It has started to look like Cam Newton will be the Patriots’ starting quarterback this season, but Newton said on Wednesday that he is not ready to start thinking that way.
Newton has been seeing more practice reps with the first team than Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer and Stidham is dealing with a hip injury, but Newton told reporters that he doesn’t consider himself the likely Week One starter at this point.
“Absolutely not. Every day is a work day for me,” Newton said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “That label is not important to me right now,” Newton told reporters. “I have so much I need to get better at, so much I need to learn, so much I need to be comfortable with. Throughout this process, that’s the last thing that I’m pretty much worried about.”
Newton said that there are times things aren’t firing mentally at the line of scrimmage the way he’d hope. He thinks Hoyer is “as sharp as can be” when it comes to the offense and has been answering questions that Newton has about the offense. That won’t help Hoyer’s chances of getting the job, but it should be a plus for the Patriots as a whole.