The New England Patriots are about to play in their eighth Super Bowl with Tom Brady under center, but the Pats are still in the quarterback-acquisition business this offseason, after trading Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco during the 2017 season. And there might be a perfect quarterback prospect for Pats coach Bill Belichick sitting there in the early-to-mid rounds.
It's not one of the names you know, not a Baker Mayfield or a Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. Instead, it's a less-heralded prospect, Richmond's Kyle Lauletta, who could be eyed as the "next Jimmy G," the potential heir to Brady in New England.
As detailed by Eric Edholm over at Pro Football Weekly, the three-year starter for the Spiders is the ideal candidate to play "Bill Belichick Bingo." He checks the boxes for things Belichick loves and he checks them quickly.
For starters, he has experience and has shown to be an accurate passer who minimizes mistakes. Lauletta threw 73 touchdown passes over four years (three as starter for Richmond) to just 35 interceptions. That's not a perfect ratio, but he is playing at an FCS-level school. Extrapolate Brady's stats over three years as a starter and he would have had 45 touchdowns and 24 interceptions.
But digging past just the stats you see a guy Belichick could drool over.
Lauletta comes from a family full of lacrosse players and was "a big lacrosse guy" himself.
"I was a big lacrosse guy, absolutely," Lauletta told Edlhom from the 2018 Senior Bowl. "For a while I thought I might enjoy playing that in college. I just enjoy football more. I think it's a better team sport. But I've always grown up a lacrosse guy. My dad was an All-American in high school. My uncle played in college."
Belichick is, quite notoriously, a huge LAX bro. He has visited Johns Hopkins team to see them practice, and has actually practiced with the Maryland lacrosse team before. He's talked/joked about how Brady would make a great lacrosse goalie ("can't dodge, can't run") and named lacrosse positions for all his players. He will sit down with Lauletta and have some LAX talk. That's a guarantee.
"You think about skills on the lacrosse field that translate to football — toughness, change of direction, lot of good things that helped me in football," Lauletta said.
LAX. TALK. BRO. Pats scouts even found out about Lauletta loving lacrosse and said "Belichick will love this" according to the quarterback.
But wait, there's more. The Richmond quarterback is also a product of a family who spent significant time around the Naval Academy and the football program there.
Lauletta's father was a quarterback for the Naval Academy in the mid-'80s, per Edholm, and his uncle Lex was also a PUNTER for Navy in the mid-'70s.
This is the perfect storm. Belichick is very passionate about the service academy, after his father Steve coached there, and Belichick is a huge history/war buff. Belichick loves punters too, as he is the ultimate football geek.
And then there's this -- according to Lauletta, he's been compared by people to Jimmy G multiple times.
"Jimmy Garoppolo, an FCS guy, a guy I've been compared to a few times throughout the process," Lauletta said. "He's a great guy to be compared to; he's doing really, really well. That whole system they have, the success speaks for itself."
I mean, COME ON. There's a LAX-playing, LAX-loving FCS quarterback who had a Navy quarterback dad and a Navy quarterback father and has drawn Jimmy G comparisons in draft process? Belichick is about to turn into a human heart-eyes emoji on this one.
Go ahead and use that second-round pick from the 49ers on this robot sent from the future to be Bill Belichick's perfect quarterback.