Jarrett Stidham has NFL-level talent. Few argue with that.
This is a guy who was the second-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the country coming out high school. (To read more about how good Stidham was, read Ryan Hannable's story by clicking here.)
But thanks in large part to a so-so final season at Auburn, Stidham slid to the 133rd overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. So, what happened, and should we care?
Appearing on WEEI with Ken Laird and Nick Stevens, NFL.com Draft expert Lance Zierlein explained why Stidham forgetting his junior year in college -- which included a 60.7 percent completion percentage along with drop in overall passing yardage from his sophomore season -- may be the biggest key for the 23-year-old.
"The issue with Jarret Stidham is not his throwing, it's not his accuracy or placement," Zierlein said. "I think the biggest concern moving forward with Jarret Stidham is going to be whether or not he is shellshocked that year with Auburn. People may think that's ridiculous. It's just one year. But I'm telling you, I have been in Houston doing radio and NFL stuff for a while and I will never forget watching David Carr at Fresno State coming out of the draft and what happened to David over time with the subpar offensive line and then David also held onto the ball too long. He got shellshocked and nothing was the same. Everything was a check down, check down, check down. Always looking to escape. Eyes dropping from the pocket.
"I think the Patriots need to see what they have with Jarret Stidham. This is definitely not the year to trade up when you don't even have a second-round pick. You will be giving away future draft capital. For what? For a guy like Justin Herbert or a guy like Tua who I like but you aren't going to be able to get up to five or six where he might go. It's just not going to be that easy. It's going to be extremely expensive from where you're drafting. To me, see what you have in Jarret Stidham. I think that's what the Patriots plan on doing.
"He's got the talent to be an NFL starter. The question is what does his poise look like and how does he deal with adversity? The only way you find out is to let that play out. And you don't let that play out with one or two games. You let that play out over the course of a season because you don't just overcome adversity in a game. That is a process. There is a learning process. There is coaching to be had. And I don't think it's fair to Jarret Stidham to not really give him any kind of an opportunity to go through the same process other quarterbacks get."
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