Cam Newton didn’t just save the New England Patriots’ season Monday night against the New York Jets.
He might’ve saved his career.
Newton led New England to a 30-27 win over New York at MetLife Stadium, improving the Patriots’ record to 3-5 and perhaps keeping their playoff hopes alive.
The last-second, comeback victory snapped a four-game losing streak for the Pats, during which Newton committed several costly miscues, and it’s fair to wonder whether Bill Belichick would have made a quarterback change had New England once again come up short.
“I think it was career-saving,” Nick Wright argued on Tuesday’s episode of “First Things First” on FS1. “Let’s say (Newton) turned the ball over on that (fourth-quarter) drive after the (Joe) Flacco interception and they lose — the Patriots’ season is over at that point, officially done. I would imagine they would have seriously considered, for some reason, going to (Jarrett) Stidham, just to see what he can do. And I don’t know what the market would’ve been for Cam if he finishes this year losing four, five games in a row, turning the ball over a bunch.
“So I’m not saying his career is back on track now. But a bad performance (on Monday night) and I think it would’ve been on the board that that’s all we would get to see from Cam Newton.”
Newton, who signed a one-year contract with the Patriots over the offseason, started the season strong but then faltered in wake of missing New England’s Week 4 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs due to a bout with COVID-19.
The 31-year-old’s performance in Week 9 against the Jets was a step in the right direction, although it comes with the obvious disclaimer that New York has yet to win a game this season.
We’ll see if Newton can build on the momentum this Sunday night when the Patriots host the Baltimore Ravens at Gillette Stadium.
Every game from here on out is critical to New England’s playoff hopes and Newton’s future beyond the 2020 campaign.
