Bill Belichick: Patriots have 'played without Tom Brady before'

The New England Patriots are going to look quite different over the next decade after Tom Brady departed the organization after 20 years for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now that Brady's gone, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick doesn't plan on taking a step back. In fact, he noted his team has found success in the past without Brady.

“Well, we’ve played at other times without Tom,” Belichick said on NFL Network on Thursday night, via NESN's Zack Cox. “Whether it was the [2008] season after he was injured — we played 15 games with Cassel and went 11-5 — or heading into the ’16 season with Jimmy and then Jacoby, and Tom coming back after the four-game suspension.

“So there have been other times where we’ve dealt with that. We’ll do what we always do, which is try to prepare the team the best that we can, utilize our players and the skills that they have and put ourselves in the best position we can to be competitive and win. That’s what we always do, and we’ll continue to do that.”

While the six-time Super Bowl champion played nearly every game for the Patriots since 2000, New England has seen a few other quarterbacks start since then ... but not many. Drew Bledsoe, Matt Cassel, Jacoby Brissett and Jimmy Garoppolo all started games and the Patriots went 18-19 with those players.

Now it'll be second-year quarterback Jarrett Stidham's time to shine, and Belichick seems rather confident in his quarterback situation moving forward, especially considering he didn't make a move for Andy Dalton or Cam Newton.

Although Stidham didn't start any games for the Patriots last season, he put together a solid 2018 campaign at Auburn. The former Tigers quarterback threw for 2,794 yards and 18 touchdowns while completing 60.7 percent of his passes in his final collegiate season.

While he'll likely be New England's Week 1 starter, Belichick can always rely on Hoyer if things take a turn for the worse. But we'll have to wait and see.