MOLD BREAKER
Patriots quarterback Newton presents Raiders more challenges than did Brady
A funny thing happened when the New England Patriots parted ways with the most accomplished quarterback in the history of the NFL.
They not only got better, but also more diverse. More interesting.
While Tom Brady has been so-so in his first two games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cam Newton has given the Patriots a new look and fresh approach.
Depending on Brady’s precision passing from the pocket is out. Newton, operating as the kind of dual threat he was when winning the NFL’s most valuable player award with the Carolina Panthers in 2015, is in.
When Brady decided he wanted to walk after winning six Super Bowls and coach Bill Belichick made no grand gesture to keep him, the whole chicken or the egg debate as to which icon was more important was going to be solved on the field in 2020.
While the Raiders won’t come out and
say it, especially with Brady and the Buccaneers still on the schedule on Oct. 25, Newton is a bigger, stronger, faster and more dynamic challenge to a defense giving up 6.7 yards per play through two games.
“They’re doing the same things he was doing at Carolina with the quarterback-run concept,” Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said Thursday. “Play-actions, those kinds of things. He’s a big challenge, a bigbodied guy, runs hard. Understands the plays. He looks like he’s fitting right in there.”
Newton, 6-foot- 5, 245 pounds, looked at the top of his game in a 35-30 loss Sunday night in Seattle. Newton got the Patriots in position for a win only to have Seattle’s L. J. Collier stuff his fourth- down run attempt on the final snap. Newton passed for 399 yards and rushed for 47, matching Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson play for play and leaving everyone to wonder how he could have been unemployed for so long after Carolina went with Teddy Bridgewater instead.
The former No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft, Newton is still only 31, but years of taking defenders head on as a ballcarrier (960 carries) and absorbing blows as a passer (291 sacks) had taken its toll.
Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who stressed to Newton on his ESPN quarterbacks show in 2011 that he needed to protect himself, has watched Patriots film of their first two games in amazement.
“I mean, they run power plays to his left, he’s taking people on with his right shoulder. He gets up and throws a bullet across the field. I don’t know how he does it,” Gruden told the New England-based media. “But then I don’t see too many guys that walk through my doors that look like Cam. I call him ‘Slam.’ That was the nickname I gave him. He is a power forward playing quarterback. He’s oversized for the position, but he’s gifted so much athletically. It’s incredible what he’s accomplished, and his durability is really impressive.”
When Newton met with New England reporters in a Zoom call, he was asked about his appearance on Gruden’s show.
“I have so much respect for coach
Gruden for the moments we did kind of hang out with each other,” Newton said. “Stand up guy, stand up coach. He’s done a great job with that organization to this point.”
Newton accepted a base salary of just more than $1,050,000 — roughly what the Raiders are paying Nathan Peterman — plus incentives. Having already racked up more than $121 million in earnings, Newton told the radio station WEEI he wasn’t concerned about the dollar figure and that the situation will take care of itself through his play.
After being unemployed for 86 nights, Newton finally arrived in New England after starting talks with Belichick in March, about the time Brady was signing with Tampa Bay. Newton didn’t put pen to paper until July 8, but you get the impression the union was put in motion the moment Brady determined he was out the door.
Newton had no intention of going anywhere except a place where he would be a Week 1 starter, which left the Raiders out of the loop going into Gruden’s third year with Derek Carr.
Having gone vegan in his diet and gotten his body right after playing just two games a year ago because of a left foot injury, Newton was the perfect choice as a strong, independent personality as well as a stylistic change from Brady. Brady was strictly old school, operating out of the pocket and posing no additional threat.
Newton has been joined by more versatile quarterbacks in the NFL such as current MVP Lamar Jackson and Wilson, but he is still different in that he’s more imposing physically than either. He knows it, too.
“When people see you do certain things they said you couldn’t do, it
becomes a shocker.,” Newton told WEEI. “For me, I play this game and I prepare for this game probably like no other player. I have to have the endurance like a wide receiver. I have to have the physical toughness as a running back, and just the intuitiveness and being cerebral like a quarterback.”
Newton enjoys breaking the mold. “I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a quarterback. I’d call myself a football player that just so happens to play quarterback,” Newton said. “When people see that, it’s foreign to them. Especially with the way I run and throw the football. I’ve been playing like this for years.”
In past years, cornerbacks and safeties could do their best to shadow receivers, realizing Brady was fully capable of completing balls in their area but unconcerned when if he ventured outside the pocket. The most rushing touchdowns Brady ever had in a season is four. Newton has four in his first two games with the Patriots and 62 in his career.
Newton’s downfield capability has wide receiver Julian Edelman, who never averaged more than 12.3 yards per catch with Brady, averaging 18.2 yards per reception, including eight catches for 179 yards against Seattle.
“Eye discipline is going to be real key,” rookie cornerback Damon Arnette said. “If he starts scrambling, just start plastering to our man because he likes to keep plays alive with his legs and then launch it with his arm downfield. As secondary defenders, we’ve got to make sure we have great eye discipline on the receivers and don’t take our eyes off them when he starts scrambling.”
INJURY REPORT >> Henry Ruggs III, the Raiders’ first-round draft pick out of Alabama who caught a deep ball in the first half of his first game and has been beset by injuries ever since, won’t play Sunday against the Patriots.
Judging from the injury report, Ruggs strained a hamstring injury during Thursday’s practice. He was a full participant Wednesday, listed with a knee injury sustained in the opener against Carolina, then was limited Thursday. Ruggs didn’t practice at all Friday, and was listed as “out” on the official injury report that was released after Gruden met briefly with the media through Zoom teleconference.
Also out are right tackle Trent Brown and middle linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, both for the second straight week.