Patriots news: Cam Newton training with throwing expert Tom House

There’s no denying the obvious offensive struggles that the New England Patriots experienced last season. Specifically from the quarterback position led by veteran Cam Newton.

As a result, Newton acknowledged his decreased performance and has spent the offseason training with an expert throwing coach in hopes of improving his football mechanics and overall fundamentals.

Newton finally decided that revisiting the basics of his position will improve his overall performance for the upcoming 2021 season. Even more so after a season where he underperformed and threw for the least amount of passing yards and touchdowns in his 10 year NFL career. Not to mention, Newton is preparing for a position battle against a fresh first-round rookie quarterback in Mac Jones as well.

There’s a possibility that Newton has started to feel the pressure of Jones impacting his overall career, especially during a contract year for the former NFL MVP.

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New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton has been training with a throwing expert this offseason

Former Major League Baseball pitcher and throwing expert, Tom House, seems to believe that Newton is a physical specimen that only had a down year due to many variables that were out of his control. House also emphasized that Newton is going to throw the football much better in 2021 than he did last year.

House joined NBC Sports’ Patriots Talk podcast with Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry to discuss the positive progressions he’s seen from Newton thus far in the offseason.

"“What people don’t realize is Cam has been injured, and he hasn’t had the ability to work on mechanics like he should or could have because his health was an issue. What you saw last year with the pandemic and all the upheaval and all the weird things that were going on with the day-to-day process, he probably didn’t have the time — or, what I would say, his efforts had to be directed towards just plain competing.” – Tom House"

It’s worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time that House and Newton have trained together. House has been working with Newton since 2019, when Newton had a second surgery in back-to-back years on the same shoulder when he was playing in Carolina. To which, House has a vast amount of knowledge and understanding of Newton’s overall mechanics and recovery routines.

"“Cam is a great athlete. I got to know him a little bit when he was working on his shoulder rehab. There’s nothing he can’t do. You’ve seen him, he’s a physical specimen. And he’s still in his skill acquisition window. So, I’m going to assume that the people there can help him with his throwing mechanics. If not, he has a great agent that can find help.” – Tom House"

We can all agree that Newton is still in his skill-set acquisition window. However, as far as his mechanics, why does House believe New England “has people” to help with Newton’s throwing mechanics?

The Patriots definitely have the people in place to assist Newton, however, those resources are more than likely going to be working with Jones, a rookie quarterback who needs to adjust to the NFL,  rather than a 10-year veteran and former league MVP.

Unfortunately, sometimes you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. And for Newton, it seems as if his shoulder is more compromised than people are willing to believe.

Despite the New England Patriots deploying subpar weapons in the passing game last year, Newton threw 368 passes, which is the least amount of passes thrown in his career. It’s hard to believe that even with minimal wide receiver talent last season that the Patriots felt comfortable with Newton throwing the ball.

Aside from Newton’s physical inabilities, it’s been evident that he rarely makes any pre-snap calls, adjustments, check-downs, or audibles out of a play based off what he sees from the defense. However, that could be due to not knowing much of the terminology that this offense has been using for 20 years.

Recently retired New England Patriots wide receiver, Julian Edelman, made some comments that questioned how understandingly Newton can read the field.

If Newton is struggling reading the defense at the line of scrimmage as a 10-year veteran, then Jones could become the starter right out of camp.