After surprisingly having their 20-year long relationship with Tom Brady come to an end in March, many expected the New England Patriots to potentially draft Brady’s successor in last weekend’s NFL Draft. At the very least, there was an expectation that New England would add another quarterback to compete with second-year man Jarrett Stidham, the perceived front-runner for the team’s No. 1 QB job.

When the draft was all said and done, the Patriots didn’t use any of their 10 picks on a signal-caller. ESPN Patriots beat reporter Mike Reiss sat down with TSN’s Matthew Scianitti on Tuesday and said that he believes New England’s decision not to draft a quarterback indeed signifies how they view Stidham.

"For me, it was a moment of truth for them telling everyone else we view Stidham as a better option for us than the fourth-rated quarterback in this draft, Jordan Love," Reiss said.

"To me, it’s Stidham’s job to lose. His upside is the highest of anyone in that room right now, but his floor might be lower than what Brian Hoyer’s is. You know what you have in Hoyer. … That’s why I say it’s Stidham’s job to lose. He shows that he is the man, I think they turn over to him, they surround him with as much talent that they can and they ride it out with Stidham."

As Reiss points out, the Patriots had the opportunity to select Love, a star QB at Utah State who ultimately went to the Green Bay Packers with pick No. 26 of the first round, at No. 23, but instead elected to trade their pick to the Los Angeles Chargers for the 37th and 71st picks in the draft.

"If we feel like we find the right situation, we'll certainly draft [a quarterback]," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in regards to New England not drafting a QB last weekend. "We've drafted them in multiple years, multiple points in the draft. Didn't work out the last three days. That wasn't by design. We just tried to do the best we could with what we had this weekend."

The Patriots did, however, add J’Mar Smith (Louisiana Tech) and Brian Lewerke (Michigan State), two quarterbacks who went undrafted last weekend. They join Stidham and Hoyer, an 11-year veteran who has spent a combined four and half seasons with the Patriots on two separate stints, in New England’s QB room.

Whether Stidham does in fact start for New England under centre next season, or someone else does, it will presumably be quite a while before the Patriots faithful are able to move on from Brady.

"So, there’s almost like a slap in the face of this is the reality. He’s no longer here," Reiss said in regards to how local Patriots fans feel after Brady signed with the Tampa Buccaneers in free agency. "It’s time to move on. And I think that’s hard for a lot of people in New England because Patriots football without Brady, like the idea of seeing in another uniform, that doesn’t seem right to a lot of people here in New England. I think once you reconcile that, then you get excited about turning that page and seeing what they can do moving forward."

It also bears watching what the Patriots will look like culture-wise without Brady, who was undoubtedly the face of the team for most of his 20 seasons.

"I think the culture won’t change. And the culture was more than one player. I think that’s what is easy to miss here, Reiss said. "Brady was such a part of the Patriots. He was in a lot of ways like the signature guy, there’s no doubt about it, but the culture did go well beyond him, right? Think about when he first came to the Patriots in 2000, and what they were those first three Super Bowl championship years. That wasn’t Brady’s team, that was the Patriots’ team. T.E.A.M, it’s a team culture. I think that still exists without Brady."