2020 Pats: You Cam Go Your Own Way

Seels

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It’s crazy to hear people talking about tanking like it was a real option for this year’s Pats. BB didn’t spend 20 years building this culture to piss it away for a high draft pick. Besides, the Pats wouldn’t be in the running for a top-5 pick in any circumstances — there’s too much talent on D.

If you accept that BB’s goal is to make this year’s team the best it can be, there’s nothing not to like about this signing.
It's not about tanking. It's that I don't see Newton as having any real chance at being a top 15-20 QB. Stidham might not either. But I couldn't disagree more with the 'high upside' here - Cam's been a good QB once in the last 5 years. I'm extremely skeptical that there is any upside here. At what level of play is him taking snaps away from Stidham worthwhile, when he's not going to be on the team next year anyway?
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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absolutely hate this move.

If Stidham is bad, they can just draft a replacement. There's no point to a stop gap on this team (and if there were, the stop gap should have just continued to be Brady). Unless Cam is very okay being a bench player, this might be the move of the BB era I dislike most. There's almost no upside here. If Cam plays out of his mind, he leaves in a year. If he sucks, it's at Stidham's loss.

Only way I can get behind this is if it is as a backup.
If Cam plays out of his mind maybe the defense is good enough that they make some noise in the playoffs and teams have to contend with Bill in the post season.

The problem with Brady as a stop gap is that he had a $30 million offer and the Patriots have $680,000 in cap space. Belichick just pulled an MVP at the most important position in sports out of a hat with no cap space. It’s an amazing magic trick. It probably won’t work. He is probably not the same Cam. But the coach of your favorite football team seems uninterested in tanking and seems to have decided that for so long as there is a trophy at stake he is going to try to win it. I am good with that approach no matter how unlikely.
 

BigSoxFan

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Kinda both?

The real test here is if Cam is anywhere near healthy and if he can be coached by Bill and Josh.
You also have to assume Cam and Jared fit a new playbook that includes a lot more motion from the QB position.
I think we’ll know pretty soon once they get into camp. Stidham is clear leader and Cam will really have to play well to take the job, IMO.
 

Ale Xander

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One other positive, I won't care/worry if the Pats QB gets hurt on a QB sneak or any run for that matter, anymore.

And it's a great cheap option for 3rd and 4th and ones/Goals, in any case.
 

heavyde050

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Worst case is that he beats out Stidham and the Pats win 7-9 games, so we never get to see Stidham play but we don't draft high enough in the first round to get one of the better QBs.

The attraction of Stidham is that if he's good you've got a potential long term solution at QB and if not good you're well positioned to address QB going forward in a different way.
This is my fear as well.
 

Jungleland

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Didn't want him exclusively because I thought there was no way he'd take a prove it deal, let alone a camp flyer deal. This is pure upside in a year that could be weird as hell. It's not a top of the AFC roster anymore, but competent QB play puts the division in play and now you have two lottery tickets instead of one.
 

JokersWildJIMED

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Great great move. Cam / Stidham with Hoyer in the background (with hopefully no chance for snaps) is a positive.
 

ilol@u

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Holy shit.

Incredibly excited about this move. Cam Newton is a monster athlete and if he plays to his potential, they're going to be playoff contenders. I hope Boston gives him a fair opportunity. He totally deserves it. He's done so much for the community.

10/10 move. I'm excited for the season.
 

TrotWaddles

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Curious. Is Cam a fit for how Josh schemes things? Should they have gone after Dalton when he was available instead? I like the fact that we get him cheap. Would have rather we had just gone with who we had and ripped the band-aid off.
 

Ed Hillel

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Cam is terrible now, but it costs nothing so who cares. And it helps cover the stupid “Spygate 2” story that just broke.
 

Super Nomario

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Objectively, they had the worst QB room in the league before this. Now they have a real chance to compete if Newton can reclaim some of his former glory.

The receivers are still lousy but Cam has had worse. And he's getting probably the second-best OL he's ever played with.
 

