Patriots pick up ANOTHER quarterback... what's the plan here?

After the departing of Tom Brady, which really surprised me and many other NFL fans who bought into the hype about "Tom's not going anywhere," it remained very unclear how the New England team was going to retain their top-tier status without what many people consider to be one of the best (if not the best) quarterback of all time.

The Pats are extremely good at a lot of thing, but maintaining a high-quality roster is definitely one of them. They were very quiet about what they were going to do in order to fill the very big shoes that Brady left available on the team and it took many months before they made a decision.

For many, it was a really odd choice to pick up injury-prone Cam Newton on a 1 year contract but it offered a lot of potential excitement given his running-back QB style even though his "arm cannon" has been fading over the years (possibly due in part to be a running-back quarterback that frequently gets absolutely creamed by the defense.)

A 1-year contract doesn't instill the fans and general public with much confidence but given Newton's qualification for a very high salary, it is understandable that the Patriots would be hesitant to offer a massive contract right out of the gate.

Well it seems as though they are hedging their bets because it was announced yesterday that they are picking up another quarterback and this is their 4th.

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If you don't know who Brian Lewerke is and wonder why I have him featured in a Michigan State uniform go ahead and consider me one of the people that were totally unaware that this star college player was even in the NFL, because for the past 4 days he wasn't. He was picked up by the New England team on May 5th as an unsigned free-agent but then on the 26th of July they abruptly released him.

Then 4 days later they re-signed him. He has never even practiced with anyone who plays for New England and this must be a very nerve-wracking time for him. After an impressive 3 years as the starting QB for the Spartans. He never had a chance to come into the limelight because his performance, despite shattering records at the university, was overshadowed by other, far more dominant teams in the NCAA. Therefore, upon graduation there was very little interest in drafting him.

The New England Patriots also have Cam Newton, Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer in their roster as potential starting quarterbacks. My money is on Newton being the true starter while the two Brians will likely compete for 2nd string when Newton inevitably gets injured.

The cool thing about the Brians is that they both played at Michigan State although it was 7 years apart. I don't think that Hoyer has much staying power with the Patriots or any other team for that matter since he has already played for 6 different NFL teams and has rather lackluster performances with all of them resulting in his release after 1 year from all teams but one. This is his 3rd time with the Patriots.