This 5 Year Old Profile of Jarrett Stidham is Some Much Needed Patriots Porn
If you're one of those people who went into last weekend convinced the Patriots were going to draft a quarterback and came away crushed they didn't come away with Jalen Hurts (53rd pick) or Jacob Eason (122nd), let this profile of then high school star/incoming Baylor recruit Jarrett Stidham be an important Public Service Announcement for you. If you're looking for someone who can take the pressure of replacing the legend - and of course you are - there's no need to look any further.
Just watch the beginning of this video from January of 2015 and you'll see what I mean. The word "pressure" comes up about two dozen times in the first 35 seconds. When Stidham was a senior in high school, he was already living his life inside a pressure cooker. He was forged, like a blade of Valyrian steel, in the white-hot crucible that is Texas football, as the quarterback of the five time state champion Stephenville Yellow Jackets. The center of attention in a "Boys of Fall" world where "the newspaper clippings fill the coffee shops," and "old men always think they know it all." He was the real life Matt Saracen.
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OK, granted, Stidham didn't escape a dozen sacks in 30 seconds of slo-mo and then hit a wide open receiver 60 yards upfield. And I'll concede Stephenville didn't win the championship. But look at some of those games along the way. 360 total yards and five touchdowns. 511 yards and NINE touchdowns. 443 yards and SEVEN TDs. Playing against the best competition at the high school level we have in the country. The football equivalent of AAU or Canadian junior hockey.
Stidham isn't just another Patriots' mid-rounds QB flyer, like Rohan Davey in 2002 or Kevin O'Connell in 2008. He comes with a pedigree. He's played at the highest levels of schoolboy ball and two huge DI programs and has proven he can deal with the hottest spotlights you can aim at an athlete. Like I've written before, the program at Auburn was in chaos his last year there. And that chaos became a ladder. By the end of the season, head coach Gus Malzahn took over the playcalling. And the result was an Outback Bowl in which Stidham led the Tigers to 56 points. In the first half. Against a Purdue defense that earlier in the season shut down No. 2 Ohio State with Dwayne Haskins under center.
But don't take my word for it. Here's what some scouts and coaches told Bleacher Report a few weeks ago.
"He's a lot closer to playoff quarterback than another guy who falls on his face replacing a legend," one NFL scout tells B/R. …
"Knowing Bill, he's excited about taking this big ball of clay and molding it into his image," another scout says. "I've always thought Stidham was way undervalued as a fourth-round pick. I begged our guys to take him. He has so much more ability than he was able to show in college." …
"We recruited him when he left Baylor, and we kept telling him he can't go to the SEC and play at Auburn or Florida," a Big 12 coach told B/R. "Neither one of those teams had any recent history of throwing the ball with any kind of efficiency. Our pitch was simple: You'll be a first-round pick in the NFL here in this offense. You're going to get lost there." …
"[Stidham] is playing in a phone booth between the hashes, and he has multiple play fakes to get through, and then he's supposed to look up, go through progressions and find the safeties—in the SEC, against those defensive linemen? Come on, man," another scout says. "What did they expect from him? …
"He had first-round talent that was mucked up by a system that didn't fit him," the scout continues.
Pure, Not Safe for the Offseason, 100% rated, couples appeal, Patriots Porn. Practices can't start soon enough.