FOXBORO — Tom Brady has been on and off the Patriots injury report for the last few weeks due to a right elbow issue.
It's an issue.
Following a loss to the Chiefs in Week 14, he arrived at his postgame press conference with his arm wrapped in ice. He took a shot to the elbow that day, perhaps exacerbating an already-existing injury. Brady later admitted to Jim Gray of Westwood One that he'd been receiving extra treatment on the wing.
In practice last week, Brady was seen consistently trying to shake out his throwing arm. Then in Sunday's win over the Bengals, it looked like something was off as the 42-year-old was uncharacteristically inaccurate through the air several times when provided a clean pocket.
LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.
As he's managed the injury, Brady has missed practice time. But Bill Belichick explained on Tuesday that there's been a silver lining to those reps: rookie Jarrett Stidham has had an opportunity to work with the first-team offense.
"It's hard to practice three quarterbacks," Belichick said, "but there've been a couple examples when Tom hasn't been able to do a lot this year so that's given Stid an opportunity to go with the first group and run our plays, run our offense. That's been good for him."
The Patriots have kept reserve passer Cody Kessler on the active roster for much of this season in part to deal with instances like the ones Belichick discussed. If Brady misses time, and if Stidham has to step in, then it's Kessler who takes on the scout-team reps.
"I think it's helped," Belichick said. "You don't always want to do it that way. Sometimes it's best to do things that way. Then that's good for everybody. But we want everybody out there as healthy as they can be so that's ultimately the goal. But it's not always that way.
New England Patriots
Find the latest New England Patriots news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
"That's a better scenario than having just two quarterbacks so that then one guy has to take everything. Not that he can't take it. it's the National Football League. But mentally, going from a defensive period to an offensive period to a defensive period to an offensive period — that's not as conducive to a highly level of execution in either one. But sometimes that's what it is so we have to adjust."
While the Patriots have their focus on this weekend's matchup with the Bills, there could be a franchise-altering transition on the horizon.
>>LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE HERE TO THE PATRIOTS TALK PODCAST
Brady is not under contract for 2020, as has become painfully clear to all in the six-state region by now. Whether or not Stidham is a real factor in the contingency plan should Brady not return, the snaps Stidham sees in practice alongside starting-caliber offensive players are valuable as an evaluating tool.
"We can evaluate everything he does," Belichick said. "That's what we do."
Part of that evaluation would come from offensive assistant Mick Lombardi, who spends time working with Patriots quarterbacks not named Brady. It's a role Jerry Schuplinski filled in New England before his departure for Miami with first-year head coach and former Patriots assistant Brian Flores.
"When you have two quarterbacks at two different levels, where Tom and Jarrett — or Tom and Cody — are relative to overall experience or certainly experience within our system . . . neither Cody nor Jarrett have very much.
"There's a lot of things we need to go over with them that, honestly, we've probably been over with Tom 400 times. [We] try to be a little more efficient with it to work with those guys."
Even if Brady isn’t back, and even if the Patriots like Stidham’s chances of becoming a starter, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be the guy to have to follow Brady’s act. The veteran quarterback carousel could be as crowded as ever, potentially making available cost-effective veterans like Marcus Mariota and others.
Perhaps there’s a bridge quarterback out there, who’d buy Stidham time to make good on whatever positive plays he’s made in practices this year when given the opportunity to run with starters.
Here’s what Belichick said of Stidham’s growth back in October, about halfway through the season.
“Yeah, good. Jarrett is a smart kid," Belichick said at the time. “He picks things up very quickly. He has a good grasp of the offense given where he is in his career. He’s handled everything we’ve thrown at him. In practice, he does a good job. He gets a lot of passes on our defense, and when he has the opportunity to get the offensive snaps, he’s prepared and does a good job of those."