With the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots selected someone who they hoped would become a valued addition to their team.
Tom Brady’s storied career saw him remain with the Patriots up until the 2020 season when he decided to head over to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he continued his Super Bowl-winning ways.
Brady’s development under the guise of head coach and general manager Bill Belichick was a calculated risk of sorts, seeing as how they had Drew Bledsoe currently in-house as the starting signal-caller. But with Bledsoe’s career producing some not-so-subtle writings on the wall, Brady had positioned himself to take over.
Under Belichick, the Patriots have won six Super Bowls and nine AFC Championships, helped mostly by the contributions of both Belichick and Brady in their respective roles.
When Brady’s career seemed to be nearing its end in Foxborough, there was uncertainty surrounding the future of QB for the Patriots, something that hadn’t been a concern for a long time. Even with Belichick trying to be proactive in that search, he has struck out on most QB selections, leaving the team without a future option.
The following is a list of QBs drafted by NE after Brady was drafted, with the round they were drafted in in parentheses:
2002 – Rohan Davey (4)
2003 – Kliff Kingsbury (6)
2005 – Matt Cassel (7)
2008 – Kevin O’Connell (3)
2010 – Zac Robinson (7)
2011 – Ryan Mallett (3)
2014 – Jimmy Garoppolo (2)
2016 – Jacoby Brissett (3)
2018 – Danny Etling (7)
2019 – Jarett Stidham (4)
There have been 10 QBs drafted after the year 2000, and while some are household names, many ended up being collegiate flashes in the pan that did not translate into the NFL.
Rohan Davey, Kevin O’Connell, Zac Robinson, and Danny Etling have been nothing more than footnotes in the history books of the Patriots, Kliff Kingsbury is more known for his coaching, and both Matt Cassel and Ryan Mallett filled differing degrees of the journeyman role, with Cassel being the vastly-superior name of the two.
Jimmy Garoppolo filled a role that was pioneered by Cassel previously, as he was the prodigy being groomed to take over for Brady, but was about 3-5 seasons too early. Stepping into a situation when Brady was injured, Garoppolo produced enough to entice the San Francisco 49ers to take on his talents and eventually hand out a large contract extension.
Even as a 3rd rounder, Jacoby Brissett was not given a fair shake, lasting only one season with the Patriots before being traded to the Indianapolis Colts for wide receiver Phillip Dorsett. Brissett has produced limited results for Indy, and his current $30 million deal enters its final season.
Finally, we get to the lone player still here in Stidham. The former Auburn Tiger has been given a semi-fair chance of winning the starting QB role, but he has failed to live up to his draft stature and has looked overmatched on the field.
The commonality between these three players, as well as all others on this list, is that they were never truly given a chance to make it in New England. No one was going to push Brady for his starting spot, but the backup plan behind Brady always was an afterthought and never a developed plan, hurting the Patriots.
What is the most concerning part is that Belichick and his offensive staff never seemed to dive into QB development enough to help facilitate the passing of the torch, and that is now evident more than ever with Brady out of the picture. They seemingly have just concerned themselves with throwing random darts at the board, seeing what name(s) they stuck too and then moved forward, hoping that was the long-term backup solution.
In Year 1 after Brady’s departure, the team went the cheap but intriguing route as they brought in Cam Newton on a one-year deal, prove-it deal. His rushing stats were certainly as advertised, but Newton’s inaccuracies and lack of proven targets helped produce an abnormally-poor passing season, a huge element of Belichick-ran Pats teams.
With Newton likely needing to look for another new home this offseason, it remains to be seen what Belichick will do when he puts his GM hat on and looks at his options for QB. One thing is quite evident though – they must do something.
Andy Dalton, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Marcus Mariota, and even Mitchell Trubisky fit the bill if Belichick wants to go back to the well once more and visit a free agent option on a short-term deal.
Dalton (DAL), Fitzpatrick (MIA), Mariota (LV), and Trubisky (CHI) held various roles this past season, with all four options riding the pine and starting all for various amounts of time. Belichick’s familiarity with both Dalton and Fitzpatrick prove to be the most logical options, while Mariota would take a trade to move him.
But Trubisky would ideally be the best option for this team on a short deal, seeing as how he may enjoy joining a team that is still searching for its identity and could learn a thing or two under Josh McDaniels and the Patriots offensive staff.
If NE chooses to utilize the draft for their QB needs (and this is a solid-enough draft to do so), then the draft-and-develop mantra that all teams try to emulate will be put to the test yet again for Belichick. Even with his defensive background, his involvement in the offense is just as important, and he is at the front of the QB development issue that has been plaguing this team.
Barring a massive trade-up, the Pats will not get their hands on Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, or even Zach Wilson. So, the likelihood of Mac Jones or Kyle Trask heading to NE is the likeliest of outcomes if they decide to go the route of QB in the first two rounds.
Later on, they could target a Jamie Newman, Kellen Mond, Sam Ehlinger, or Ian Book on Days 2 or 3, but the likelihood of Belichick stumbling across another Brady-esque option that late in the draft does not seem to be in the cards.
The inability to develop another mid-level QB option will hold the Patriots back for a while – and the worst part about it is that they were given 19 seasons to do so with Brady leading the QB room. Time after time after time they swung and missed through the draft, and time after time after time the bucket was pushed another year down the l they needed to cash in whatever they were able to capture in that bucket.
Holding down both the HC and GM roles for a professional sports team is a dangerous venture built upon job security for that one individual – when you think Patriots you think of Belichick, and it certainly would not be the same without seeing the grey, tattered-up sweatshirt-clad coach roaming the sideline.
If he was to give up a role, my money is on him moving on from being GM – not having final control over personnel would help him focus on the coaching aspect, something that he has been involved in for over 20 years.
This trip down a very familiar path could very likely provide a way out for Belichick and his GM career, whether he wants to or not – failure to find and develop another average franchise QB is something he has not been held accountable for, and if it happens again, it could be the final straw.
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