The Patriots find themselves in quite the quarterback situation this season. With Tom Brady gone for the second straight year, New England is hoping that their new rookie quarterback will get them back to their Super Bowl winning ways. Cam Newton didn’t turn out to be the answer at the position last year and was subsequently released from the roster during this preseason when Mac Jones thoroughly outplayed him. Jones, despite being in his first year, has displayed a lot of veteran tendencies that Bill Belichick has quickly fallen in love with. Some have even gone so far as to say that he plays a little bit like Brady when he started out his career.
Jarett Stidham resides behind Jones on the line-up and for the past couple of years he has been rumoured to get a shot at the starting job. However, he just hasn’t impressed the coaches enough to really get into that type of consideration. The team clearly felt comfortable letting Newton walk because they had Stidham, but to be honest Newton looked better during his time on the field. Either way, Jones just brought a different vibe to this team that hadn’t been there since Brady was last on the roster.
Apparently, it wasn’t just me who thought that either. Doug Flutie, former Patriots quarterback, was interviewed about the Patriots quarterback situation and admitted that he believes Jones is the future at the position. Flutie may not be the most well-known quarterback in NFL history, but he knows a thing or two about the Patriots. Flutie was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams, then traded to the Chicago Bears and flipped one more time to the Patriots back in 1987. He spent two seasons there before heading into the Canadian Football League after that. Fast forward about 15 years and Flutie resigned with the Patriots in a move that surprised a lot of people.
He admitted that the only reason he resigned with the team was to piggyback off of Brady’s success and earn himself a championship before he retired. Unfortunately, that team didn’t end up winning the Super Bowl that year due to a couple of terrible breaks. Flutie wasn’t on the field much that year but did come on towards the end of a few games. In fact, he came into a game late against a fellow backup quarterback in Vinny Testaverde, the two men were both over the age of 40 and became the oldest quarterbacks to face off in league history at the time.
The next time he stepped onto the turf was in the regular season finale, where he drop-kicked the ball to convert on an extra point, something that hadn’t been done since 1941. He actually earned AFC Special Teams Player of the Week because of it also. Flutie may not have brought Brady-like success to New England during his time there, but the knowledge and leadership he brought to the team in those seasons helped their franchise out a lot.