The Denver Broncos will host the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. However, the quarterback duel is not the one any anticipated. Drake Maye looks clearly superior to Jarrett Stidham, but one coach is warning the away team to not get overconfident.
Josh McDaniels is an old fox in this NFL business. The Patriots offensive coordinator has been around the block and he worked with Bill Belichick. During Thursday’s press conference, McDaniels said Stidham is “smart, accurate, great human being.” Then he expanded, “He’ll be ready to go this week, for sure.”
That’s a self-warning to the team. However, that’s not the only warning they’ve received before their game against the Broncos. The fact is that while Maye is an MVP contender, his postseason play hasn’t been as great, and the Broncos have a top-tier defense.
Stidham has been praised by everyone recently
Sean Payton stated that Stidham could be a starter in plenty of teams in this league. Now, McDaniels is also praising him. Even cornerback Pat Surtain II said good things about Stidham as well. It’s a lot for a guy who has only four starts in the NFL at this point in his career.
Stidham has a career record of 1-3, completing 59.4% of his passes for eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. Those are not numbers to wow at, but everyone is taking big swings in building up Stidham’s reputation.
The AFC Championship Game is still not bringing credibility to the Pats
Many of the Patriots doubters are not done yet. One would assume that getting all the way to an AFC Championship Game would calm the claims, but the fact is the fuel has been igniting even more. In the Wild Card Round, the Chargers had basically no offensive line, hence, Patriots doubters said that was the reason they won. In the Divisional Round, CJ Stroud had four interceptions and arguably lost the game for the Texans. Finally, now against the Broncos they are not facing Bo Nix due to injury, hence going against Jarrett Stidham.
This all makes the Patriots path too easy to go to the Super Bowl. However, if they do win vs. Denver, they would be 60 minutes away from glory and no one could deny that, no matter what. The Pats are at the verge of positioning themselves as a top-tier franchise once again.