Rodney Harrison: Patriots not signing Cam Newton a mistake

Former New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison didn’t hold back in expressing his view that Bill Belichick should ink free agent quarterback Cam Newton.

Not everyone thinks the New England Patriots are doing the right thing in seemingly passing on Cam Newton.

While I personally don’t believe there’s any strong reason yet for the Pats to try and sign Newton — especially not while he’s waiting to get signed on as a starter (and paid as a starter) — I also can acknowledge the fact that many people in the media disagree.

Former New England safety Rodney Harrison, currently an analyst with NBC on “Sunday Night Football,” is one such individual.

According to CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan, Harrison is reportedly “disappointed” the Patriots haven’t already added the former league MVP to their 2020 roster:

"“I thought it would be a great situation where he could have came in at a reduced salary. He could have came in and really learned a lot about just technique and just the intricacies of being on a really great football team with great guidance as far as the head coach and offensive coordinator. I thought that would have been a really, really ideal situation for him. He could have came in, competed. Could have helped the young guy, the young guy could have helped to push him. I thought it would have been a perfect situation. I’m just a little disappointed that the Patriots weren’t a little bit more aggressive just recruiting Cam.”"

I get where Harrison is coming from, but why should the Patriots be aggressive in recruiting Cam?

There’s absolutely zero market for Newton right now. It’s a rare thing when all 32 teams in the NFL seem content with their quarterback situations during the offseason, but that seems to be where we’re at right now.

Cam Newton carries with him significant mileage and injury concerns

Obviously, if someone were to get injured — in New England or anywhere else in the NFL — you’d have to believe that Newton’s agent’s phone would start ringing immediately. Injury concerns aside, he remains one of the most talented players in the league today — and he’s still just 31 years old.

The problem for the Patriots is that they seem quite content to ride out Jarrett Stidham this year and see what they have. If he crashes and burns, they can turn to the draft next year or try and swing a trade with another team if need be. They could even go after Newton if he’s still available at that theoretical point in the season.

All in all though, there’s no reason New England should commit starting quarterback money to Newton right now — they might not even be able to do that if they wanted to, anyway, given their salary cap situation.