Patriots: When is Bill Belichick going to name Cam Newton the starting quarterback?

Why hasn’t Cam Newton been named the Patriots starting QB yet?

The New England Patriots open their regular season on Sept. 13 against the Miami Dolphins. That’s about two and a half weeks away and the team still hasn’t named its starting quarterback.

Over the last week, the rumblings out of training camp indicated that Cam Newton was winning the supposed competition by a wide margin after impressing during individual drills and padded practices. On top of that, the former MVP’s top running mate, Jarrett Stidham, has struggled with accuracy and has been limited with a leg/hip injury.

As if that wasn’t enough to wrap up the battle, it’s been widely reported that the Patriots’ coaching staff is disappointed with the 2019 fourth-round pick for his performance and the mystery behind his injury.

Somehow, however, all of this hasn’t been enough for head coach Bill Belichick to name Newton the Patriots’ starting gunslinger for 2020. The six-time champion disclosed earlier this week that the QB battle is still alive and well.

"“He’s an extremely hard-working player,” Belichick said of Newton during an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show. “First-guy in, last-one out type of guy. He’s really studied hard and has spent a lot of extra time trying to learn our offense, our communication, our calls, nomenclature and so forth. I’ve been very impressed with that. He’s done a good job of picking it up. He’s a very skilled athlete. We’re just working through it day by day. We have a long way to go.”“We’ve got a very competitive competition at a very competitive position at the quarterback spot. It will be interesting to see how everybody does.”"

So what are we waiting for? It’d be a different conversation if the 31-year-old star was struggling to get on the same page with his receivers and was taking longer than expected to familiarize himself with the playbook, but that isn’t the case.

The fact of the matter is that Newton has crossed off every box since signing his contract. He showed up to camp in arguably the best shape of his life and has received nothing but plaudits from coaches and his new teammates thus far.

If we had to guess, we’d say that the Patriots will coronate Cam as their starting signal caller after another week of practice. Getting him more acclimated to the playbook should be the final step in this admittedly protracted process.