In these trying times, it’s nice to know that we can take solace in one of the few things that can truly bring a region together:
Laughing at our enemies.
Normally this is where I’d make a joke about how you were probably out living a life of leisure this weekend and may or may not have missed the Patriots re-signing quarterback Brian Hoyer for a third go in New England, but, well, we all know exactly what we did this weekend, which was probably mostly saying “yes, Netflix, I’m still watching” and jumping off the couch any time we got a push notification, so, you definitely already know that Brian Hoyer is back. Presumably to back up Jarrett Stidham, from the looks of it.
The schadenfreude part came in on Monday night, when NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo gave us this little storytime on how the last couple days went down: apparently a bunch of teams were trying to call the Patriots after Tom Brady announced his departure and sell Bill Belichick on “can we interest you in a lightly used quarterback for a pick or two?”
Predictably, Bill was not impressed. From NBC Sports Boston, who’s thankfully done all the transcription work for me so I don’t have to:
A lot of other teams have contacted the Patriots, according to sources, trying to push guys on the Patriots. Seeing if they can get a pick back in return for one of their quarterbacks. In fact, it sounds like the Colts with Hoyer were one of those teams and the Patriots said might as well wait until he comes free which wound up being the case.
So the Patriots [are] taking their time, [they’re] not in a rush to go trade for somebody else. [They’re] going to stick with what they have and then see what happens in the draft come April.
This is interesting on a few levels. One, obviously, the Colts at least tried to get something for Hoyer before cutting him on Sunday, to which the Patriots presumably asked “why would we give up a pick for him when you’re clearly not keeping Phillip Rivers and Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer and we can sign Brian for the low, low price of....money?”
Two, if the Patriots, and Bill in particular, weren’t even willing to throw a Day 3 pick to the Colts just to make sure they didn’t get outbid on the open market once Hoyer got cut and became a free agent, that doesn’t exactly scream “we need this guy to compete for a starting job in 2020” does it? Given that the QB position is both the most difficult to fill and the most important position in American sports, if the Patriots really thought they were going to need to tag in Brian Hoyer as the Day 1 starter, they probably would’ve been willing to strike a deal even if it was for relative peanuts. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. With all due respect to Brian Hoyer, who’s already made almost $28,000,000 in his career and has a Super Bowl ring to his name, he’s here to back up Jarrett Stidham *or* whoever New England might target in the draft. That’s the job.
And finally, not only is New England only paying Brian $1.05 million for the 2020 season, which as our salary cap Mr. Miyagi Brian Phillips pointed out, is the minimum for a vet with 10+ seasons, in that same interview referenced above, Ian Rapoport says, and I quote:
“And this is key; talked to agent Joe Linta, who’s represented Hoyer for his entire career. He said even if a team had offered Hoyer 5 or 6 million dollars to be a backup, he would’ve picked New England because they told him that he will have the opportunity to compete for a starting job. As you mentioned, he has a lot of familiarity with the system, he’s been there, he’s had success there, he is at the least going to compete with Jarrett Stidham in training camp. We will see how that all shakes out, but obviously, the best opportunity for him to get on the football field was with his old friends in New England.”
If telling a 10-year vet “you’ll have an opportunity to compete for a starting job” isn’t classic Belichick, then I don’t even know what is.
Poll
How would you grade the signing of Brian Hoyer?
This poll is closed
-
15%
A
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34%
B
-
29%
C
-
11%
D
-
8%
F