Patriots finally add QB Cam Newton
TORONTO — We all thought Cam Newton would become a New England Patriot in late March. After a delay of three months, it has finally gotten done.
Newton is now a Patriot. ESPN’S Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen have reported that the former Carolina Panthers superstar quarterback has agreed to join the Patriots, to fight for the chance to succeed the departed Tom Brady.
It’s a one-year deal loaded with incentives, ESPN reported. NFL Network reported the deal could max out at $7.5 million.
The Patriots did not immediately confirm the report as of Monday, but Bill Belichick —
New England’s head coach and top football czar since 2000 — typically waits to do so until all contingencies are met, including the prospective new player passing his physical.
Newton, the NFL’S No. 1 overall draft pick in 2011 and 2015 league MVP, had been a free agent since March 24 when the Panthers cut him, six days after signing free agent Teddy Bridgewater for $60 million over three years.
Newton, who turned 31 last month, will battle 12-year veteran Brian Hoyer and secondyear Jarrett Stidham for New England’s starting QB job. Newton and Stidham, 23, are both Auburn University products.
Before the report night, Stidham had been tabbed as nominal starter. For three months we doubters found it hard to believe Belichick would enter an NFL season with so raw and unproven a starter as Stidham, a native Texan drafted by New England in the fourth round a year ago April.
In backing up Brady last year, Stidham barely played. He threw four passes. Three were caught: two by Patriots players, and another by a defender who returned the pick for a touchdown. Stidham also was sacked once and ran twice for minustwo yards.
In Carolina, Newton missed the final 14 games last season with a Lisfranc foot injury, which required surgery this past January. Over the previous couple of seasons in Carolina, Newton battled serious shoulder woes that finally required surgery early last year.
When the Panthers cut Newton in March, ESPN reported that he had just passed a physical, taken in Atlanta. Both his foot and shoulder were fine, ESPN said.
In March the Panthers had tried for nearly a week to trade Newton after agreeing to terms with Bridgewater, but were unsuccessful. They cut Newton outright, voiding the last year of the five-year, $104-million contract extension he signed in 2015 — worth $19.1 million.
If indeed Newton is healthy, it’s hard to see Belichick choosing Stidham over him. As I wrote in March, I saw Stidham throw on three occasions in 2019 — at the Senior Bowl in January, at the combine in February and at a Patriots-lions joint training-camp practice in Detroit. Not once was I impressed, and I said I’d be shocked if the Pats went into the 2020 season with Stidham atop the QB depth chart.
I’d be even more shocked now.
Meantime, ESPN reported Sunday night that the NFL has decided to fine the Patriots $1.1 million and taken away a 2021 third-round draft pick — for wrongfully videotaping the sidelines of the Cincinnati Bengals, a future opponent, from the press box during a game last season.
The Patriots had argued the taping was inadvertent, done by a club in-house video crew not under the umbrella, or direction, of the football department — for an online profile of a Patriots advance pro scout.