The Patriots are using both Cam Newton and Mac Jones as quarterbacks with their first-team offense during training camp in hopes of finding the right person to take their offense to a higher level in 2021.
It will be some time before we know if that happens, but safety Devin McCourty thinks the competition this summer will benefit the team on the other side of the ball. Newton and Jones play the position in different ways, which is something that McCourty said the team will see from week-to-week in the regular season and he thinks they’ll be better prepared for those contests as a result.
“With quarterback you don’t always get that in a training camp to have two guys that have pretty different styles. But it’s great work for us as a defense because, obviously you have to play to those styles,” McCourty said, via Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald. “But it builds the communication. Whatever calls, whatever things that we like against one guy, you might not like against the other guy. So, we have to pay attention, no matter who is in the game of communicating that and getting to right call. So that’s been a challenge. It’s something that we’re trying to stay on top of.”
The defense will get its first chance to face quarterbacks from another team next week, although there figure to be more eyes on how Newton and Jones fare in any of their preseason action.