Marciano490

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I’m excited about this move. A very good Cam makes the Pats a SB contender.

At worst, the Patriots replaced Brady’s 99 style ranking.
 

Cellar-Door

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I find the anti-Cam stuff just bizarre. There is no rational reason not to want Cam Newton on this team. He was a legit NFL starting QB when healthy, with an upside of MVP candidate, they are paying essentially nothing for him. This is an objectively terrific signing.

I mean 2018 Cam, injured half the year still put up a top 20 QB season, the odds are Stidham is never that good, in fact, it could be years before the Patriots find someone that good.
 

JerBear

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Curious. Is Cam a fit for how Josh schemes things? Should they have gone after Dalton when he was available instead? I like the fact that we get him cheap. Would have rather we had just gone with who we had and ripped the band-aid off.
Josh drafted Tebow, I don't think he's limited to pocket passing statues.
 

Jungleland

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I find the anti-Cam stuff just bizarre. There is no rational reason not to want Cam Newton on this team. He was a legit NFL starting QB when healthy, with an upside of MVP candidate, they are paying essentially nothing for him. This is an objectively terrific signing.
There's a case to be made for wanting a long term solution, and that gets dicey if Cam wins the job and leaves for big $$, but with the money so low I think that's a worthy risk to be maybe in the thick of it this year. And as far as Stidham, if he's better he'll start.
 

Cellar-Door

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It's not about tanking. It's that I don't see Newton as having any real chance at being a top 15-20 QB. Stidham might not either. But I couldn't disagree more with the 'high upside' here - Cam's been a good QB once in the last 5 years. I'm extremely skeptical that there is any upside here. At what level of play is him taking snaps away from Stidham worthwhile, when he's not going to be on the team next year anyway?
Cam was the MVP in one of those 5 years, and a top 15-20 in 2 others, he had 1 terrible year and one year completely lost to injury. The "Cam Newton hasn't been good" narrative is nonsense, he's been a top half QB for his career with some terrible supporting casts.
 

RorschachsMask

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Another possible plus for this is that if Cam plays well, Stidham doesn’t have to deal with the pressure of directly replacing Brady. I think it will be a one year deal almost regardless.

Also, Stidham was one of the best dual threat QB’s in the country coming out of HS. He could probably learn quite a bit playing behind Cam for a year.
 

JokersWildJIMED

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There's a case to be made for wanting a long term solution, and that gets dicey if Cam wins the job and leaves for big $$, but with the money so low I think that's a worthy risk to be maybe in the thick of it this year. And as far as Stidham, if he's better he'll start.
If Cam is that good in 2020, the Pats will take it. They can always franchise him, or if not, take the 3rd round pick. Stidham would get his chance as a backup or in 2021. If he can’t play he gets cut. There is no downside
 

sodenj5

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I suppose I don’t understand the logic. Cam isn’t a long term solution. Stidham probably isn’t, but now you’re likely relegating him to QB2, and you won’t find out if he’s any good or not.

And they likely are going to play themselves well out of range of Trevor Lawrence and probably Justin Fields.

As a long time fan of a team with mediocre QBs, this exactly where you don’t want to be.
 

Cellar-Door

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I suppose I don’t understand the logic. Cam isn’t a long term solution. Stidham probably isn’t, but now you’re likely relegating him to QB2, and you won’t find out if he’s any good or not.

And they likely are going to play themselves well out of range of Trevor Lawrence and probably Justin Fields.

As a long time fan of a team with mediocre QBs, this exactly where you don’t want to be.
I think the obvious answer is that if he's healthy and anywhere near his peak, the Patriots are the clear best team in the AFC East, and you take your shots at a couple playoff games to the title any time you can get it. There was no reason to give this season away as a rebuild, too much returning talent. Next year is the obvious re-set year given the cap.

