Cam Newton’s first New England Patriots educational camp was an unequivocal success, but a vital facet of the quarterback’s game won’t be tested until Week 1.
Although he was able to demonstrate his fame as a running ability on the field, Newton has not taken the ball against a live defender since his last game as Carolina Panther last September.
The COVID-19 pandemic ended the entire 2020 NFL preseason, and having Newton, who, like all quarterbacks, trains in a non-contact red jersey, receives shots from teammates, only values the threat of injury.
So the Patriots still can’t tell if their new quarterback, who suffered back-to-back injuries at the end of the season, still has the physical equipment to be the same devastating ball carrier he was in Carolina.
But they’re convinced he’s doing it.
“You never know until you know,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Wednesday.”But it looks enough in the exercises, in the things we try to simulate, to make a pretty clever assumption that this is there and that’s where you need to be.”
Newton is one of the most productive quarterbacks in NFL history, with the all-time record of touchdowns running through a quarterback with 58; Steve Young is the moment on this list with 43; Only four NFL runners, regardless of their position, have scored more since Newton joined the league in 2011.Newton also ranks third in field running yards via QB (4,806), only Michael Vick and Randall Cunningham.
While Newton’s most productive days as a runner are almost in fact him, the 31-year-old has been productive in this domain as recently as in 2018, when he finished with 488 yards (the fourth-largest among quarterbacks) in 101 runs (second) with 4 touchdowns (T-fifth) in 14 games.A foot injury limited him to just two games last season.
Until he sees evidence to the contrary, Patriots quarterback coach Jedd Fisch said he expects Newton to return to his 2018 form.
“It’s an attractive challenge when you exercise usually for the runner and quarterback,” Fisch said.”How fast are they heading? You drive a lot when they go to the hit line, and then there’s the assumption of a shot, it’s very hard to say, ‘Oh no, broke that version’ or ‘Oh, I’m sure the first one wouldn’t” ‘It’s one of the very hard things to compare while you’re exercising because the shot is very different as we know.
“So you have someone like Newton who weighs 2 five pounds, 6 feet and five inches, and now, how do you rate that when you’re sitting there in a red T-shirt?I think what we’d probably say is that you have to guess cam’s healthy, we’ve noticed it since we started running with him.You move on to the last time you wear a healthy Cam, you move on to the days when I played games in Carolina (in 2018), and what a healthy Cam looked like in terms of football control and the ability to break a shot or be able to knock a kid out.
“That’s the assumption we’re going to paint on until he’s unable to do the things he’s shown to be capable of.
Even a downsized Newton would provide dynamic new detail to New England’s offense, which has been led for more than 19 years through Brady statues (1,037 rushing yards on the ground) .Newton won a significant amount of chances per land in the educational field.
Miniature photo Greg M. Cooper / USA TODAY Sports Images