Patriots: Debunking criticism of Cam Newton’s horrible 2020 statistics

Setting the record straight on Cam Newton’s 2020 NFL season

In summary, this article was written to some extent set the record straight on Cam Newton’s performance last season.

With almost nothing to work with, almost no support, Newton still almost managed to nearly single-handed (and on foot) get the Patriots to nine wins and possibly a playoff berth.

Bad play-calling probably cost the team two wins. Poor personnel cost them many more.

Yet, little slack is cut to Cam Newton with all this in mind. Even now, with Belichick and Kraft opening the cash floodgates and spending furiously to try to bring back respectability and “relevance” to the franchise, Newton’s performance last season is criticized.

Those expenditures, as well as a draft that actually smacks of reasonableness, added to Mr. Kraft’s uncharacteristic comments related to personnel, speak volumes about how the team’s leadership regarded Newton’s supporting cast. They didn’t regard many of them highly at all.

The facts above have been laid bare for any reader to see. Cam Newton and his eight throwing touchdowns and 12 rushing touchdowns were the New England Patriots’ offense in 2020.

This fact, not opinion, was what has clearly motivated both owner Bob Kraft and Coach/GM Bill Belichick to uncharacteristically move to spend those hundreds of millions of dollars in free agency to try to right the ship.

And, of course, they re-signed Cam Newton. That fact also speaks volumes about how the owner of the team and his top football man felt about Cam Newton’s performance.

And of course, Cam also provided leadership as a captain and an example to all of his teammates, especially the young players on how to be a top professional and an even better person.

That aspect of Cam Newton’s first season in New England has been little mentioned but may just be his biggest contribution of all in the worst possible of times.

So with some support provided (though the wide receiver room absent a major trade is still frankly not what it should be), we will see what Cam Newton can do in 2020.

He will be another year from shoulder surgery, which could have clearly impacted his throwing.

He will have a full offseason including pre-season games to be ready to implement this complex offense.

He will have at least some real offensive weapons to provide the support he didn’t have last season. That includes two top tight ends and finally a big running back (Rhamondre Stevenson).

He will have Trent Brown a huge and talented tackle to help with the offensive line blocking.

And, he will hopefully be totally free of any health impacts from having contracted Covid-19 last year.

Observers and Patriots fans alike should heed what Mr. Kraft and Bill Belichick have admitted through their actions, if not their words in re-signing Cam to a contract for 2021 and stocking up on better players to help him this season to boot.

What that says is they acknowledge that Cam Newton had nothing much available to help him excel last season. As a result, they have now moved super-aggressively and impressively to try to straighten out that awful situation.

Those observers and fans should cut Cam Newton some slack and allow him the opportunity to demonstrate his talents when those deficiencies in his supporting cast (or at least some of them) have now been addressed.

This writer feels that Cam Newton has been treated unfairly and it had to be addressed. Consider this article to have addressed it.