It has been a tumultuous tenure for Cam Newton in New England. However for the first in his Patriots career last night, Newton finally looked like the quarterback the Patriots were hoping for when they signed him last summer.

Now this does come with the standard pre-season disclaimer. “It was against their second and third string guys” Despite that, it doesn’t mean that Newton’s performance last night wasn’t a positive step in the right direction.

Newton completed 8 of 9 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown pass. He averaged 11.4 yards per completion.

More important than that however was how he played. He was calm and under control. His pocket management was impeccable. He stood nice and tall, his eyes were down field and footwork was good.

He showed good timing and anticipation on his throws, especially on the in cutting routes. We hardly saw that from him last season.

Now again, we have to keep in mind that it was against an Eagles defense playing without Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett and Darius Slay among other but Newton’s performance was still impressive nonetheless.

Of course one quarter of good quarterback play against the other team’s back ups doesn’t ensure that Newton is back. It is a positive step and a departure from last season. Bill Belichick reinforced this point in his post game press conference.

“Well, I mean, the season’s pretty early here. We all have a long way to go. I’m not really worried about last year or some other year. I’m just worried about moving ahead this year. It’s a new year, it’s a new team. [There are] some people that weren’t here that are here this year and there are people that were here last year that aren’t here – like it is on every other team in the NFL. So we’ll see how this comes together. I think we’re making progress. We still have a long way to go, though. We’re talking about the second preseason game, we have a long way to go.”

As for whether or not he thought Newton looked comfortable, Belichick gave a typical Belichick answer.

“I think everybody is comfortable with what we’re doing. I hope so. If [Newton] isn’t, then I don’t know.”

Newton was comfortable He looked like he did the first two games last season. If he can consistently play at that level, the Patriots will contend in the AFC. The talent is certainly there. It is up to Newton to provide the team with quality quarterback play.

If last night was any indication, he might finally be able to do that.