Patriots: Shannon Sharpe’s Cam Newton take will blow your mind

In a move that was genuinely stunning, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick decided to cut Cam Newton right before the start of the season, entrusting Mac Jones with the responsibility of being the starting quarterback. Results have been volatile thus far.

While Jones looked incredibly sharp and poised in his first two games, he struggled with turnovers in a loss against the New Orleans Saints.

The Patriots have gone 1-2 despite Jones’ best efforts, as a fumble by Damien Harris late in their game against Miami sealed a road upset for the Dolphins.

Newton has still not found work, as he’s likely waiting for a team to become so desperate at quarterback due to injuries that he ends up getting a call.

Some Cam supporters, including Shannon Sharpe, believe that the Patriots may have made the wrong decision based on the results of their first three games. One could argue a veteran would’ve helped … but Newton was also not very good last year and apparently didn’t impress enough to supplant Jones.

Nonetheless, on “The Greg Hill Show”, Sharpe claimed that the Patriots would be undefeated if they started Newton over Jones, claiming that the only game that they might have lost was their Week 3 drubbing at the hands of Sean Payton and New Orleans.

Shannon Sharpe believes the Patriots would be much better with Cam Newton.

"“I feel very comfortable in saying if Cam Newton had been their starting quarterback, they would be 3-0,” Sharpe said. “They for sure would’ve beaten the Dolphins. And they won their last game, they beat the Jets, but everybody can beat the Jets — that’s not saying anything. But how about this: there are no worse than 2-1.”"

If you want to say that New England may have been 2-1, that’s reasonable, as Newton might’ve been slightly riskier as a passer and effective as a runner than Jones was against Miami. Perhaps they’re so far ahead that the Harris fumble never happens. Either way, we’ll never know the answer. But what’s the argument here? Newton is one game better than Jones after three weeks?

There’s no way Cam was beating New Orleans … that had little to do with quarterback play. The receivers were blanketed, the offensive line was getting beaten up, and Newton likely would’ve made one or two ill-advised throws in the same way that Jones did because he was constantly under pressure and had no run game to support him. Newton’s ability to scramble, while very good, only would’ve gotten the Pats so far.

Jones had some rookie moments against New Orleans, but it’s hard to really find fault in how he performed. Newton likely would’ve been better than he was in 2020, but it’s almost impossible to compare him to Jones considering how different they are as players.

Newton became increasingly poor as last season went on too, whereas the Patriots are banking on Jones progressing with each passing game because of his youth and ceiling. We’re open to hearing this argument 10 games into the season, but after three? Come on. Now is not the time.

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