There are concerns surrounding Cam Newton, free agency, development, and production of the supporting cast and any backup quarterbacks the Patriots might have in 2021. I am going to list them, these are real concerns about Cam, unlike those who are hating on him because he's not Brady or due to the color of his skin.
The style or system of offense. The Patriots offense for the most part is a quick pass, dink and dunk offense. It's designed for accuracy. Many, many fans still want this style of offense and are not fans of the gunslinger style of play. Although the Patriots modified the Brady playbook and added option runs, they expected Newton to be able to run the plays called. They expected him to be able to throw short passes. Newton needs a playbook with a simple route tree. Deep posts, deep slants, deep wheel, deep curls, and streak/go routes, with nothing short or intermediate.
Not exactly routes for slot or flanker receivers, or anyone who makes their money escaping into the flats. Which is how the Patriots offense is constructed. Newton needs different talent. He needs tall, fast, X-Receivers with leaping ability and large wingspans. Not flankers, slots, ends, or backs. Look at the size of the pass catchers in Carolina.
Newton takes too long on deciding whether to hand the ball off or keep it. He also hangs on to the ball too long, allowing defenders time to beat the blockers. This can kill a production value and development of pass catchers, running backs, and blockers.
Newton's ball placement is bad. He throws the ball to the pass catchers' area, to their bubble. That one, hurts production because it's not where it should be most of the time. And two, hurts development because they're too busy trying to make circus catches, instead of picking up Y.A.C. Izzo is 6'5" and Harry is 6'4", how many times did the pass go soaring above their heads or be at least a foot out of arms length?
Newton also struggles to throw short passes, ball placement is really horrible in that area. That's the area slot, tight ends, and backs work. There was a screen versus Buffalo if memory serves, where he threw the ball way to high, and white couldn't get the yards after catch that he should've.
His vision is bad. Newton doesn't tend to look under 10 yards, or outside the hashes. So either any routes short, on the outside, or both, he's not seeing them because he's looking for the big play deep and down the middle. Shrinking the field and giving the advantage to the defense. One can blame it on injuries, opt outs, coaching, and departures but under Cam Newton, the supporting cast's production value dropped from 17th in 2019 to22nd in 2020.
Plus Newton's arm strength has come into question. Separation may have played a part in it but Cam was spiking the ball into the ground, and the Patriots weren't throwing it deep. Why, when his accuracy deep was good? Besides Byrd, the Patriots had guys throughout the season with a 4.4 or better coming and going on their practice squad. Yet they chose to stay with the shorter route guys. Stubbornness or lack of trust in Newton's arm?
Newton was forgetting the play at the line of scrimmage when he should be reading the defense and seeing if anyone is gonna have their guy beat, or making adjustments. That hurts the entire offense's development and production. He could've occasionally audibled but didn't, probably out of fear of getting benched.
He might be a good leader but his approach to his job has to come into question. Studying techniques he might pass down. Pointers he could give to improve the play of his backups. Most young quarterbacks try to emulate the starter a head of them. As a passer, nobody can say that Stidham didn't look a little too much like Newton in 2020, compared to his preseason performance in 2019.
If it was 2015 Cam, that might not be an issue but Stidham looked like a 2020 Cam Clone when throwing the ball. Stidham's got his own issues, he didn't need to learn any bad habits from Newton. What Stidham needed was pointers on how not to be scared in the pocket, not examples of bad play.
Free agents are going to look at all this. Some might blame it on circumstances, knowing all three quarterbacks the Patriots fielded were in bad positions in 2020. Not all will, the question is what percentile.
Newton hurt production and development of the guys around him, regardless of which reason I listed above. Regardless of what reason or excuse is given. There's no denying that.
That's why he's so adamantly defended the guys around him, saying "the answers in the locker room". Newton knew a lot of his pass catchers problems were because of him. One can assume he knew he was a bad example for Stidham on the field. He definitely felt pressure late in the season of getting benched for Stidham, especially after praising his development earlier after the charger game.
How many free agents are going to wanna come play with Newton, how many are going to wanna get paid if they gotta play with Newton, and how many are going to view playing with Newton as career damaging after 2020 and decided to pass? On top of that, how much are Newton's issues going to hurt development and production of the supporting cast in 2021? These are all questions the Patriots face.
The Patriots can tell free agents that Cam is an insurance policy but they're looking to improve the position. At the end of the day, the Patriots are taking just as big a gamble on Newton, as any player agreeing to play with the Patriots in 2021. They know this, question is do they believe he problems are worth the risk or do they feel they have no choice. Newton's contract says he had no other options, is the same true for the Patriots?
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