Cam Newton comes out firing for the Patriots against the Eagles

If there is indeed an open quarterback competition in New England, Cam Newton made a solid case early against the Philadelphia Eagles that he should be the starter.

Ever since the New England Patriots drafted Mac Jones with the 15th overall selection in the 2021 NFL draft, fans have been wondering just when the rookie would take over as the starting quarterback in New England. After a solid outing last week in the Patriots’ first preseason game, many thought that timetable was pushed up a little.

As the kids say, perhaps Cam Newton read your tweets.

On Thursday night against the Philadelphia Eagles Newton was quite efficient running the New England offense at the start of the game, completing eight-of-nine passes for 103 yards and a touchdown over three drives:

Beyond the numbers, however, was how Newton looked operating the offense. The veteran quarterback looked comfortable with his footwork, and confident with his reads and decisions. Take this read and throw to Kendrick Bourne on an in-breaking route working from the right side of the formation:

Newton works through multiple reads on this play, first peeking at a route on the right, then scanning the left side of the field, before finding Bourne on the in-cut over the middle. In addition to the read, Newton looks nimble on his feet, subtly climbing the pocket in response to pressure off the left edge.

The touchdown came on this throw to wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, who you might want to keep in mind if your fantasy football league has yet to draft for the upcoming season:

On this play-action design the Patriots use just three receivers downfield, keeping in extra blockers to protect the quarterback. Nelson Agholor runs a deep post from the left side while Meyers runs a shallow crosser working right-to-left. After executing the play-action fake Newton first checks the shot play to Agholor before coming down to Meyers, who has separation from man coverage. Newton hits Meyers in stride, and the receiver scampers into the end zone for six.

Reviews from Patriots writers are in, and they are overwhelmingly positive:

Of course, a bit of context is necessary. The Eagles did not play their defensive starters, so Newton’s effort came largely against reserves. Still, preseason is about process, and the quarterback Patriots fans saw tonight is almost a completely different player than the QB that ran New England’s offense a season ago.

Recently, Newton himself was on social media talking about how this season was the best he had felt in a long time. Tonight, it looked like that indeed was the case with how he ran the offense.