From 2001-2019, the NFL had witnessed possibly the greatest dynasty in the league’s history in the New England Patriots. The franchise won six championships in that time frame, tying the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most ever in NFL history. The two constants in all of the success was head coach Bill Belichick and star quarterback Tom Brady. This offseason, the Patriots and Tom Brady mutually decided to part ways as he signed a two-year, 50 million dollar contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

After Brady officially left the Patriots, the media swirled with rumors linking big-name, free agent quarterbacks and college quarterbacks to the Patriots. Senior Drew Rodgers says that “the Vegas betting odds after Brady left had the organization favored to sign former MVP quarterback Cam Newton to fill their quarterback vacancy.” While the media profits from promoting eye catching storylines, it is simply not the Patriots way to splash on a big-name quarterback. From Belichick’s earliest days in Foxborough,  he has been extremely conservative when finding quarterbacks -valuing players that he feels can master his system over more high profile names. Tom Brady was a sixth round selection, Matt Cassel was a seventh round pick, and while Jimmy Garoppolo was a second round pick, he was not considered one of the top quarterbacks from that draft class since he played at a small school. Belichick has shown time after time that he can find quality quarterbacks from the lesser known names in the draft. After free agency passed and the Patriots had not signed a big-name quarterback, the media began to write stories claiming the Patriots were targeting one of the drafts’ top signal callers. Doctor Scott Tykodi, a Patriots fan since the 1970s, says that he “would have been very surprised if the Patriots had taken a quarterback in the first few rounds of the NFL draft. [He thinks] they love what they have in Jarett Stidham. They made no attempt to retain Brady and to [him] that is very telling of their confidence level in Stidham.”  Tykodi makes a point that the media often overlooks that the Patriots appear satisfied with their quarterback depth chart. Jarett Stidham, their presumptive starter, is a quarterback from Auburn who was drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL draft. Stidham spent the past year developing behind Tom Brady and all the reviews out of Foxborough are that the coaching staff and players think he is the real deal. The patriots revealed their confidence in Stidham as they did not select a single quarterback in the draft this year, an outcome that shocked NFL media outlets. However, Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caseiro claimed that it was not by design to not select a quarterback; it shows Belichick’s desire to prove that he can win with another unheralded quarterback at the helm.

Brady’s departure has not been kind to the Patriots’ total win projections. Many media sources have the Patriots finish with a record that is very un-Patriot like. Rodgers says that he “expect[s] the Patriots to finish 4-12 because losing the greatest quarterback ever is just too much of a loss.” Tykodi, on the other hand, says that “the Patriots will be better this year. They had the best defense statistically in the league last year and I think they will be similar this year and Brady, in my opinion, was not very good last year. He missed open throws, struggles to throw deep, and is immobile. I think a more youthful quarterback like Stidham will make the Patriots’ offense more dynamic and given they have a strong defense, they will end up winning their division with ease.” This upcoming NFL season certainly will have a different feel to it without Brady under center for the Patriots. We will see if Belichick can replicate his unprecedented success without Brady.