After picking up back-to-back wins to keep themselves in the AFC playoff picture, the Patriots were pummeled by the Rams in last night’s primetime affair. With New England trailing 24-3 in the fourth quarter, head coach Bill Belichick pulled starting QB Cam Newton in favor of Jarrett Stidham. But even though the loss effectively torpedoed the Pats’ postseason hopes, Belichick is not benching Newton.
When asked about his quarterback situation after the game, the future Hall of Fame HC said, “Great question. Really glad you asked that. Cam’s our quarterback” (Twitter link via Ben Volin of the Boston Globe).
Newton, 31, signed a very modest one-year pact with the Patriots in late June. Though he has shown flashes of his old self, particularly as a runner, the 2020 campaign has largely been a struggle. Over 12 games, he has thrown for just 2,172 yards and five TDs against 10 interceptions, good for a 78.9 quarterback rating. On the plus side, he has maintained a 4.0 yards-per-carry average over 113 rushing attempts and has found paydirt 11 times on the ground.
He has certainly not had a world-class contingent of skill position talent to work with, and he has been dealing with an abdomen injury that certainly could have impacted his performance in last night’s game (to his credit, Newton denied that his poor play was due to injury). Still, it might make sense for New England to at least give Stidham, a second-year passer who looked as though he would be the club’s starting quarterback before the Newton signing, a chance to show what he can do with a full week of first-team practice reps and an offensive scheme more tailored to his skillset.
Belichick, though, will continue rolling with the 2015 league MVP, whose market value probably won’t be much higher in 2021 than it was in 2020. And as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com said this morning, Newton is unlikely to be back with the Patriots next season, even if the team wanted to re-sign him (video link).
It might be worth giving Stidham a shot at this point. Although Cam has very little skill position talent to work with, he has been maddeningly inconsistent and the season is basically over at this point. Stidham probably won’t care any better based on what we’ve seen this far, but you could at least groom him into a decent backup like Hoyer used to be.
The Patriots could either retool and find an undervalued quarterback prospect in the middle of the first round or sign a decent veteran to game manage, such as Bridgewater. I’m sure Bill will find an answer, but hopefully he learned his lesson after trying to get away with the league’s worst group of receivers
This is what I think Belichick’s reasoning is: He wants Cam to back up a draftee next year because of his leadership, and he doesn’t want to sour his relationship with Cam.
cam don’t wanna be no leader. dudes more worried about the design of his next hat.
he can’t be a leader because he is into fashion. I never knew those were mutually exclusive…
A HoF coach making the decision to keep rolling out an also ran QB after being knocked out of the playoffs and having a seemingly talented young QB waiting behind him is absolutely puzzling. I can understand not wanting to “stunt” a young QB’s growth by having him get it handed to him on the field but Stidham isn’t exactly a surefire franchise QB either. In my mind it would be an excellent time to see how he handles the starting gig and give yourself some film to look at to assist in offseason decision making
‘having a seemingly talented young QB’
Are you talking about Stidham here? If he were seemingly talented, he’d have been starting and they never would have gotten Cam in the first place. Belichick sees him every day. The reason he’s behind Cam on the depth chart is that Cam is better (even though he has been pretty bad this year).
Then why was Stid the anointed QB all last Spring and Summer? He didn’t start 4 yrs in a great program or conference. So the leap to the NFL is steeper than for kids coming from those programs. He’s had a growth year, to see, and feel the speed… but he wasn’t getting 1st string reps and the time behind center to grow. Now is the time to get a sense of what they have,
I’m neither a Cam supporter nor detractor… That said, as overwhelmed as the Pats looked in pretty much every aspect of the game last night (particularly the O line), I’m not sure how much success Mahomes would have had against the Rams. The Pats have a LOT of work to do before they return to any semblance of prior dominance.
All the blame doesn’t fall on Cam, but he does need to go. Constantly injured and defense are stopping his runs. Cam can’t throw. Cam can’t stay healthy. And I can’t take it anymore.
Have Cam be the Taysom Hill version when Brees is healthy for the Pats and start Stidham. But Bill won’t do that because that would be copying…
“On the plus side, he has maintained a 4.0 yards-per-carry average”
I would not call this a “plus”.
Any chance the Ravens look into signing Cam in the offseason? Considering RGIII’s latest injury, I think Cam would be a nice fit in the Ravens offensive setup. He would essentially replace RGIII’s role as the backup/gadget guy, and since Cam and Lamar’s QB styles are very similar, it would allow Harbaugh consistency in offensive philosophy in case Lamar goes down.
Love the idea.
We’ll never see years like the Brady years again, NEVER ! Years of trying to rebuild and come up with a top tier team will take Belichick to his inevitable retirement. IT’s OVER !