The New England Patriots and former NFL MVP Cam Newton have agreed to a one year deal that is worth up to $13.6 million with $6 million earned incentives. However, don't let the $13.6 million fool you, there's more to the deal than you would think. Let's break it down.
Incentives to Cam Newton's deal include:
- $5.1 million if he's healthy and on the roster as a backup quarterback.
- $6.6 if he starts all season.
- $8.6 million if he starts and the team makes the playoffs.
- The rest of the money that is eligible to be earned is based on NFL honors and awards.
When this contract is really broken down and looked at, this isn't New England giving Newton the keys to the franchise. This deal is more of a "prove it to us" deal, similar to what they had just a year ago. However it seems that the Patriots have bought into the "low risk and high reward" type of deal. Newton and the Patriots are coming off of a 7-9 record in their 2020 campaign. Newton missed the week four game against Kansas City after testing positive for COVID-19, then getting limited snaps in week 16 against Buffalo. On top of the patriots struggles, New England had eight players opt out of the 2020 season.
New England spent most of the year without their best playmaker in Julian Edelman. Edelman went down with a season ending knee injury after the blowout loss at home against San-Francisco. However, New England is going to need more than Edelman for the production of the offense in 2021. Newton only threw for eight passing touchdowns and only three of those coming from Patriots wide receivers. New England's leading receiver in Jakobi Meyers had a breakout year but never found the end zone. Although Newton struggle in the pass game, he had one his best seasons on the ground. Newton ran for nearly 600 yards and crossed the goal line for a team high 12 times.
New England has already made offseason moves to help Newton and the offense. Throughout the 2020 campaign, Patriots tight ends had only five catches on the year. 2021 should be a different story for the tight end position in New England due to the signing of former Tennessee Tight End Jonnu Smith. Smith had 41 catches for 448 yards and eight touchdowns. The protection up front on the offensive line drastically improved with the signing of Davon Godchaux, and an expected trade to bring back OT Trent Brown.
As far as helping out Newton and putting him in a position to succeed, the patriots still need to go get help in their receiving room. For one of the first times in recent franchise history, New England has the money and space to go and get some weapons to help their former MVP get the offense rolling.
Notable names in the free agency wide receiver carousel:
Kenny Golladay, Detroit Lions
Will Fuller, Houston Texans
Corey Davis, Tennessee Titans
Curtis Samuel, Carolina Panthers
JuJu Smith-Schuster, Pittsburgh Steelers
T.Y. Hilton, Indianapolis Colts
Regardless of what happens in the offseason Super-Cam returns to Foxborough for another chance to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017.