Photo courtesy of Steven Senne/AP
Cam Newton has been diagnosed with a bruised right hand after hitting it on a soft pad during a drill in Friday’s OTA’s. Newton missed the rest of practice and according to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, is scheduled to miss all of next week’s OTA’s. It sounds like Newton is expected to be back for mini camp the week of June 14th.
Newton’s injury allows Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels to spend more time evaluating the other quarterbacks. Brian Hoyer, Jarrett Stidham and Mac Jones will get more starter reps now and that is important when it comes to figuring out where they each stand.
Stidham and Jones stand to benefit the most. Stidham has been impressive thus far in OTA’s and he is certainly making a push to compete for the starting job, albeit a long shot.
Jones has also impressed. The physical skills that made him a first round pick have been on full display but he has also shown maturity and leadership, something rookie quarterbacks struggle with.
After Newton got hurt on Friday, Hoyer got the majority of the stater reps in team but with Newton out, I would expect Stidham and Jones to cut into those reps this week. It will be a good opportunity to see how they can mesh with the starters and develop a rapport with them.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Newton. He has had a good spring and hurting his hand will affect him in terms of the progress he has made in the offense this off season. Returning for mini camp however would allow him to get back on track and retain the starter job.
Competition is the essence of sports. You want all of these quarterbacks competing for the starter job. That being said, Newton being out a week will change the dynamic of that competition and that is not the worst thing in the world for the Patriots. Getting Stidham and Jones more starter reps will pay dividends in terms of the evaluation process.
It will be interesting to see how the coaches divide up the reps. It could give us an early indication of their thought process as we get closer to camp.