NFL commentators regularly throw pearls of wisdom on TV shows collected from the exclusive availability of the network with head coaches.
That happened on Sunday, when the New England Patriots took on the Miami Dolphins. CBS’s Ian Eagle and Charles Davis asked Belichick last week before the game about “the rookie game and especially the defensive position.”
Eagle forwarded the following from Patriots head coach:
“Look, we’re in a new world in the NFL,” Belichick told Eagle. “” You have a young QB, if he’s high, you don’t have to know forever whether he’s your type or not. ‘ ”
“And the idea that you can go back to high school or college to try to evaluate this, he doesn’t think that translates if you don’t come from a pro-style crime,” Eagle added.
“He said it helps a little bit,” Davis said. “The NFL is so different.”
Most obviously, this dictates how the Patriots could deploy a young defender if he took one at the start of the NFL 2021. Players like Justin Fields of Ohio, Trey Lance of North Dakota, Zach Wilson of BYU, Kyle Trask of Florida or Mac Jones of Alabama could be available for New England to grab him in the first or second round. The Patriots could sign a veteran defender to start the season before heading quickly to a rookie.
This quote could also apply to the 2019 Patriots, fourth-round voter Jarrett Stidham, who has yet to start an NFL game with 30 games in his career. The Patriots seemed ready to enter the 2020 NFL season with Stidham and veteran Brian Hoyer at the helm, before signing Cam Newton in July. Stidham started the third season on the Patriots QB’s depth chart before passing Hoyer in week 6. Stidham has 18 of 33 for 212 yards, with two touchdowns and three interceptions (one of which fell) in this debt season.
All this is to say, if the Patriots do not “forever realize whether (Stidham is their type) or not” and if the Patriots do not start it in the last two weeks of the 2020 season, the decision may already be made whether it is ” type”.
Belichick did not commit to start Cam Newton or Stidham for Monday night’s game against Buffalo Bills. Stidham is the only Patriots defender hired for the 2021 season. Newton and Hoyer are free agents, and the Patriots could sign coach Jake Dolegala to a future deal after the season.
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