Cam Newton vs. Jarrett Stidham: Newton divides himself together with uptick in workload
We may wind up looking back on Thursday as the afternoon Cam Newton began to pull away with the starting quarterback gig at New England.
It is early, of course. There is still time for Jarrett Stidham to catch the reins and demand to be named"The Guy" while Newton picks up the crime. But based on workload independently, it seemed as though the Patriots needed to get Newton as many snaps as possible.
In an early 7-on-7 interval, Newton made four pass attempts. Brian Hoyer created four pass attempts. Stidham, watching carefully, didn't take part in the interval.
Stidham was up in another 11-on-11 time, followed by Newton. From that point, Stidham and Newton worked carefully. They stayed on precisely the same area during a 11-on-11 period, while Brian Hoyer shared reps with undrafted rookie Brian Lewerke within an adjacent area.
Once the clinic was completed, however, it had been evident that the quarterback snaps were no more evenly split. They were not split three ways between Newton, Stidham and Hoyer -- as they had been, basically, through three days of work. They weren't divided evenly between Newton and Stidham.
Newton clearly saw the largest slice of the quarterback-snap pie.
He went 7-for-13 in 25 aggressive 11-on-11 snaps. Stidham went 2-for-6 with two interceptions in 17 competitive 11-on-11 snaps.
For Newton, that's nearly 3 times the amount of competitive pitches Stidham made. That's a dozen more competitive snaps.
That's not insignificant.
The numbers continue to prefer Newton when one looks at the results of these throws produced by Patriots quarterbacks.
In three days of camp practices -- Monday's session has been focused primarily on the running game -- Cam Newton has completed 20 of 34 attempts in 11-on-11 periods, and he's had five passes dropped. That's excellent for an accuracy percentage (completions plus drops) of 74 percent.
At the exact same 3 practices, Stidham has completed 19 of 30 attempts in 11-on-11 periods with no moves dropped. That's excellent for an accuracy percentage of 63 percent. However, Stidham has also thrown six picks from these 30 attempts, which is a whopping 20 percent interception rate.
Hoyer, meanwhile, has recently gone 23-for-36 in 11-on-11 work with three passes dropped. That's good for an accuracy proportion of 69 percent.
Again, it is early. However, Bill Belichick said earlier this week that"clearly" the quarterback reps would not always be split as evenly as they were through the group's first few practices.
"Well, obviously, there is some point where that's going to happen," Belichick said Wednesday morning when requested about divvying up the snaps less equally.
"But, right now, we would like to try to, like I said, give everybody a chance to acquire the basics, and we are doing this at all the positions. I mean, everybody's rotating and we're attempting to give everyone a chance to conduct the basic plays, get the basic fundamentals down. Yeah, naturally sooner or later, we will have to not equalize the reps. I mean, that's obvious. But we are not there today."
Perhaps they got there Thursday, if the most significant share of these snaps moved to Newton.
We may wind up looking back on Thursday as the afternoon Cam Newton began to pull away with the starting quarterback gig at New England.
It is early, of course. There is still time for Jarrett Stidham to catch the reins and demand to be named"The Guy" while Newton picks up the crime. But based on workload independently, it seemed as though the Patriots needed to get Newton as many snaps as possible.
In an early 7-on-7 interval, Newton made four pass attempts. Brian Hoyer created four pass attempts. Stidham, watching carefully, didn't take part in the interval.
Stidham was up in another 11-on-11 time, followed by Newton. From that point, Stidham and Newton worked carefully. They stayed on precisely the same area during a 11-on-11 period, while Brian Hoyer shared reps with undrafted rookie Brian Lewerke within an adjacent area.
Once the clinic was completed, however, it had been evident that the quarterback snaps were no more evenly split. They were not split three ways between Newton, Stidham and Hoyer -- as they had been, basically, through three days of work. They weren't divided evenly between Newton and Stidham.
Newton clearly saw the largest slice of the quarterback-snap pie.
He went 7-for-13 in 25 aggressive 11-on-11 snaps. Stidham went 2-for-6 with two interceptions in 17 competitive 11-on-11 snaps.
For Newton, that's nearly 3 times the amount of competitive pitches Stidham made. That's a dozen more competitive snaps.
That's not insignificant.
The numbers continue to prefer Newton when one looks at the results of these throws produced by Patriots quarterbacks.
In three days of camp practices -- Monday's session has been focused primarily on the running game -- Cam Newton has completed 20 of 34 attempts in 11-on-11 periods, and he's had five passes dropped. That's excellent for an accuracy percentage (completions plus drops) of 74 percent.
At the exact same 3 practices, Stidham has completed 19 of 30 attempts in 11-on-11 periods with no moves dropped. That's excellent for an accuracy percentage of 63 percent. However, Stidham has also thrown six picks from these 30 attempts, which is a whopping 20 percent interception rate.
Hoyer, meanwhile, has recently gone 23-for-36 in 11-on-11 work with three passes dropped. That's good for an accuracy proportion of 69 percent.
Again, it is early. However, Bill Belichick said earlier this week that"clearly" the quarterback reps would not always be split as evenly as they were through the group's first few practices.
"Well, obviously, there is some point where that's going to happen," Belichick said Wednesday morning when requested about divvying up the snaps less equally.
"But, right now, we would like to try to, like I said, give everybody a chance to acquire the basics, and we are doing this at all the positions. I mean, everybody's rotating and we're attempting to give everyone a chance to conduct the basic plays, get the basic fundamentals down. Yeah, naturally sooner or later, we will have to not equalize the reps. I mean, that's obvious. But we are not there today."
Perhaps they got there Thursday, if the most significant share of these snaps moved to Newton.