Tom Brady Nixes Narrative After Subdued Reaction To Jarrett Stidham’s TD

Tom Brady had a different reaction to his touchdown strikes. Hoyer opened the scoring with a 14-yard pass to Maurice Harris. He was sort of stoic when Stidham found Jakobi Meyers in the second quarter which was the first touchdown in the rookie’s career. It’s easy to create a narrative from there, as Hoyer isn’t a threat for Brady. Stidham may easily be his successor.

If you ask the quarterback, he will try to stay out of it as much as possible.

“That is crazy,” Brady said Monday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Morning Show,” as transcribed by Ryan Hannable. “… I was happy for everyone the other night. Brian played great. Jarrett played great.”

That’s absolutely true. Stidham was great and everyone noticed that, including top analysts.

“[Stidham] was poised in the pocket and delivered accurate passes to his targets,” wrote Jim McBride of the Boston Globe. “His internal clock was ticking to perfection as he also knew when to tuck it and run and when to throw it away to avoid a loss.”

“Stidham’s deep-ball accuracy, which stood out against the Lions, has been evident on the practice field, as well,” noted Kevin Duffy of the Boston Herald. “During an Aug. 1 session, when Stidham spent most of the morning watching behind Brady and Brian Hoyer, he stepped in for 11-on-11 drills and immediately hit Meyers and N’Keal Harry for back-to-back touchdowns down the right sideline.”

“The fourth-round pick from Auburn delivered two beautiful long passes that would have improved his stat line, but both were dropped by receiver Maurice Harris,” wrote ESPN Patriots reporter Mike Reiss.

“It’s too early to say that Stidham will challenge quarterback Brian Hoyer for a roster spot,” wrote McKenna, “especially with Hoyer playing even better than Stidham.”

“Stidham could potentially challenge Hoyer, 33, for the No. 2 spot this season, but in the big picture, the main question is if he could be groomed into something similar to what the Patriots had in [Jimmy] Garoppolo,” wrote Reiss.

Well, we hope that this won’t cause much of a tension in the Patriots locker room.