Jarrett Stidham gives the Raiders the best chance to win out
System Familiarity
As mentioned, Stidham used to play for Josh McDaniels when they both were in New England with the Patriots. He was drafted in the 4th round of the 2019 NFL Draft at 133rd overall. He backed up Tom Brady his rookie season, before taking over in 2020 when Brady left the Patriots.
It’s been well documented that Josh Mcdaniels’ system can be pretty complicated, and everyone expected that there would be some growing pains in regard to Carr learning a whole new system. Some of the things coming out of post-game pressers have been somewhat surprising though. McDaniels has inadvertently made comments about different times they checked out of a call that was setting up what we wanted to do, or certain reads were missed, etc.
Jarrett Stidham doesn’t stand out as someone who is going to necessarily give you as high of a ceiling as Carr might. But what he lacks in overall “wow” he makes up for in knowing exactly what McDaniels wants out of each and every situation. I’m not saying that Carr doesn’t know these things, but I believe Stidham is going to go out there and not do too much and stick to the game plan.
We are going to have the chance to see whether Josh McDaniels game plans can truly flourish when followed to a tee, or if his play calling has been the catalyst all along.