QB Of The Future? Patriots Draft Auburn QB Jarrett Stidham In Fourth Round
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots have a young quarterback to learn under Tom Brady, drafting Auburn's Jarrett Stidham with the No. 133 overall pick Saturday in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Stidham stands at 6-foot-2 and 218 pounds, and is a smart quarterback with solid all-around mechanics. He had a great sophomore season in 2017, his first at Auburn, when he threw for 3,158 yards and 18 touchdowns, completing 67 percent of his pass attempts. But he failed to build on that season, due in large part to the heavy pressure he saw from opposing defenses, and took a step back as a junior.
Over his three-year collegiate career at Auburn and Baylor, Stidham threw for 7,217 yards, 48 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions while completing 64.3 percent of his passes.
He appeared in 10 games games his freshman year at Baylor after Seth Russell was injured, and completed 69 percent of his passes for 1,265 yards, throwing for 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions. He transferred after the season when the school was embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal that cost much of the football team's coaching staff their jobs. The Stephenville, Texas native went to a McLennan Community College in his home state for a semester before transferring to Auburn.
Now he'll get a few years to learn under the best quarterback to play the game. He joins Brady, Brian Hoyer and 2018 seventh-round pick Danny Etling on New England's QB depth chart. Whether Stidham can turn into Brady's eventual successor remains to be seen, but this is another throw at the dartboard for the Patriots as they plan for the future.