Even more simply, if Cam is good and with the health on the line and the key FB position fixed, this offense could well be considerably better than last years. Probably still not good enough to beat the Ravens or Chiefs, but who knows what happens, maybe you only need to play 1 of them, maybe one or both lose their QB to injury. The thing is, developing a title team is hard, and if you can possibly plug in a title capable QB to a team that was a playoff team a year earlier you do it.
 

RIrooter09

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I suppose I don’t understand the logic. Cam isn’t a long term solution. Stidham probably isn’t, but now you’re likely relegating him to QB2, and you won’t find out if he’s any good or not.

And they likely are going to play themselves well out of range of Trevor Lawrence and probably Justin Fields.

As a long time fan of a team with mediocre QBs, this exactly where you don’t want to be.
And yet you’ve been justifying the Dolphins’ shitty moves in this board for the last decade.
 

PedroKsBambino

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I suppose I don’t understand the logic. Cam isn’t a long term solution. Stidham probably isn’t, but now you’re likely relegating him to QB2, and you won’t find out if he’s any good or not.

And they likely are going to play themselves well out of range of Trevor Lawrence and probably Justin Fields.

As a long time fan of a team with mediocre QBs, this exactly where you don’t want to be.
Pats heard the AFC East was wide open, so...
 

sodenj5

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And yet you’ve been justifying the Dolphins’ shitty moves in this board for the last decade.
If all of those shitty moves add up to Tua being left handed Drew Brees in the NFL, I would do it 100x over.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I suppose I don’t understand the logic. Cam isn’t a long term solution. Stidham probably isn’t, but now you’re likely relegating him to QB2, and you won’t find out if he’s any good or not.

And they likely are going to play themselves well out of range of Trevor Lawrence and probably Justin Fields.

As a long time fan of a team with mediocre QBs, this exactly where you don’t want to be.
This.
 

JokersWildJIMED

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BB was NEVER tanking so there was never going to be chance for Trevor. Cam is probably more likely to be a long term solution than Stidham, which is to say, unlikely.

The fact that the #1 dolphins fan is against this probably says a bunch.
 

axx

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This is going to be a weird season. Going with a vet makes sense.
 

mulluysavage

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In order of likelihood:

1. Cam is cut in preseason (mutual decision)

2. Cam starts game 1.

3. Cam ousts BH as backup.

4. Cam and JS both line up in backfield multiple times in the red zone, each runs for TD during season

My favorite is 4.
 

sodenj5

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BB was NEVER tanking so there was never going to be chance for Trevor. Cam is probably more likely to be a long term solution than Stidham, which is to say, unlikely.

The fact that the #1 dolphins fan is against this probably says a bunch.
I would just like to be clear that I think there’s a decent possibility that Newton is good enough to get them to the playoffs. Then what?

Are you signing a 32 year old Newton to a 4
year deal? Are you letting him walk and letting Stidham take over? If Stidham is “the guy” why not let him take his lumps and get the reps in both practice and in games? It’s because he isn’t the guy.

And now you’ve basically spun your wheels as a franchise to hang up an AFC Wild Card banner.
 

mauf

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I suppose I don’t understand the logic. Cam isn’t a long term solution. Stidham probably isn’t, but now you’re likely relegating him to QB2, and you won’t find out if he’s any good or not.

And they likely are going to play themselves well out of range of Trevor Lawrence and probably Justin Fields.

As a long time fan of a team with mediocre QBs, this exactly where you don’t want to be.
If Stidham can’t beat out a physically diminished Cam Newton, he’s not the long-term answer anyway.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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BB was NEVER tanking so there was never going to be chance for Trevor. Cam is probably more likely to be a long term solution than Stidham, which is to say, unlikely.

The fact that the #1 dolphins fan is against this probably says a bunch.
Lawrence is a pipe dream but drafting at the #8 or #18 makes a big difference if you're hoping for the second or third best QB in the draft.

There isn't a lot of upside with Cam as a longer term solution, as if he plays well you're going to pay him $20-25M per year in his decline phase. Stidham is unlikely to be that good but there are still realistic upside scenarios where he plays well and you get a couple cost controlled years in which he way outplays his contract then his prime.