Patriots fans have seen both the good and bad Cam Newton on the field this season. They’ve also seen a happy and sad Cam Newton off it, usually depending on how he and the team have played in their most recent game.
That’s obviously not unusual. As much as everyone in sports likes to preach “don’t get too high, don’t get too low,” it’s only natural to feel more upbeat and positive when you’re winning and playing well, and to feel down on things when you’re not.
Making his weekly appearance on The Greg Hill Show Monday morning, CBS analyst and WFAN host Boomer Esiason said he thinks Newton takes his mood swings to the extreme, though -- to the point where he actually worries about Newton.
“It’s a battle back and forth with Cam,” Esiason said. “He’s not totally confident, but yet when he does do good things and he does win, you see the flamboyance that he has. But I also think that when he loses, man, he is down. We’re all down when we lose, but man, he goes to the extremes, where I really worry about it. I worry about his mental state of mind, where he’s at with himself physically. Only he knows that, but I just see a guy that really gets down on himself when his team loses.”
Although the Patriots lost to the Texans 27-20 Sunday, Newton played pretty well, completing 26 of 40 passes for 365 yards and a touchdown while not committing a turnover for a third straight game.
Esiason acknowledged that Newton wasn’t the Patriots’ biggest problem Sunday.
“The previous two weeks, he’s been great. Yesterday I thought he was OK enough for them to win,” he said. “I just didn’t think the defense did enough to stop Deshaun Watson like they did the week before to Lamar Jackson.”
Esiason’s CBS co-host Phil Simms said on NFL Today on Sunday that he believed Newton would be back as the Patriots’ starter next season, but Esiason said he’s not so sure about that.
“I’m not sold on that yet,” Esiason said. “I still have to see what happens in the offseason. I think he’s been woefully inconsistent, which probably drives both Bill and Josh McDaniels crazy. They had one of the most consistent players in the history of the league at that position for 20 years, and now they’re trying to deal with a totally different dynamic and a totally different person, different type of athlete, different way of playing the game.
“So it is somewhat frustrating, I’m sure, for the coaches, but we have to wait and see who’s going to be available on bounce-back contracts, who they’ll draft potentially … so there’s still a lot of questions that have to be answered. I would say 50/50 at best.”