As a passer pro football reference ranked Newton the 25th best passer in the nfl. Newton finished 25th in attempts. 24th in yards, 34th in touchdown passes. Throwing a touchdown 2.2% of his passes. Newton finished 18th in interceptions, throwing one 2.7% of his attempts.
Newton was 35th in money throws, 20th in danger plays, 17th in interceptable passes. He was 32nd in accuracy rating, 28th in true competition percentage with a 71.2%. Newton ranked 35th in catchable passes 73.9% and was ranked 19th in clean pocket percentage with a 74.3%.
According to player profiler Newton finished 30th in both true passer rating and QBR, finishing with a 77.3 and a 47.4. Before anyone says who did he have to throw to, his pass catchers were ranked third in target separation. And according to pro football reference only 4.2% (15) of Newton's passes were dropped and 19.7% or 70 of his 368 attempts were bad throws.
Simms says, "Cam Newton still has got one of the greatest presence of all quarterbacks on the NFL field. He’s a great leader, he’s a great worker. ... You have to get over the passing numbers at times, and I understand work needs to be done. He’s one of the best running quarterbacks in football still, and his skillset running the football is one of the things that made that not-very-talented offense somewhat of a threat in certain weeks and it certainly made them one of the best running offenses in football.”
According to pro football reference on the ground Cam Newton finished the 36 best rusher in the league with 592 yards. His 4.3 yards per carry was good enough to place tied for the 32nd best rusher. Newton's 54 rushing first downs was good enough for 11 place of all rushers. Newton also rushed for 12 touchdowns which was 6th among all ball carriers.
Simms is right and wrong. Newton has always been known as a rushing quarterback so his rushing ability can sometimes be under appreciated by fans and the media. Newton would be a solid number two back on any team. However, his rushing abilities can also be over valued and are often used as a defense for his flaws as a passer.
Simms continues, “Cam Newton is still one of the 20 best quarterbacks in football for my money. It’s not about the quarterback stats all the time, it’s the effect you have on the football game. He’s a little bit of a force of nature that way and I think that sometimes gets swept under the rug. ..."
Simms might be right about Newton's ranking as a quarterback, I have Newton ranked as the 27th best passer in the nfl and pro football reference had him at 25th but even Simms admits he's slipped, as he dropped him from 10th to 20th position on his list. Which shows Newton is trending downwards even if he has a good season in 2021.
There are guys who wanted to play for Newton in 2021 even after the year he had. There are players, fans, and people in the media who refuse to believe Cam is the quarterback they saw in 2020. Newton is being given the chance in 2021 to prove his supporters right, for if he fails, his career could be over with.
For the Patriots to be successful in 2021, Newton needs to improve 5 - 8 spots as a passer and be closer to the passer the Patriots had in 2019. Instead of the jokes the Patriots fielded in 2020.
Simms also ranked Mac Jones the 30th best quarterback in the league but I think he under ranked him due to scheme. Regardless of what I think, if Simms is right, that puts him already better than three of the starting quarterbacks in the league. And we know Jones is going to improve with development.
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