In Thursday's preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, rookie Jarrett Stidham leap-frogged incumbent backup Brian Hoyer to take the snaps behind Tom Brady for the New England Patriots. After the game, head coach Bill Belichick noted that he put the former Auburn War Eagle out because he already knows what he's getting with Hoyer. He wants to see if Stidham can be Brady's back up immediately.

Stidham performed well for the third week in a row. Following Brady's three drives, Stidham commanded the offense for the rest of the game; he went 15-for-19 and 134 yards, no interceptions, no scores. Belichick said on Stidham,

I think Jarrett’s pocket presence is good. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Belichick said, in a conference call, via Pro Football Talk. “Certainly, when you’re comparing him to the other two quarterbacks on our roster, guys who have played a lot of football in this league, it’s quite a gap in experience. I’m sure those are things that Jarrett will get better at. [It is] probably about what you would think it would be given the difference in experience that you’re comparing him to — to players in our offense running the same plays that he does. So, it’s hard to compare one quarterback in one system to a quarterback in a completely different system, but in our case we have three quarterbacks all in the same system. It’s an obvious comparison. He’s getting better. I think he does a good job, but there’s room for improvement, certainly.”

Stidham has performed exceptionally well for the entirety of the preseason; giving many the thought of him being the heir apparent to Brady.