Langone: Newton no Brady, but had zero help
QB deserved better with Patriots
If cam newton’s days in new england really are over, then i’m really glad they ended on a high note.
the quarterback delivered an outstanding performance in sunday’s season-ending win over the new york jets at gillette stadium. he passed for 242 yards and three touchdowns, caught a td pass, and ran for 79 yards in the victory.
He deserved to shine as the flurries fell in foxboro. and quite frankly, he deserved much better than what he got from his 2020 season with the patriots.
Newton was everything you love to see in a professional athlete. he was a great teammate, he was a leader, he was accountable, he was coachable, and he was fun. the 31-year-old former nfl mvp checked his ego at the door on day 1 and was a model citizen, while making barely over 1 million bucks on a one-year contract.
Did he struggle on the field? yes.
Were his stats below what’s expected from a solid starting quarterback in this day and age? yes.
Was that all his fault? no. not even close.
But all season long, newton took a beating on the field, in the media, and from fans. seemingly anyone with a mouth was quick to point out what he couldn’t do and bury him with blame, as if replacing him would’ve solved all the patriots’ problems. none of that was fair to newton. he was never as bad as some made him out to be. he finished the season with a record of 7- 8 as a starter. he threw eight touchdown passes, ran for 12 touchdowns and caught a td pass, which means he accounted for a respectable 21 tds. he
threw for 2,657 yards and rushed for another 592. He orchestrated three game-winning drives.
He did all of that with a horrible collection of talent around him, while learning a new system without having the benefit of a real preseason, and while recovering from COVID-19 after he was infected early in the season.
Not many QBs are going to flourish in the face of those circumstances.
The Patriots had no tight end presence to speak of and no proven NFL receiver, thanks to the injury to Julian Edelman. Still, you never heard Newton complain about anything. Instead he put trust in what he had to work with and developed young wideouts like Jakobi Meyers and Damiere Byrd into serviceable pieces. You got the sense that Newton enjoyed watching those players find success. Meyers appears to be someone the Pats can absolutely factor into their future plans, and for that, Newton deserves credit.
Newton started the year off by beating the Miami Dolphins. He completed 15-of-19 passes in that game and ran for 75 yards and two TDs. The following week at Seattle, he played an outstanding game, throwing for 397 yards on 30-for44, and adding 47 yards and two TDs on the ground.
He played one more game — a win over the Raiders — before coronavirus struck and the virus and time away from the field undoubtedly damaged his progression.
Had that never happened, there’s no telling how Newton would’ve played and how much better the Patriots would’ve been than a 7-9 record.
There’s no denying that the quarterback position is the most important in football. But we tend to overdo it. Too much credit for a team’s success and too much blame for a team’s failures.
Newton certainly could’ve played better. But the Patriots issues didn’t start with him. The roster was poorly built and the Pats didn’t do enough to shift their offensive strategy to allow a player like Newton to thrive. The offensive play-calling was often too conservative and too micro-managed, and it often made Newton look tight or uncomfortable.
Yet, he rolled with it, and did so with a smile on his face and emotions on his sleeve. You always knew that these games meant something to Newton. He thoroughly enjoyed the wins and was enormously disappointed from the losses.
It truly is unfortunate that things didn’t work out for him this season. He so badly wanted it to, and it was easy to pull for him.
Here’s hoping his career continues and he finds the success he deserves.