Cam Newton was playful during his postgame press conference after the New England Patriots’ 22-13 win over the Washington Football Team in Week 1 of the preseason on Thursday. Newton joked that defensive end Chase Young was “smaller than I thought.”
He joked about pointing running back Rhamondre Stevenson toward the end zone on his 91-yard touchdown: “Why do you point someone in the direction they’re already going? … Like he’s going to turn around and go the other way.”
But then he struck a more serious note when he got to talking about rookie quarterback Mac Jones.
“Every young quarterback goes through it, the excitement, the anticipation,” Newton said after the game. “He wants to be so perfect, and I see his preparation is always pristine. That’s what I admire about him — being at such a young age, he knows how to prepare and knows when (offensive coordinator) Josh (McDaniels) asks quick questions or when a person asks quick questions, he knows how to kind of have answers for it.”
Yes, it was a preseason game. Yes, Jones was seeing vanilla defenses. That’s all true. New England trusted Jones with 2.5 quarters of play, which included a hurry-up situation. He looked advanced for a player just entering the NFL, and completed 68% of his passes (13-for-19) for 87 yards. It’s clear his preparation is actually on another level.
All that and more in our game recap.