The New England Patriots rebuffed a punishment from the NFL and signed Cam Newton to be Tom Brady's successor in the shrewdest move of the offseason
- The New England Patriots made waves on Sunday, signing former NFL MVP Cam Newton to a team-friendly, one-year deal to serve as Tom Brady's successor in Foxborough.
- The news came on the same day that the Patriots were hit with a $1.1 million fine and the loss of their 2021 third-round pick as punishment for their SpyGate 2.0 scandal.
- Newton gives the Patriots the potential to maintain their dominance over the AFC East this year, while also mitigating the loss of their third-round pick in the 2021 draft.
- The move proves once again that whether it's Week 11 or the middle of the offseason, the New England Patriots are the shrewdest team in the NFL.
The New England Patriots have found their successor to Tom Brady, at least for the 2020 season.
On Sunday, the Patriots signed 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton to a one-year, incentive-laden deal worth up to $7.5 million, according to Ian Rapaport of NFL Network.
Newton joins fellow quarterbacks Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer, as well as rookies Brian Lewerke and J'Mar Smith on the Patriots depth chart. While there might be a "competition" for the starting job, given Newton's talents, it's his to lose as long as he's healthy.
The move was a shrewd one, even for the NFL's shrewdest team in New England. On Sunday, the NFL announced that the Patriots would be fined $1.1 million and lose their 2021 third-round pick as punishment for the team's SpyGate 2.0 incident last season that caught the team's production crew filming the sidelines of a game between the Browns and Bengals.
Newton has been a free agent for some time now, so the team could have signed him at any moment this offseason but decided to wait until the news of their punishment dropped to make the deal official. While we can't specifically say the two moves were tied to one another, it is quite convenient that the Patriots took what could have been a week of relitigating their infraction and instead turned the collective NFL conversation towards the coming union between Newton and head coach Bill Belichick.
But the shrewdness of the Patriots move goes beyond a bit of media savvy. As ESPN's Adam Schefter noted, the Patriots signing of Newton could potentially mitigate the penalty that the NFL hit them with over their filming infraction.
With Newton only signed for one year, there's a chance he plays well, draws interest from another suitor in 2021, and leaves the team after a season, potentially resulting in the Patriots being left with a compensatory pick in the 2022 draft.
Should that happen, it comes close to making up for the pick the Patriots lost due to the NFL's penalty. Never one to shy away from a trade on draft day, the 2022 compensatory pick could even be paired with a late-rounder to move the Patriots back into the 2021 third round should they so choose.
Alternatively, Newton, just 31, could play well enough that New England decides to extend him and have him lead the Patriots into the future for years to come.
Newton's move to the Patriots was the result of a perfect storm this NFL offseason — the league's quarterback market has been soft, with the majority of teams pleased with where they are at the position, either with a proven veteran or a young player they believe in. In another year, a player of Newton's talents could have played multiple teams against each other to land a substantial deal, but in 2020, the Patriots were the only that could offer him a clear shot at the starting job.
The result is a threefold win for New England. They get a talented player on a team-friendly deal in their first post-Brady season, the potential for him to leave and be rewarded with a compensatory pick that makes up for a league-imposed punishment, and a news story that stuffs the airwaves to bring attention away from the fact that the NFL is punishing them for yet another scandal.
Whether mid-season or offseason, the New England Patriots are the shrewdest team in the NFL.
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