If there’s anything that we know for sure about the Washington Football Team, it’s that they have no clue what they’re doing at the quarterback position and that the QB of the future likely isn’t on the roster at the current moment. How they find their next QB is still up for debate, with the team currently sitting at a fork in the road, so to say, with a couple of options in front of them.
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The most likely scenario with the highest success rate, in our eyes, is to tank for the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL Draft and try to grab QB Trevor Lawrence. However, Washington could very well continue to try and win the NFC East, somehow, which might take them out of contention for a top prospect next year. In this case, free agency would be the likely option to fill that spot, and the team should look at none other than Cam Newton, the former Carolina Panthers QB who played under Ron Rivera for so many years.
According to a report from The MMQB’s Albert Breer, Newton’s current team, the New England Patriots, consider Washington as a potential threat to sign away their QB1 in the near future. It was apparently the decision to bench QB Dwayne Haskins after Week 4 that woke the Patriot’s up to the possibility.
“That means Washington has no long-term answer at the [quarterback] position and a head coach in Ron Rivera and an offensive coordinator in Scott Turner who are very close with Cam,” Breer said.
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“I think the presence now of Washington being out there, and they won’t have a long-term answer before the start of free agency because of course, the draft won’t have happened by then,” Breer said. “I think that almost puts the Patriots in a corner where it’s like, okay, if you don’t get Cam signed to a long-term deal before you get to the beginning of March you almost have to tag him.”
We pondered this offseason whether or not Washington should make a play at Newton, who was left sitting on the free agency market long after most of the top-tier QBs were gone. However, the sentiment was that Dwayne Haskins could be the guy for Rivera and Turner, so the addition of Newton would only be stunting his growth.
That’s a tough call now, considering all that has happened in the past month or so. Washington is a team without a quarterback, but one that still has a desire to win and try to make the playoffs. Meanwhile, Newton has looked electric so far this season in New England, giving them everything that they hoped he would still have in his repertoire. It’s clear that if Newton were the starting QB in Washington this season, they could easily be leading the NFC East, and may actually be looked at as a legitimate playoff contender in the conference.
While it’s fun and maybe even a little bit frustrating to think about what could have been, is there any reason that we can’t try this all again next year? Newton is on a one-year deal with the Patriots, so he will be up for grabs in free agency once again this season, carrying a much higher price tag. Don’t be surprised if Washington chooses to bring him to D.C., assuming that they are unable to grab one of the top prospects in the draft.
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