Patriots
Newton also quelled speculation that he demanded loyalty from the Patriots in a social media post.
Mac Jones’s solid play in last Thursday’s preseason opener has thrown the debate over the Patriots’ starting quarterback situation even more into a frenzy than before.
With the Patriots going through a tough slate of joint practices this week ahead of this week’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles, another strong performance from Jones, coupled with uninspiring play from Newton, could bring things to fever pitch.
Of course, the man responsible for deciding who plays that position, Bill Belichick, hasn’t said anything new about the quarterback competition yet. (He’ll talk to the media on Tuesday morning.)
So reporters asked Newton after Monday’s practice in Philadelphia if Belichick had given him assurances that he will be the Patriots’ starting quarterback Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins.
That one didn’t exactly strike gold.
“Y’all know the answer to that question,” the quarterback said.
So, that’s a “no,” then?
“You know he hasn’t said that,” he added. “Everything y’all know, I know. There’s no hidden motives or things like that. I do know those things like that, I can’t worry about. Because each and every day, I don’t necessarily care about who’s starting, I mostly care about making sure I put the best product out there for me, and I know Mac (Jones) is feeling the same way, I know Brian (Hoyer) is feeling the same way and everybody else, going down each and every position. As far as Week 1, we’ve got so much to worry about prior to Week 1. And that’s where my focus is right now.”
For now, the Patriots are still deploying Newton as the starter as he continues to monopolize the reps with the starting offensive line and receivers.
But the veteran quarterback struggled Monday with accuracy issues, including a pass over the middle that led to Matt LaCosse being laid out by Eagles linebacker Derek Barnett. Newton also threw an interception to close out his simulated late-game two-minute drill.
That play, Newton explained, was basically a “last play of the game” scenario, saying he was “trying to give somebody a chance” in the end zone with the Patriots pretending to be down by four points.
While that might partly explain some of what happened there, it doesn’t help his case that Mac Jones, who also reportedly had a tough day, ended his segment with a touchdown pass (albeit after a near-interception).
Newton might be the starter at this moment in time, but lack of execution in the red zone will almost surely result in him eventually losing his job to Jones.
That said, there’s enough going on with the actual on-field play that manufacturing drama out of social media posts is probably overkill.
So it was no surprise to hear Newton shut down the notion that a recent Instagram post in which he says “I’m far from perfect, but loyalty I deserve it!” had anything to do with the Patriots’ quarterback competition.
“I don’t really talk about football things (on my social media accounts),” he explained. “I try to post minimal football things, because at the end of the day, I’m a human being. That statement wasn’t for football. It was more so like a human. I’m a person who’s away from my kids a lot, away from my family a lot, away from my friends a lot, away from the people who know me the most a lot, and I’m not perfect by that, and that was kind of what I was meaning by that.
“For somebody to take that interpretation as – I don’t know how – but to relate it to football, it had zero things to do with football.”
Aside from that explanation, Newton publicly griping on social media about deserving loyalty from the Patriots would seem to fly in the face of everything he has said or done relating to the quarterback competition. He has repeatedly offered advice to the rookie Jones and has described the competitive atmosphere at Patriots camp as a necessity, saying the quarterbacks are “supposed” to make each other better.
But that’s not going to generate many headlines, is it?
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