Patriots quarterback Jarrett Stidham was at Friday’s practice, but the day hasn’t brought much reason to think that he’ll be starting at quarterback when New England faces Miami in Week One.
A report on Friday morning said Stidham is dealing with discomfort in his leg. Michael Giardi of NFL Media added that it is a hip issue and that it will be several weeks before Stidham is 100 percent. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that he had precautionary tests at a local hospital on Thursday that came back negative.
The opener against the Dolphins will be three weeks from this Sunday and it seems unlikely that Stidham would get the nod to start that game over Cam Newton or Brian Hoyer if he’s not totally healthy. Stidham’s also had some iffy play in practice recently, but head coach Bill Belichick downplayed that during a Friday video conference.
“I don’t think it’s really good for us as a coaching staff to over-evaluate an individual play when we have so many plays to work with,” Belichick said. “Every player makes mistakes out there, every player gets corrected, every player gets coaching points on things that they can do better, differently. I would say ultimately we’re going to reach a point where we have to really evaluate what the performance is.”
There’s plenty of time to evaluate the overall performance of all three quarterbacks, but Stidham’s health looks like it will be another big factor for the Patriots to consider this summer.