What Bill Belichick Said About Potential Patriots Quarterbacks

The New England Patriots will start off training camp without quarterback Tom Brady. TB12 left the organization after 20 years. Many believed that Brady would finish his career as a signal-caller for the New England Patriots. This changed a few days ago. Brady decided to leave the Pats and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Head coach Bill Belichick will have to make the right choice and pick the best quarterbacks for his roster.

Jarrett Stidham is the frontrunner to take Brady’s spot. It looks like Belichick has a few other options to consider.

New England may sign Andy Dalton, Cam Newton or Jacoby Brissett through a trade deal. They can also wait for Dalton and Newton to be released. The team may also sign free-agent quarterbacks Blake Bortles, Jameis Winson or Joe Flacco. Is Cody Kessler an option?

What does Belichick say about these options?

According to him, Jarrett is “a smart kid.” Belichick is well aware of the fact that Jarrett picks things up very quickly. “He has a good grasp of the offense given where he is in his career. He’s handled everything we’ve thrown at him. In practice, he does a good job. He gets a lot of passes on our defense and when he has the opportunity to get the offensive snaps, he’s prepared and does a good job of those. But you know, it’s always different in the game. I think he’s doing all he can do.”

Belichick and his other quarterbacks

Belichick is impressed with Dalton’s experience. Dalton has led his teammates to a lot of wins. He had a lot of comeback wins, too.

Bortles has a high rushing average. It ends up with a score almost always. Belichick praised his efficiency and decision-making skills. Bortles has enough strength and a good size. This makes him hard to tackle. “He’s got a lot of good receivers, good tight ends, good backs. He’s got a lot of weapons. A good offensive line.”

Winston is a good quarterback with a very good arm, as Belichick likes to say.

“Good. Look, good quarterback, very good arm, accurate, gets the ball to all of his receivers, uses the tight ends well, the receivers well, strong, can stand in there against the rush, moves well in the pocket to create a little extra time. He’s a hard guy to tackle, hard guy to bring down. He can throw the ball with people hanging all over him and he can throw it accurately and throw it pretty far, too. He stretches the field on you, sideline to sideline, vertical passer, five-thousand yards the last two years offensively, 50 touchdowns. They’ve had a lot of production on offense in two years. Coach (Dirk) Koetter has done a great job with him. He’s done well. For a guy in his third year, he’s had extraordinary production. Not many guys that have more than he has and we’ve had some pretty good quarterbacks.”

There’s more to this

Belichick said Newton is the hardest player to deal with. He likes his decisions and run game.

“I think when you’re talking about mobile quarterbacks, guys that are tough to handle, tackle, can throw, run, make good decisions — I mean, I would put Newton at the top of the list. Not saying that there aren’t a lot of other good players that do that, but I would say, of all the guys we play or have played recently in the last couple of years, I would definitely put him — he’s the hardest guy to deal with. He makes good decisions, he can run, he’s strong, he’s hard to tackle. He can do a lot of different things, beat you in a lot of different ways. We saw that in the game down there in ‘13, so I would put him at the top of the list. Not saying the other guys aren’t a problem, because they are, but he’s public enemy No. 1.”