OK, we've seen the schedule and I still say start Jarrett Stidham in Week 1. Give him the whole season.
Here's the schedule, which features seven games against teams that made the playoffs last year.
My feeling since the Patriots let Tom Brady walk has been that, as tempting as it is to save the kid from a couple of bad losses early, the goal must be to know what they've got in Stidham by season's end. The longer you put off the growing pains, the less time you have to evaluate any sort of ascent or improvement. Plus, Stidham isn't a rookie. He's been able to prepare to take over.
Now that we've seen the schedule, there are obviously some daunting matches over the first seven weeks: having to go into Seattle and Kansas City and having to play the 49ers at home.
I have no idea whether the "road game" is going to be the factor it usually is, though. I'd just view all those games as tough opponents and not let the fact that two of them are on the road influence my plan at quarterback.
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Let's start with the Week 1 opponent. It would seem like a waste to not play Stidham out of the gate against the Dolphins. That one's at home (for what it's worth), and the Dolphins are certainly a beatable opponent. If you give Stidham that game, you put him in a good position to start his career with a ton of confidence, having won both the job and his first game.
And you know what? Those first seven weeks are where we're going to learn a lot about the 2020 Patriots as a team. Can they go 3-3 in that stretch, dare I say 4-2? Not if Brian Hoyer's the starter, but if the Patriots can break even over those six games, that's a hell of a way to begin the post-Brady era.
If you don't start Stidham Week 1, you're probably either waiting until Week 5 or Week 9, right? Week 5 gives him one game against the Broncos, then a bye before having to play the 49ers. It would be awkward and unfair to wait for the bye to make the switch, as it would set up Jimmy Garoppolo as Stidham's first opponent.
Week 9 avoids a lot of the bad guys, but the remaining nine-game stretch can't be enough to evaluate Stidham as the quarterback of the future, can it? At that point, you might as well just keep playing Hoyer, losing and get the high draft pick.
But I don't think they'll do that. I think Bill Belichick likes Stidham and he wouldn't have let Brady go if he didn't at least have an intriguing option up his sleeve. Stidham should be the play for the Patriots Week 1 and the rest of the way. It's the only way we'll know whether the Patriots have something or if we'll be doing this schedule dance again a year from now with some rookie.