Teddy Bridgewater favored to throw more touchdown passes than Cam Newton

Teddy Bridgewater is going to surprise a lot of people in 2020, and we’re not just talking about his Twitter game. While the Panthers’ new starting quarterback is known as a game manager, he’s better than fans are giving him credit for and we’re predicting a career-best season for him running Joe Brady’s offense.

In some ways, he might even do better than the last guy who had his job.

According to Oddschecker.com, Bridgewater has better odds to throw more touchdown passes this year than Cam Newton does with the Patriots.

“Newton is again the underdog in this one, but the odds are much closer. The former NFL MVP is +110 to throw more passing TDs, while Bridgewater is -134. Newton’s odds imply a 47.6% chance of winning and Bridgewater’s give him a 57.3% chance.”

This might seem strange given Newton’s superior athleticism and more aggressive approach. However, there are several other factors working in Bridgewater’s favor.

For one, Bridgewater will have much better passing weapons to work with than Newton will in New England. Cam’s best wide receivers will be Julian Edelman and Mohamed Sanu, while Bridgewater has three legitimate potential No. 1 receivers to target in D.J. Moore, Curtis Samuel and Robby Anderson. The Panthers aren’t particularly deep at tight end, but thanks to Ian Thomas they’re in better shape than the Patriots at this spot as. Teddy also has Christian McCaffrey to throw at.

While Bridgewater has more talent around him on offense, Newton is in a much better situation competitively. That means he will be playing with a lead more often than Bridgewater will, which also works in Bridgewater’s favor in this department. Much like last season, we should expect Carolina to be playing from behind a lot, so Teddy will naturally be throwing more passes while Newton and the Patriots are more likely to be protecting leads by feeding Sony Michel and James White.

To date the most touchdown passes Bridgewater has thrown in a single season is 14, which he did twice with the Vikings early in his career. We’d be shocked if he doesn’t at least double that number in 2020.