Patriots: Newton Gives Stidham Fans Sign Of Encouragement.

It can take a quarterback up to three years to learn a playbook according to Chris's Simms, who said he learned a playbook in a no time, said quarterbacks read the book wrong. That it's a process that most guys don't get and when they do learn the playbook, "they don't own it."

Cam Newton has been with the Patriots almost 30 day and may have figured out what Simms is talking about. Least according to Jedd Fisch, Patriots quarterback coach.

Fisch Says,"Cam has been here, I think it is officially now 23 days, and I think from like July 28 to call it today — 24 days or whatever it might be — the improvement that he is making on a daily basis are sometimes what you could see some other guys that have been in the same system for a few years make on a monthly basis.

How quickly the increments have to occur for him because he just doesn't have a lot of time and he's coming from learning a brand new system, brand new terminology, brand new drops, brand new players and really when you look at it, you're not going full speed until call it eight, nine, 10 days ago."

If you're a Patriots fan, this is good news. Sure, Newton doesn't have the accuracy of Stidham but he does have better decisions making ability from playing eight seasons and sitting out and watching one with injury. That's gonna help if he beats Stidham for the job.

Fisch continues, "I think the leaps that he's taking each day have been really impressive based on the fact that there's a huge foundational gap from not having been here in the spring or the season before."

Even though Stidham is injured, the competition will continue. The Patriots will not just give the position to Newton. McDaniels implied that it will go to the guy who best masters the Patriots system.

McDaniels said, “Cam, again, we added him basically in July. I think he’s really busted his butt to try and learn and grow each day that he’s been with us. There’s absolutely no shortcut to really going through it and repping it in practice and seeing it, calling it, and reacting in full speed to different situations.”

On Thursday, Newton didn't do anything flashy but he didn't make any mistakes either. Another positive sign. It's unclear Stidham was being punished or his injury kept him from Thursday's seven on sevens. Not much was reported on about Friday's passing drills except Stidham wasn't throwing, so don't know if Newton continued to play mistake free or if he reverted to the risk taker.

While Patriots Nation is divided in a family feud between the two former Auburn tigers, It's a positive sign for all in Patriots Nation that Newton is picking up the playbook. If Ray Rauth over at DPN is right, we could see both Newton and Stidham on the field at the same time. Which would squash the fued.

Seeing a modified version of the Enory and Henry Offense would be cool. The Patriots have enough former quarterbacks to really change the way the game is played. For now though, it's one day at a time. We're on to the next practice.

Regardless of who starts, true Patriots fans will embrace the winner of the competition, even if it's Hoyer because the name on the front means more than the name on the back. Doesn't matter if it's, Hoyer, Stidham, or Newton; once Bill makes the decision, that's our quarterback until it's not. We may not like that they're the starter but we will root for them to do the best and we will talk crap to anyone from any fan bases that trashes our quarterback. Just as we always have.