I mean I look at it this way....It's very unBelichickian not to have had a viable succession plan from Brady. Even after Jimmy G left, they had time to figure it out. Stidham was not a real effort. Hurts would have been. Or Lamar. Mac was but obviously sucks and there's was no overlap with Brady. When Bill looks back at these down years, I bet that's his main regret.
Lamar wasn't a real option. They had just lost the SuperBowl, Brady had 2 years left on his deal... you can't spend a 1st rounder on a QB in that situation... particularly on a QB who has basically the opposite skillset of your MVP QB and needs a complete offense rebuild. Weak year for post-1st QBs... could have taken Rudolph with a 2nd I guess but again.... trying to win SBs. They threw a late pick at Etling.
2019- Just won the SB, still a chance Brady re-signs. Weak QB class. Options in the 1st were Drew Lock? They took Stidham in the 4th (other options were Greer but would have had to trade up or take him in the 2nd, or Ryan FInley if they took him in the 3rd. The weak class here killed them, this was the year for a 2nd to 4th round shot, they took one, but weak class Stidham never hit.
2020- Sure they could have taken Hurts at 37, but not some unreasonable decision not to, he was an undersized run first QB.... those rarely work. Also could have taken Love in the 1st over trading down.
So they really just weren't in a spot to get a QB for the most part or at least not one that made sense.
They rolled with Cam Newton for a year then took their 1st round QB.... it wasn't a bad strategy really, especially considering that they knew pretty early that at some point they had to take a terrible cap year when Brady left.