FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton admitted he hasn’t played as well as he hoped in 2020, but he said Monday that he still has “a lot of football left” as coach Bill Belichick left open the possibility of giving Jarrett Stidham playing time with the team out of playoff contention.
“I’m going to leave it up to the people who I’ve been leaving it up to since day one. I’m not going to feed into that,” Newton said in his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI, when asked if he still expects to be the starter. “I’m still on a job interview, to be honest with you.”
Newton, 31, relayed how much he’s enjoyed playing for the Patriots (6-8), as the experience has shown him how much better he can be as a player.
Tapped as the replacement for Tom Brady after signing a one-year deal on July 8, Newton is a free agent after the season and plans to keep playing in 2021. He explained that one of his goals in 2020 was to make it through the season healthy after previously being sidelined with shoulder and foot injuries.
“I still have a lot of football left. I still want to play football. I have the urge to be better,” Newton said, when asked if he would consider retirement. “After putting out this film? Hey, c’mon now. I can’t go out like this. I definitely can’t go out like this.”
In 13 games, Newton is 216-for-328 for 2,381 yards, with five touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He has added 489 rushing yards on 122 carries and 11 touchdowns.
In fairness to Newton, the Patriots haven’t surrounded him with a plethora of high-level wide receivers and tight ends. No team has had as limited pass-catching production from tight ends across the NFL.
Still, Newton has been a harsh self-critic.
“You have to be your best self when your best self is needed. That’s a famous quote from John Wooden that [quarterbacks] coach Jedd [Fisch] has kind of implemented to remind us. That’s the thing that I didn’t do enough this year,” Newton said.
Whether Newton will have a chance to do so in the final two games of the season — on Monday Night Football on Dec. 28 at home against the AFC East champion Buffalo Bills (ESPN, 8:15 p.m. ET), and then in the finale against the visiting New York Jets — remains to be seen after the Patriots officially were eliminated from postseason play Sunday.
After decisively declaring “Cam’s our quarterback” following a Week 14 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Belichick seemed to soften a bit in his stance Monday morning.
Asked if he could use the last two games to give some players a longer look with the future in mind, Belichick said: “We can evaluate what the opportunities are. We’re still going to prepare and try to play as well as we can Monday night. But we’ll see how that all shakes out. It could be a possibility in certain situations.”
Asked specifically if quarterback could be one of those situations by giving Stidham an extended look. Belichick said, “We’ll see.”
When asked what he’s seen from Newton to warrant possibly sticking with him, Belichick deflected.
“Really, we have a lot of team questions we need to answer, so I think that will be the overriding thing. We’ll talk about that today, tomorrow. We have an extra day this week and look at things starting from a bigger-picture standpoint,” he said.
“Obviously [we] haven’t played the run well the last two weeks and haven’t been able to score a touchdown the last two weeks. I don’t think this is about any one individual.”