His 40 time has slowed down by a 10th or two, but he’s still a major threat on the ground who will elevate any run game you drop him into. If Newton’s arm is indeed back to where it was before the shoulder injury, then the biggest difference between this version of him and the one who led the Panthers to a Super Bowl appearance after the 2015 season is probably his speed. There aren’t many quarterbacks in the league who do. The Newton we saw from 2018 to 2020 didn’t have that in him. That one play should answer any questions about the health of his shoulder. He looked spry in the pocket, and it seemed like he made more downfield throws in three August games than he had in all of 2020. It’s easy to write that off as best-shape-of-my-life offseason hype, but Newton’s preseason tape corroborates the claim. This offseason, the now-jobless quarterback boasted he was healthy for the first time since he suffered a shoulder injury late in 2016. And now that he’s coming off an impressive preseason in which he looked like a throwback version of himself, it would seem he’s in prime position to eventually get another shot at starting in the league. Sure, he didn’t play great football in 2020-few Patriots players did-but even that hobbled version of the former All-Pro was still clearly one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the league. Assuming he doesn’t land a starting job elsewhere, Newton will instantly become the league’s best backup QB the moment he signs with his next team. While those two theories make a lot of off-field sense, from an on-field perspective, cutting Newton wasn’t a logical move. But now that the Patriots have elevated rookie quarterback Mac Jones to the top of the depth chart, it made very little sense to have a big personality like Newton around, which could possibly undermine Jones’s status as the most important player on the team. Players have gravitated toward Newton throughout his career. By all accounts, the 2015 NFL MVP instantly took on a leadership role when he arrived in New England last season, which was hardly a surprise. If we take the Pats coach at his word, then the most logical explanation for the team cutting ties with Newton is his presence in the locker room. It’s Mac Jones’s Moment in New England Cam Newton’s Release Begins a New Era for the Patriots “No, we have other players on the team who aren’t vaccinated,” Belichick said. But in a Wednesday press conference, Belichick said that Newton’s vaccination status had nothing to do with the team’s decision. All in all, it would have been understandable if Belichick didn’t want to take any chances by having an unvaccinated starter at the most important position on the roster. Newton also missed time last season after a bout with the coronavirus, which coincided with a downward spiral for the Patriots offense. The sequence of events suggested that Newton was not vaccinated against COVID-19 unvaccinated players are subject to stricter protocols and quarantines should they be exposed to the virus. Just last week, Newton missed five days of training camp practices after a “misunderstanding” led to a violation of the NFL’s testing protocols. Newton’s vaccination status was the most popular of the two. The two most widely held theories had little to do with football. It seemed most people had a take or a theory ready about why head coach Bill Belichick cut the quarterback he insisted was his starter for most of the offseason and had at the top of his depth chart all preseason. Commercial reproduction, distribution or transmission of any part or parts of this website or any information contained therein by any means whatsoever without the prior written permission of the Club is not permitted.The news of Cam Newton’s release from the Patriots was shocking, but it didn’t catch anyone off guard. This website is the only official website of the New England Patriots and is © Copyright New England Patriots (the "Club").
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