Patriots' Jarrett Stidham reportedly dealing with leg/hip injury as he battles Cam Newton for starting role

Stidham was still on the practice field on Friday

New England Patriots quarterback Jarrett Stidham is having a bit of a tough week, as it was reported on Friday morning that he's dealing with an injury. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Stidham has been battling discomfort from a leg/hip injury and was not expected to practice much on Friday. Despite rampant speculation that Stidham could miss some time, the second-year signal-caller was seen on the practice field Friday, and smiling, according to Mark Daniels of The Providence Journal. Rapoport says that the Patriots will proceed cautiously with this situation, and Michael Giardi reports that it will be several weeks before Stidham is back to 100 percent. Since this is training camp, the Patriots are not required to release specific injury reports and teams generally don't comment much on injuries during press conferences.  

As of now, it appears Cam Newton may be in the lead when it comes to the Patriots quarterback battle. On Tuesday, Newton completed 9 of 12 passes during team drills, and two of his misses were reportedly due to drops. As for Stidham, he completed 8 of 11 throws and threw three interceptions. Rapoport mentioned that Stidham hasn't looked like himself in practice over the past few days, and that he hasn't had the same power on his throws due to the injury. Naturally, you always need to take these practice nuggets with a grain of salt as Bill Belichick and his coaching staff are still trying to figure out what the 2020 version of the Patriots will look like, which won't happen after a few practices. Both players have taken turns playing first-team quarterback.

Stidham was the Patriots' fourth-round pick last season, and he had a solid collegiate career at Baylor and Auburn -- completing 64.3 percent of his passes for 7,217 yards, 48 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in two-plus seasons as a starter. He threw passes in only two NFL games last season, and completed 3 of 4 attempts for 14 yards. Stidham also threw one pick-six. He did made some waves in the preseason last year during joint practices with the Detroit Lions, but is going to have to do that again against a former league MVP if he wants the first crack at filling Tom Brady's shoes.