FOXBORO – We may end up looking back on Thursday as the day that Cam Newton began to pull off the start of the Quarterback gig in New England.
It’s early, of course. There’s still time for Jarrett Stidham to catch the giant and demand to be called “The Guy” while Newton picks up the crime. But based on work pressure alone, it turned out that the Patriots want Newton to get as many snaps as possible.
In an early period of 7 on 7, Newton made four passing attempts. Brian Hoyer made four passing attempts. Stidham, on closer inspection, did not take part in the period.
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Stidham were first in the next 11-on-11 period, followed by Newton. From there, Stidham and Newton worked closely together. They stayed on the same field in another period from 11 to 11, while Brian Hoyer shared reps with draft rookie Brian Lewerke on an adjacent field.
However, when the practice was over, it became apparent that the quarterback snaps were no longer evenly split. They were not split three ways between Newton, Stidham and Hoyer – as they had, in essence, been through three days of work. They were not evenly divided between Newton and Stidham.
Newton clearly saw the biggest slice of the quarterback snap pie.
He went 7-for-13 in 25 competitive 11-on-11 snaps. Stidham went 2-for-6 with two interceptions in 17 competitive 11-on-11 snaps. If you factor in Newton’s 7-on-7 reps on Thursday, he made 17 competitive throws in 29 competitive snaps.
For Newton, that’s almost three times the number of competitive throws Stidham have made. That’s a dozen more competitive snaps.
That is not unimportant.
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The figures remain Newton’s favorite when looking at the results of the throws made by Patriots’ quarterbacks.
In three days of camp practice – Monday’s session was mainly focused on the running game – Cam Newton completed 20 of 34 attempts in 11-on-11 periods, and he dropped five passes. That’s good for an accuracy percentage (completions plus drops) of 74 percent.
In the same three practices, Stidham completed 19 of 30 attempts in 11-on-11 periods without falling a single pass. That’s good for an accuracy percentage of 63 percent. But Stidham also hit six picks in those 30 attempts, which is a whopping 20 percent.
Hoyer, meanwhile, has gone 23-for-36 in 11-on-11 work with three passes dropped. That’s good for an accuracy rate of 69 percent.
Again, it’s early. But Bill Belichick said earlier this week that “of course” the quarterback reps are not always split as evenly as by the team’s first few practices.
“Well, of course, there’s some point where this is going to happen,” Belichick said Wednesday morning when asked about sharing the snaps less equally.
“But right now we want to try, like I said, to give everyone a chance to get the basics, and we’re really doing that in all positions. I mean, everyone’s going through and we’re trying to give everyone a chance to get the basics out. “Yes, of course we do not have to look like the reps in any way. I mean, that’s obvious. But we are not there now.”
Maybe they got there Thursday, when most of the snaps went to Newton.
