The New England Patriots made a splash in the Draft last week, taking quarterback Mac Jones with their No. 15 pick in Round 1. Since the team drafted a quarterback and Cam Newton struggled last season, the question now is who will start Week 1 of this season? Will it be Newton, Jones, or Jarrett Stidham? And the betting odds are out for who will do the honors for the Patriots.
I would be kind of shocked if it wasn’t Cam Newton. He is the favorite at -400. Bill Belichick loves Newton. And I don’t think he’ll want to embarrass him by having Jones start Week 1 over him. Newton is awful. He stunk last season. He seems like a great guy and everything, but boy, is he terrible. Despite that, Belichick said recently the plan is for Newton to start Week 1.
While Belichick is saying this, he's likely keeping an open mind about whether or not Newton or Jones will start. The Patriots aren't paying Newton much and, again, he hasn't played well. Can't stress that enough.
Jones has the second-shortest odds at +500. He seems amped to be with the team and tweeted out some photos from his arrival at Gillette Stadium on Monday.
Those who are taking the +500 odds on Jones starting might find it a funny visual that the generic jersey number Jones has, as draftees do, is Newton’s jersey number, 1.
And then we have Jarrett Stidham. He has the longest odds on the list with +600. Stidham seems to be the perennial backup. Unless something happens to one of the other two quarterbacks that keeps them from playing, I don’t see much of a chance he’ll start over Newton or Jones.
After the Patriots drafted Jones last week, Newton posted a photo to Instagram with a cryptic caption. Cryptic not only because the font can be a struggle to read, but it can also be interpreted as a reaction to New England’s pick.
“It was always me vs the world, until I found out it’s me vs me - Kendrick Lamar,” Newton captioned the photo, with lyrics from Kendrick Lamar’s song, Duckworth.
This is likely a reaction to Jones being drafted, but I think he’s trying to motivate himself to be a better player. He does a lot of that and it doesn’t seem to always work. But hopefully Jones showing up will push him to perform better on the field this season.
Lucy is a sports betting content producer with Audacy and BetQL. She has worked with WEEI and Audacy as a writer, radio producer and podcaster. Lucy lives in Boston and loves Tom Brady and prop bets. Follow Lucy on Twitter at @LucilleBurdge.