Charlie Weis has been around the NFL a long time and knows Bill Belichick as well as anyone, having served as his offensive coordinator from 2000-04.
Weis joined The Greg Hill Show Wednesday with Mike Mutnansky, Nick "Fitzy" Stevens and Jermaine Wiggins filling in to discuss the Patriots adding Newton and how both sides were thinking.
“Nothing really surprises me," he said. "Bill (Belichick), I’ve always talked about his insight and his foresight. He is always looking down the road and he probably looked at Cam as a guy down the road if the price got right he would consider. Just like in the draft. It wasn’t like he went into the draft saying, ‘Well, we’re not going to take a quarterback.’ The price has to be right in Bill’s eyes.
“I think that in Cam’s case, he had an opinion that somebody was going to pay him a lot of money to be a starting quarterback. Well, that didn’t work out. Well, unlike some of these guys who go ahead and take backup money and go there to be a backup, that’s not the situation Cam was looking for. I thought this was destined to be waiting for an injury during the season and waiting for that phone call. I thought that was where this was heading. There were a couple of places out there with an unproven quarterback and New England happened to be one of them. Regardless of (Jarrett) Stidham’s future, he’s an unproven quarterback. So you have an unproven quarterback and a guy who has been the league’s MVP. It makes sense at a price.
“This is a no-lose situation for New England. They got him cheap and if he comes in and plays great, great. If he comes in and causes some problems, you get rid of him. I mean, it’s a pretty simple thing.”
As for how Newton will fit in, Weis believes Josh McDaniels and Co. will play off his strengths.
“I think they will try and put Cam in positions where he can thrive," Weis said. "I think they have to see how healthy he is, how well he’s moving. From all accounts, everyone says he is healthy, but you know how that goes. You just go by what you see is what you get. They will do different things with Cam than they would with Tommy.”
Newton will be competing with Stidham for the starting job when training camp begins in late July.
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