Cam Newton has agreed to a one-year contract with the Patriots, a league source confirmed. The deal is for the league minimum, which is just over $1 million but can go as high as $7.5 million with various incentives.
The news was first reported by Adam Schefter and Chris Mortenson of ESPN.
Newton, who hasn't taken a snap since the middle of the 2019 season due to shoulder and ankle injuries, likely has been promised nothing and will be expected to compete with Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer for the starting spot.
We've obviously been writing about this possibility for a while now, several times, as sources indicated nothing the Patriots had done up to this point was about confidence in Stidham (it was just circumstances) — they simply don't know what he's going to do or be.
How was Newton playing before he was injured? How does he fit into the scheme? What about Stidham? These are questions we've already hit on here at BSJ. We've attached the links, and below is a summation of what we've already reported.
Bottom line is that this was a no-brainer from the simple fact that Newton could reap a third-round compensatory pick just by sitting on the sidelines all season and signing elsewhere. And, yes, Josh McDaniels can easily adapt his offense to fit Newton, and you got a hint of it when Jacoby Brissett started for the Patriots.
BSJ's previous Newton coverage:
The case for and against the Patriots signing Cam Newton
The truth about Jarrett Stidham’s readiness, Cam Newton and the Patriots
If Patriots sign another quarterback, it should be Cam Newton, not Colin Kaepernick
Did Jacoby Brissett’s first start provide clues for Patriots offense with Jarrett Stidham?
Is this a good move?
In a word, yes.
1. He can deal with the Brady shadow: Having Jarrett Stidham as the guy after Brady, entering just his second season likely with no offseason, is virtually unfair. He's in, basically, a no-win situation. I'm sure Stidham can handle it, but if the Patriots do think he has starter potential down the road (and I've been told that), it might be better to shield him from this first season and let him keep developing on a slow track.
If there's any player in the NFL prepared to deal with the spotlight and the scrutiny that will come with following No. 12, it's Newton. He's been in the spotlight since college, has been ripped to shreds in the limelight, and it really hasn't affected him all that much. Newton has always marched to beat of his own drum, and he wouldn't spend much time thinking about Brady and being the guy that follows him. Having Newton as a lightning rod might help the entire team, let alone Stidham.
2. Newton has owned the Patriots (and Ravens, Steelers & Chiefs):
It's a small sample size at just two games, but Newton has saved his best performances for the Patriots and Belichick. We all know how Belichick can be swayed by how players perform against him — and the pre-game study that comes with playing against them. Belichick knows how much of a pain it is to defend Newton (along with similar players) and Belichick might be intrigued enough to see what it's like from the other side.
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Belichick has been a fan of Newton's in the past.
"I think he’s playing very efficiently," said Belichick in 2017. "He does a good job. He’s obviously a threat with the ball in his hands to run. He can make all the throws. He can put the ball on the sideline, he’s got a lot of zip on the ball down the field and he’s a good outside thrower, good deep-ball thrower. Whether it’s designed runs or scramble runs or loose-type plays, he’s been effective on all those. They’ve been playing from ahead a lot this year and I think that, again, for a quarterback managing the game, getting the win for the team, doing the right thing in the right situation is a lot more important than individual stats. I think he’s done a good job of that for his team, making good decisions, doing things that help the team win. He’s avoided mistakes that put the team in difficult situations so I think he’s playing very well, as is the rest of his offensive team.
"I think that a lot of the plays that Carolina runs we’ve seen from Buffalo and the Jets. They run a lot of under-center plays too, they’re not in the gun nearly as much as teams like Philadelphia and Buffalo. So, they have a good mixture in the running game and their passing game. They’re balanced. They do both out of both. They run and throw under [center] and run and throw in the gun and they have a nice mixture and a group of complementary plays running strong side and running weak side with their counter plays and things like that. They’re a well-balanced team."
In 2015, referencing the '13 game: "That last one we played against them came right down to the end, a lot of situational plays that they made, we didn’t make. You’ve got to expect those types of games every week. I mean, we’re playing against a really good team. I mean, Cam [Newton]’s one of the great players in the league."
3. Newton has owned the AFC East: Additionally, Newton has been at his best against the AFC East and North. Again, small sample sizes, but it's a good sign.
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4. Newton was really good — as in, playing the best football of his career — the last time he was healthy in 2018: I'm going to let our friends at FootballOutsiders.com take this part, because they're way smarter than I am. From their 2019 Almanac:
The easy explanation for the reversal (6-2 to 7-9 in 2018) is Cam Newton’s declining health. That Week 10 Thursday night road trip to Pittsburgh shortened Newton’s recovery period between games, vital for the quarterback as he nursed a lingering shoulder issue that had first appeared on the injury report after the Eagles game. Newton never looked the same after the blowout loss, and the powder keg offense became more of a powder puff. After four straight weeks above 29.0% DVOA, the Panthers pass offense would not reach that level once between Week 9 and Kyle Allen’s Week 17 start against the Saints backups. Newton’s arm strength, already in question after Taylor Heinicke had been put in for a Hail Mary attempt against the Ravens, became a glaring problem: his DVOA on deep passes declined precipitously, from 42.3% in Weeks 1-9 to -79.5% from Week 10 to Week 15, and he did not complete a single pass over 25 air yards in the final six games of his season (0- for-7, one interception). His overall passing DVOA declined from 13.2% in Weeks 1-9 to -18.7% in Weeks 10-15; to put that in perspective, it was almost exactly the difference in passing efficiency between Andrew Luck and Blake Bortles. Newton was finally deactivated for the final two games of the season, had shoulder surgery in January, and the team hopes to have him back at full health for 2019.
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If they can get their quarterback healthy and keep him that way, last season provides compelling evidence that the results could be spectacular. As mentioned above, before the shoulder injury sapped him of his arm strength, Newton’s 13.2% passing DVOA would have been comfortably the best of his career. His previous best, 7.6%, was enough for him to win the league MVP as the Panthers reached the Super Bowl. The four games from Weeks 6-9, in which he averaged 51.2% DVOA, was the third-best passing stretch of Newton’s professional career, comparable to any four-game slice from that MVP campaign. (His best stretch was Weeks 11-14 of 2012, his second season, when he averaged an astounding 64.8% passing DVOA.) When Newton opined before the Week 13 disaster against Tampa Bay that he was playing the best football of his career, he was not without justification.
"I’m playing my best football of my career, because I know what I’m doing,” Newton says. “I’m not guessing. Coach [Ron Rivera] has created an environment where you’ve got a bunch of selfless, talented guys, and that’s key to winning. No matter how good you are, everybody’s working towards the greater good of the team. And for me, being the quarterback, obviously a lot more responsibility is thrust on what I’m supposed to be doing.
“But it’s not pressure, because I know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Asked to affirm the self-assessment, that Newton is better than ever, (Ron) Rivera responds, “Without a doubt. Without a doubt.”
