Jarrett Stidham shines in Raiders debut during Hall of Fame Game

BOSTON -- Not long ago, Jarrett Stidham looked like he might be a Preseason Hall of Famer. It was only appropriate that he showed up in a big way during the Hall of Fame Game.

The former Patriots quarterback made his debut in black and silver on Thursday night, during the Raiders' 27-11 win over the Jaguars.

Stidham completed eight of his 15 passes for 96 yards, and he also scrambled for a 12-yard touchdown run -- a score which put the Raiders up 20-0 before halftime. The stats could have been even prettier, too, if Tyron Johnson had been able to hang on to a perfectly placed deep ball prior to Stidham's touchdown run.

Standing out in the preseason is nothing new for Stidham. In his first-ever preseason game in 2019, he was 14-for-24 for 179 yards and a touchdown. The next week he was 14-for-19 for 193 yards and another touchdown. The following week he was 15-for-19 for 134 yards. And as the lone quarterback in the fourth preseason game, he was 18-for-28 for 225 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception.

All told, he completed 61 of his 90 passes (67.8 percent) for 731 yards (8.1 Y/A) with four touchdowns and one interception. The future looked bright for the Patriots' fourth-round pick ... but he'd end up seeing the field for just 15 snaps that season, throwing four total passes as Tom Brady finished out his New England career. 

The next year, with Brady out of the mix but Cam Newton in it, Stidham only saw action in the fourth and final preseason game, going 5-for-13 for 60 yards with one touchdown and two picks. A back injury kept Stidham out of the 2021 preseason altogether. The future was a bit dimmer. Stidham slid down to third on the depth chart in 2020, behind Brian Hoyer, only getting a look when a Hoyer gaffe before halftime forced Bill Belichick's hand to make a switch during the game Newton missed due to COVID. Even late in the year, when Newton threw just three touchdowns in 11 games, Stidham couldn't get a chance to play.

Now, reunited with Josh McDaniels in Las Vegas, it appears as though Rookie Preseason Stud Jarrett Stidham has returned. 

Ultimately, the Raiders won't want to see much of Stidham this year, because that would mean an injury to starter Derek Carr. Nevertheless, Stidham at least appears to have recaptured something from his game that had gone missing for the past two years.

"It was good to get back out there. I hadn't played football, personally, in a live game in quite a while. Long time. So it was good to get back out there. I was itching to get back out there," a smiling Stidham said postgame. "It was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun out there."