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Bill Belichick Gives Evaluation of Cam Newton After Phase 1 of Training Camp

The Patriots' head coach kept his praise for the former MVP award-winner brief at Fridays press conference
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For the better part of 20 years, Bill Belichick had Tom Brady as his quarterback.

The battle for the title of Brady’s successor is now underway, and Cam Newton has earned some praise from his new head coach after one week of camp.

“Cam’s a hard-working kid, he really is,” Belichick said during a press conference Friday.

Belichick’s compliments were certainly brief, but he extended his praises to the rest of the quarterback room – Brian Hoyer, Jarrett Stidham and Brian Lewerke.

“Certainly for all the quarterbacks at that position, those guys have been locked in,” Belichick said. “Everybody has a lot of confidence in what they’re able to do and the information they have to give to the team.”

Every player on the roster has had the shared issue of limited time with team personnel, as not everyone got the chance to run drills with Newton in Los Angeles in July. Belichick said losing that hands-on time with his players won’t create a competitive disparity, however, since it’s the same situation for every team.

When asked about how the quartet of quarterbacks fighting for a roster spot has dealt with that unique challenge, Belichick said they have made the most of it.

“Whatever time we have is the same amount of time everybody else has, and vice versa,” Belichick said. “For all positions – it doesn’t really matter which position you’re talking about – the pre-snap, line-of-scrimmage and initial assignment, we’ve had an opportunity to go over that extensively and I feel pretty good about where we are there.”

The post-snap executions and fundamentals are still up in the air, Belichick said, but if any of the quarterbacks on the Patriots’ roster have experience with that, it’s Newton.

Only one Patriot has an MVP award on a shelf at home, and only one has been a regular starter for the last decade. But one week into his Patriots career, Cam Newton still remains in the thick of a quarterback battle.

In the month between now and New England’s season-opener against the Miami Dolphins, Newton will have to prove himself as more than “a hard-working kid” in order to secure a win in that battle.