Bill Belichick is intrigued by the quarterback class in the upcoming NFL Draft amid speculation over whether he will select a first-round replacement for Tom Brady.
Brady left New England after 20 years and six Super Bowl titles in free agency, joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Presumptive number one pick Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa are likely to be off the board by the time the Patriots pick at number 23, with Justin Herbert and Jordan Love the other QBs getting first-round hype.
Jalen Hurts, Jake Fromm, Anthony Gordon and Jacob Eason are among the mid-round options and Belichick appears to like the 2020 class, calling it "interesting" and praising the depth available.
The team's current options at the position are Jarrett Stidham, last year's fourth-round pick, and veteran Brian Hoyer.
"Each guy has his own set of skills; he has his own circumstances," Patriots head coach Belichick told reporters of the QB options. "Some players have played well over a sustained period of time.
"Some players have had an exceptional year in the past year or two - maybe 2019, in some cases 2018 - and then for whatever the reasons were, the two years didn't quite match up. But I'd say that's about the way it always is.
"There are always a variety of things you have to try to put together and look at, but certainly there's a lot of interesting players.
"There's guys who have really good arms, can really throw the ball and some very athletic players, some players that have won a lot of games and have shown their competitiveness and instinctiveness.
"So, interesting group and probably one that has decent depth to it. There's quite a range of players.
"Some of the systems that they play in in college are different, either than what we run or what traditional NFL systems would look like, and some are more close schematically to that."
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) April 11, 2020
On Brady, he said in his opening statement to reporters: "At the start of free agency, I made a statement about Tom.
"It would be of course impossible to sum up everything that Tom did in 20 years into a comment, then or now.
"But I meant everything I said about him and I'm sure we'll be talking about him for years and decades to come."
Belichick was later asked to open up more on Brady's departure, but he made clear he was on to 2020.
"That's water under the bridge," he said. "Like I said, we're really focused on this season and trying to look at our opportunities and make decisions and plan and prepare to be as competitive as we can be this year.
"So, that's really what our focus is on."
Asked again about Brady, he replied: "Again, I think we've covered all that."