Patriots: You fooled yourself if you didn’t think Cam Newton would be named starting QB
Cam Newton is officially the Patriots starting QB and that’s that.
Guys … BREAKING news. The New England Patriots named a former NFL MVP their starting quarterback over a second-year signal caller who barely has any professional experience. Can you believe it?!
The Patriots were blindsided and surprised by a ton of things that transpired this offseason, but the ONE thing that made sense after they signed Cam Newton to a shockingly team-friendly deal was that he’d be the starter come Week 1. Yet so many fans, pundits and analysts tried to convince us there’d be a heated QB battle with Jarrett Stidham.
How’d that go? The most significant thing we’ve heard about Stidham this offseason was that he threw three interceptions in a single practice early in training camp and that the organization was reportedly frustrated with how he suffered a leg injury, which he’s since refused to “get too much into the specifics about.”
New: Cam Newton officially was named the #Patriots starting quarterback by coach Bill Belichick during a team meeting Thursday morning, according to a league source. https://t.co/KG33MrjKen
— Jim McBride (@globejimmcbride) September 3, 2020
Head coach Bill Belichick has had nothing but good things to say about Newton since the day he put pen to paper, but the media machine tried to convince levelheaded sane people that Newton would be facing an uphill battle because he still had to learn the playbook and that Belichick might not be too keen on having a large personality in the locker room.
Cut to Cam dancing at practices, giving his teammates wacky nicknames, and … being named a team captain. That kind of accolade doesn’t exactly come easy in New England, as we’ve seen over the past 20 years.
https://twitter.com/Patriots/status/1301611425924878337?s=20
We’ll admit it too … we bought into the “QB battle” for a second just because so many media personalities were pushing it, but we also knew there was an extreme ridiculousness to it. “The Patriots ‘love’ Stidham.” “Don’t you dare doubt Bill Belichick!” “You think there wasn’t a plan for Brady’s departure? Why do you think they drafted the former Auburn QB?”
We’re not going to say that the Pats knew Brady was going to leave and that there’d be a guy like Newton available for the taking in free agency, but we DID know that Stidham was not the contingency plan for the worst possible outcome after the 2019 season.
If you thought there was any doubt Newton would be the starter come Week 1 after Belichick swooped in and signed him, boy, you need to question your football instincts, regardless what the media is telling you.
