Cam Newton on Jarrett Stidham ahead of Patriots-Broncos

Jarrett Stidham’s soccer IQ left a long-lasting impression on Cam Newton throughout their season-plus along with the Patriots. He additionally believes Stidham is proficient sufficient to presumably assist the Broncos upset the Patriots in Sunday’s AFC Championship Sport, too.

Nonetheless, Newton is anxious about how properly his former teammate will deal with the off-script moments in Sunday’s recreation.

“The difficulty was how does [Stidham’s football IQ] translate to the sport,” Newton said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Friday. “Then, you begin to say, ‘Hey, how does Jarrett Stidham deal with the what-ifs?’ What if his first choice just isn’t there? What if the pocket collapses? What if it’s not an ideal state of affairs for him to be good or nice? That’s my greatest query mark.

“Does he have the skillset? Sure. Can he make all of the throws? Sure. However there’s one thing in regards to the what-ifs that issues me essentially the most as the sport approaches.”

Sunday will mark the primary recreation Stidham has began for the reason that two video games he began for the Broncos on the finish of the 2023 season. He additionally hasn’t thrown a cross in a regular-season recreation since then, both.

However within the 4 video games Stidham has began in his profession, he’s put up some fairly respectable numbers. He threw for 584 yards, 4 touchdowns, and three interceptions to go together with 84 speeding yards in two begins with the Raiders in 2022. Within the two begins he made with the Broncos in 2023, Stidham threw for 496 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception.

Stidham struggled in opposition to stress, although, in these 4 begins, presumably lending credence to Newton’s concept that he would possibly wrestle if issues go off-script. He’s accomplished 23 of 53 passes for 353 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions whereas getting sacked 14 instances on 75 dropbacks in opposition to stress within the video games he appeared in between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, per Professional Soccer Focus.

Nonetheless, Newton vouched for Stidham’s soccer smarts. He identified that Stidham had such a robust understanding of the Patriots’ offense that lots of their teammates went to the backup quarterback for assist after they performed collectively.

“Throughout my time in New England, Jarrett Stidham was all the time the one, with him and Brian Hoyer, they have been all the time ready,” Newton stated. “They have been all the time understanding of who the Mike [linebacker] is, the verbalization of the playbook, and simply rattling off performs, ending performs earlier than it’s even coming in. He was all the time the man that guys would go to verify their solutions, ‘Hey, am I proper, proper right here? What do I acquired proper right here?’”

Stidham backed up Newton within the 2020 season after dropping the Patriots’ beginning quarterback job to him within the preseason. However the staff stored Stidham round for the 2021 season, when Newton was launched simply days earlier than the beginning of the common season.

The work Stidham put in behind the scenes over his three seasons with the Patriots was sufficient to persuade Josh McDaniels to commerce for him when he grew to become the Raiders’ head coach in 2022. Again with the Patriots as their offensive coordinator once more, McDaniels had nothing however excessive reward for the quarterback he labored with over 4 seasons in New England and Las Vegas.

“Sensible. Correct. An ideal human being,” McDaniels stated of Stidham on Thursday. “Labored onerous. An ideal teammate. Simply hasn’t had a chance primarily based on conditions and people sorts of issues. I loved working with him. I loved my time with him. I’m certain he’ll be able to go this week for certain.”