In about a month, the Patriots quarterback competition between incumbent veteran starter Cam Newton and rookie first-round pick Mac Jones will ramp up in training camp.
To prepare for the challenge, the veteran Newton has been working with QB coach guru George Whitfield Jr. Whitfield posted a short Q & A session with his sweaty star pupil on his Instagram (@georgewhitfieldjr) story this week.
One of the questions revolved around how Newton deals with what the “Quarterback Engineer” Whitfield calls “hate” in regards to the quarterback.
“Simple,” Newton said, as transcribed by the Boston Herald. “Feed your focus. Feed it. If the hate ain’t in my focus, I don’t feed it. I feed off of it, but I don’t feed it. It’s two different things. When I sense or when I dwell on hatred, that’s the product that’s gonna come out: rage, anger. But that’s the hatred using me, not me using the hatred. So I want to process that and make that fuel me. I don’t dwell on what a person may say, what this person may say, she say, I just use it to my advantage and I feed what I want it to feed.”
Though Bill Belichick declared that Newton was still the Patriots quarterback on draft weekend, the veteran is coming off a sub-par 2020 first season in New England. And Jones had an impressive spring of OTAs and minicamp leading up to what should be an interesting training camp and preseason competition between the two this summer.
Obviously Newton’s goal is to retain the Patriots starting job and put forth a more productive season in New England. As such his longtime QB coach asked the former NFL MVP what his general thought process is when he’s pursuing something.
“You gotta visualize yourself already there. Get your mental thought of being in that moment and taking your place there,” Newton told Whitfield via the Herald. “And once you get there, find so much distress that you can gutter up and feel comfortable in it. Whenever that is. And that’s how you grind. You know what I’m saying? Just take your mind to that place, stay there, get uncomfortable, and be comfortable with being in that position.”
Jones’s arrival with the No 15 overall pick, could and should probably make Newton uncomfortable with his hold on the Patriots starting quarterback job. That’s not hate, that’s reality.