The New England Patriots are practically acting as if quarterback Cam Newton is not in the building. Much like his players, Bill Belichick seems to be doing what he can to avoid questions about Newton’s arrival, which is probably the second biggest storyline after the novel coronavirus pandemic for the Patriots during training camp.
During a videoconference call on Friday, Belichick was asked how Newton looks physically. He spent almost all of 2019 on injured reserve after suffering a foot injury, one of many physical issues he’s had in recent years. Belichick parried that question, saying that he didn’t run the training sessions and had not seen the players in their workouts. Beyond that?
“The walkthroughs are the walkthroughs. They’re walkthroughs,” Belichick said on Friday during a videoconference call.
Illuminating.
Belichick seems to be suggesting that, because players are literally walking through these practices, the Patriots coaching staff can’t get a sense of a player’s physical condition.
Does Belichick have some insight on how Newton is doing in learning the playbook?
“We’re in phase 1. We’re presenting a lot of information,” Belichick said. “We have a daily walkthrough and that’s about it. Again as I said, the restart of football is going a slow pace. Right now, the training is ahead of the football.”
After the NFL cancelled minicamp and organized team activities, New England is getting on the field for the first time during the 2020 season, so they’re starting at the very beginning, which surely makes for a challenging evaluation when it comes to Belichick, who is probably reserving judgement at this early phase in the offseason. But with Newton, in particular, Belichick seems interested in quieting the storylines while the three quarterbacks, Newton, Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer, compete for the starting job in the first open quarterback competition since Tom Brady took over the job in 2001.
Though that should be a massive point of interest for the NFL world, Belichick is doing everything he can to deter the attention.
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