Could Cam Newton potentially return to the Patriots in 2021?
ESPN's Mike Reiss said on Dale & Keefe last week he wouldn't shut the door on it, and neither is NFL Media's Mike Giardi.
“Thirty-five, 40 percent," Giardi said Tuesday on Dale & Keefe when asked what percentage he would give towards a return. "I understand, I don’t have much of an appetite for it. I think there is a fair amount of the fanbase that doesn’t have much of an appetite for it. But, in talking to a lot of people in and around the building, there was the sense, and I think [you could say], he barely got any time to get any run up in this offense. Signing in June and trying to speak a language that had been written for over 20 years with Charlie Weis and Josh McDaniels and Bill O’Brien and back to Josh, of course Tom Brady being one of the authors of that as well. Trying to learn that and learn it on the fly, and obviously in as odd of a season as we’ve ever had, was very difficult to do.
"Yet, at the end of it, 7-9. It obviously wasn’t good enough, but 7-9 and ‘Boy, we realized we needed more weapons, so if we add more pieces in the passing game and Cam has a full offseason, are we 9-7? Are we 10-6? Can we make a jump?' I think that’s something they are having to consider there in Foxborough.”
As for how much money Newton would want from the Patriots, Giardi guessed $10-15 million with incentives.