For the last week or so, Cam Newton and Bill Belichick as well, have expressed they wished they had more time together.
Newton signed with the team in late June/early July so he had to learn the Patriots' system very quickly and it seemed like he was still learning it well into the season.
Speaking on The Greg Hill Show Monday, Newton expressed he wished he had signed earlier and that seems to be a priority for him this offseason.
“That’s definitely going to go into consideration," he said. "I am not going to wait [until] the latter part of another [offseason] when I have the opportunity to do something or sign with someone. And I think I put myself at a disadvantage [with] that. But yeah, you just live and learn.”
Clearly, the offense struggled for the vast majority of the season, finishing 27th both overall and in points scored. As for passing, it was 30th in yards and 31st in touchdowns.
Newton brought up the inexperience when it came to the pass-catchers, especially once Julian Edelman was put on injured reserve in late October.
"We had, I am looking at skill positions, Damiere [Byrd], N’Keal [Harry] was out for a long stint of time, Jakobi [Meyers] was really the veteran in that receiving group and he’s just had two years of experience," Newton said. "… Half of them weren’t even in a position that they were in this year last year. I wasn’t even here last year. When you lose a guy like Jules in the midpoint of the year, and I think his whole leadership was taken, I don’t want to say for granted, but you realize [what] his preparation is. You see [what] his walkthrough method is. You see how he watches film. You see the things that he does around the building that when you negate that after the week he was deactivated, now you’re looking at guys who weren’t even here last year and a quarterback that’s learning the system just like they are and they don’t necessarily have somebody to kind of, ‘Hey, XYZ.’
"There’s not enough time in the day. You can only practice a certain amount of time so when you really look at the whole grand scheme of where we were at times, it was, ‘We have to figure this out and we have to figure this out fast.’ Nobody is necessarily caring who is on the roster, more or less we have to figure it out with this roster. Was it realistic? Yeah, it was. We had enough talent in that locker room to win more games than we won, let’s just put it like that. I’ll just keep it there.”
Newton finished the season with eight passing touchdowns to go along with 12 rushing.