Patriots: Cam Newton made some egregious throws at mandatory minicamp
The New England Patriots opened up mandatory minicamp on Monday and starting quarterback Cam Newton was finally back in action after dealing with a hand injury the last few weeks.
While we can assume Newton will be starting a majority of the games in 2021, could the battle going on behind him be more significant than we previously assumed?
We continue to believe rookie Mac Jones will be holding a clipboard and wearing a headset for the duration of next season … but some fans are wondering what might happen if Newton’s horrific play resurfaces early on and forces Bill Belichick to make a drastic decision.
Or, you know, if it resurfaces in June and looks THIS bad.
Newton, Jones and Co. all took on the driving rain on Monday afternoon.
It, uh, didn’t go so well for the established veteran.
The Patriots QB competition commences on day one of mandatory minicamp. Looking like Mac Jones had a slight edge over Cam Newton in terms of accuracy with the rain coming down. pic.twitter.com/m9sM73Menm
— NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Coverage (@NBCSPatriots) June 14, 2021
Patriots QB Cam Newton made a few unacceptable throws at minicamp.
Excuse us? There’s no pressure, no coverage, and THAT’S the 10-yard throw you’re making? Twice?
We’d love to file this in the “overreaction” folder, but is it really an overreaction after what we watched last year? And the previous throwing issues Newton has had due to a couple of shoulder injuries? There’s certainly a cause for concern.
It’s definitely an overreaction to assume to quarterback hierarchy will change as a result, but there’s no doubt it’ll trend in that direction if Newton manages to start the season off poorly by turning the ball over and missing rudimentary throws — ones that Jones was easily able to make.
QB update: Cam Newton was consistently first in the reps I saw, followed by Mac Jones, then Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) June 14, 2021
Jones looked dialed in today. Ball going to right spot most often with decisiveness. Accuracy on point, despite rain, until 1-2 throws at end.
🎯🎯🏈🏈
But we’ll give Newton the benefit of the doubt for now. He’s been sidelined with the hand issue and this is just a short clip of the many throws that were likely uncorked on Monday. At the very least, however, this is an unsightly scene for Patriots fans who were hoping for a Newton rebound in 2021. He had so many factors working against him in 2020, which is why everyone was eager to see how he’d start off 2021 uninterrupted.
We’ll chalk these head-scratching throws up to the … rain? Yeah, it looked wet out there.
