The Patriots Sign Cody Kessler, Which Can't be Great News for Jarrett Stidham
Well alright then. I think it was Curley Lambeau who once said, “When you’re signing a quarterback who’s unemployed three weeks into the season, it’s probably a sign your backup quarterback situation is shit.” Though I might be remembering that wrong.
Whoever said it (even if it was only me just now), picking up Cody Kessler, who was with the Eagles this preseason but couldn’t crack their roster over Josh McCown and Nate Sudfeld, can only mean they are not comfortable with Jarrett Stidham as their only option.
And at this point, it’s hard to argue:
Between them on Sunday, Stidham and Gunner Olszweski were the freshman pledges who broke things and puked all over the place at a frat party that was going perfectly. Officially those two gave up almost five times as many points on two plays as the Patriots defense has in 156 plays from scrimmage. Olszewski finished the game as the punt returner, Stidham didn’t see another set of downs.
It’d be lunacy to suggest that this means they have zero confidence in Studman and are ready to throw him into the quarterback recycle bin where they tossed the likes of Danny Etling, Ryan Mallett or Tim Tebow. It’s just that they don’t trust him now. Not yet. He’s got to prove he can hold his liquor and not gross out all the sisters from Kappa Kappa Gamma before they’ll put a red Solo back in his hand.
As for Kessler, what can you say? 12 career starts, 8 TD passes and 5 INTs is the sort of thing you use as a slogan under “Professional Backup QB since 2016″ on your business card. He got four starts with Jacksonville last year and went 2-2. His Passer Rating with that limited sample size was 77.4, which was just a few tenths of a point below Sam Darnold and the Jags starter, Blake Bortles. The only really significant playing time he’s gotten is his career was starting half the games of the 1-15 2016 Browns. They lost all his starts, but for what it’s worth his 92.3 Passer Rating would’ve put him in the middle of the league rankings (between Andy Dalton and Russell Wilson) if he had enough snaps to qualify. It doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it’s not nothing.
Hopefully we’ll never find out. And that the only time we see Kessler or Stidham on a field again this year is when they’re standing in the middle of a red, white and blue confetti shower after the Super Bowl. But however this plays out, there’s all the reason in the world to think this Patriots coaching staff knows what they’re doing when it comes to evaluating QBs.
Just don’t @ me about how they should’ve kept Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett. We’ve been over the Jimmy G thing a million times. And not only would Brissett be a backup still if Andrew Luck hadn’t lost his will to play football, he got them Phillip Dorsett in return. Those issues are non-starters. Let the new, 2019 edition of the Wolfpack begin.