over a sustained period of time; some players have had an exceptional year in the past year or two — maybe 2019, in some cases 2018 — and then for whatever the reasons were, the two years didn't quite match up. But, that's I'd say about the way it always is."
Jordan Love is a good example of a top quarterback prospect having a strong 2018 season and following it up with a much less successful 2019 season. Love impressed at Utah State with 32 touchdowns and only six interceptions in 2018, but dropped down to 20 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in 2019 with a new coaching staff and a mostly new supporting cast. Love could be in early consideration for the Patriots, but Belichick also mentioned the depth of the 2020 quarterback class.
"There are always a variety of things you have to try to put together and look at, but certainly there's a lot of interesting players and guys who have really good arms, can really throw the ball and some very athletic players, some players that have won a lot of games and have shown their competitiveness and distinctiveness," Belichick said. "So, interesting group and probably one that has decent depth to it."