The shock of the NFL on Tuesday was one of the cuts for teams to get to their league-mandated roster limits — the Patriots released Cam Newton and made Mac Jones their starting quarterback by default. Jones played extremely well in the preseason, proving that he had enough of a handle on Josh McDaniels’ passing concepts to grab that role, but unless you’re of the opinion that Newton’s COVID history and murky vaccination status is the lead dog in this story (which it could very well be), this comes as a bit of a shock.
Last season, Newton was an above-average quarterback in a new system until he underwent COVID issues, and with an iffy group of receivers, he wound up looking like a league-average guy. Newton is not what he once was, but he’s still a potential upgrade for a lot of teams — specifically, a lot of teams that are looking like potential playoff entrants except for their quarterback situations. If, say, the Texans were to sign Newton, and Deshaun Watson’s situation isn’t resolved anytime soon, he could start right away, but does he really want to start at this point in his career for a team that might not win a single game based on roster talent? Probably not.
So, these would be the best competitive situations for Newton at this point in his career. He’d either be a backup, or he’d have to fight for a starting job in most of these situations, but you just never know.
