Why Cam Newton should be the Washington Football Team’s next quarterback

Now that the unfortunate news is official, and the Washington Football Team has released 2020 Comeback Player of the Year Alex Smith in a salary cap-saving move, Washington’s quarterback depth chart in the wake of Dwayne Haskins’s bust-out failure is a bit thin. There’s Taylor Heinicke, who availed himself decently in 2020 with 38 completions in 63 attempts for 443 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception in one regular-season game and one playoff performance. And there’s Steven Montez, an undrafted free agent from Colorado, who… well, hasn’t done anything in the NFL just yet.

This is why most mock drafts you see have the WFT taking a quarterback in the 2021 draft — whether picking the best guy available with the 19th overall pick, or perhaps trading up to get someone better. That’s one possibility, but it also leaves Ron Rivera’s team a bit short if that guy isn’t ready to go right away. Heinicke could be a kind of bridge quarterback, but last season, the WFT managed to “win” the NFC East with a 7-9 record and were competitive in the wild-card round against the eventual Super Bowl champion Buccaneers, so they’d be looking for a Brooklyn Bridge as opposed to a Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is what Heinicke looks to be.

What the WFT really needs at this point is a quarterback who is available, has a comfort with the kind of passing game offensive coordinator Scott Turner wants to run, is looking to be a plus-level starter for a few more years, and has the physical tools to do so.

Cameron Jerrell Newton, an impending free agent after his one season with the Patriots, could check all the boxes. He’ll be 32 years old when the 2021 season begins, and though his one year under Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels didn’t go as anybody involved would have hoped, that was as much or more about a run game that was far more vanilla than one might have expected with Newton’s presence, and a receiver corps that had Jakobi Meyers, Damiere Byrd, and N’Keal Harry as its primary guys. There was also the specter of learning a new offense without a traditional off-season, and a bout with COVID that had Newton feeling “stagnant” in the offense, and behind in the learning process.

If Tom Brady couldn’t solve that group in 2019 (and Brady had a full season with Julian Edelman, as opposed to the six games Newton had), what chance did Newton have? Never mind the other stuff.

So. maybe it’s time for a Newton reunion with Rivera, who was his head coach with the Panthers from 2011 through 2019, and Turner, who was Newton’s quarterbacks coach in Carolina in 2018 and 2019. In truth, Rivera had thought about this before the 2020 season, but he wanted to see what Haskins had to offer without a competitive veteran breathing down his neck.

“Honestly, if the circumstances would have allowed us, I would have had no issues with [signing Newton],” Rivera said in a June, 2020 interview with Chicago’s 670 The Score. “I would have been very confident and comfortable in going after him and bringing him to be part of what we’re doing here. To me, those circumstances would have been going through an opportunity to see what we have in Dwayne.

“It would have been very hard to bring in a guy who’s had such a solid career, who was league MVP at one time [in 2015], and expect the young guy [Haskins] to get chances to grow. So I just felt that because of our circumstances we could play this slow — and good for [Newton], he went to New England, which I think is going to be a great spot for him and I think he’s going to have a lot of success.”

Well, Rivera now knows what he had in Haskins; that’s why the WFT released Haskins after less than two seasons, which doesn’t generally happen to first-round quarterbacks.

Nov 25, 2018; Charlotte, NC, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton (1) talks with quarterbacks coach Scott Turner during the first quarter of the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

Newton’s relationship with Turner could present an even bigger value-add. Newton played just two games for the Panthers in 2019 due to injury, but his 2018 season — his first with Turner as a primary consultant — was one of his best before things started to get complicated.

From Week 1 through Week 12 of the 2018 season, Newton completed 69.6% of his passes for 2699 yards, 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Only eight quarterbacks had more touchdown passes in that span. Only five had a higher completion percentage. Only six had a higher passer rating than Newton’s 103.7.

But Newton had been dealing with shoulder issues throughout 2018, and the Panthers finally shut him down after a Week 15 performance against the Saints in which he completed 16 of 29 passes for 131 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

“His footwork, just keeping it compact and making sure his feet and his eyes were working together,” Turner said in June, 2019 regarding how he had worked with Newton to be more efficient. “That’s where we really started. When your feet match your eyes, you are going to make decisions faster. Getting [Cam’s] feet consistent helped the ball go where he wanted it to go.

“Making him a little more compact in his upper body. A little more closed off, just so he’s not as open throwing the ball. And just to make him as efficient as possible and putting the least amount of stress possible. Now, you are going to put stress on your arm throwing the football – it’s not a natural movement. But as little as we can on his shoulder, just to take care of him.

“Going forward, Cam is fully committed to doing everything he can to be the best player he can be and also take care of himself.”

In 2018 overall, Newton finished with a passer rating of 94.2 (his second-highest outside of his MVP season of 2015), a DYAR of 321 (also his best since 2015), and an Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt of 6.15, which marked the fourth-best total of his career.

Even in his truncated 2019 season, there were a couple of highlights that make you think there’s still more than a little left in the tank in the right circumstances (which, for whatever reasons, the Patriots did not present). Like this 44-yard completion to receiver Curtis Samuel against the Buccaneers in Week 2 that was all arm …

… or this 41-yard drop in the bucket to tight end Greg Olsen.

One thing Turner did very well for Newton was to understand how Newton learns, and to build the process around that. Turner and Newton put together an ever-expanding binder covering everything from protection calls to global offensive concepts.

“I can’t learn when everybody learns, my attention isn’t as pristine as other people’s, I know that, I’ve accepted that,” Newton said in September, 2019. “Me, being the way I am, when I’m ready to learn something, it might be at 8 p.m. at night. So if don’t want to bother Scott, nor do I want to ask other people questions, I wanna know something as simple as ‘What is a Yo motion?’, something as simple as, ‘What’s Bingo?’, something as complex as ‘What is Fleet?’ or ‘Who moves on Swap Shift?’, those things I already have in my book.”

Cam Newton still wants to start, even after the worst season he’s experienced. Rivera and Turner desperately need a quarterback, at least for the short term. Teams often have to wonder if free-agent quarterbacks will fit what they want to do, but in this case, it would seem that any ancillary issues are non-existent due to the history involved.