National Football League

The Cam Newton Conundrum

Updated Nov. 3, 2020 11:27 a.m. ET

Throughout his career, Cam Newton has been a lightning rod. And his performance so far with the New England Patriots has only added to that reputation.

After losing in Buffalo to the Bills on Sunday, the Patriots are now 2-5 through seven games and face the possibility of having a losing record for the first time since the 2000 season, when they finished 5-11.

And with the Patriots currently on a four-game losing streak – their first of that many games since 2002 – the play of Newton has been the topic of discussion as of late.

Since returning from a one-game absence against the Kansas City Chiefs due to testing positive for COVID-19, Newton has struggled to find his footing, not throwing a single touchdown pass in the last three contests while throwing five interceptions.

He also hasn't thrown for 200 yards since the Patriots' Week 2 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, in which he passed for 397 yards.

For the season, Newton ranks near the bottom of the league in every major passing statistic for quarterbacks. He has thrown for just two TD passes (32nd), 1,143 yards (28th), seven interceptions (25th), and sports a QBR of 45.9 (29th).

While Newton has been a shell of his former MVP self this season, is it fair to place all of the blame at his feet?

Historically, the quarterbacks get most of the praise when a team wins and they shoulder the blame when the team loses. So Stephen A. Smith believes Newton is culpable for the Patriots' early season struggles, detailing why on ESPN's First Take:

"He just doesn't look on it right now."

Still, it must be taken into consideration that veteran wide receiver Julian Edelman is out with a knee injury, and the Patriots don't have a single wideout with at least 300 receiving yards through seven games.

With the lack of top-end talent around Newton on offense, retired pass-catcher Brandon Marshall believes New England's trainwreck of a season falls on coach Bill Belichick.

Skip Bayless shares the same sentiment, actually giving credit to Newton for winning two games with a talent-deficient roster.

"The cupboard was left bare. When [Tom] Brady went south to Tampa, there was nothing left ... I thought Cam Newton played extraordinarily well to get them their two victories."

With Brady departing from the franchise a year after Rob Gronkowski abruptly retired, there were question marks surrounding the Patriots coming into the 2020 season.

Belichick himself acknowledged the toll the last five years has taken on the franchise.

Not only have the Patriots been hurt by the moves of Brady and Gronkowski to Tampa Bay this season, Edelman is the lone remaining receiver from the Patriots, 2018 Super Bowl champion roster.

He is also the only receiver on the roster who has accumulated more than 1,000 career receiving yards, and Sunday, every receiver that took the field for New England was undrafted.

Whether the blame falls on Newton, Belichick, or some combination of the two, is unclear. But one thing is for certain: sustaining a winning culture across three decades of football is hard, and losing arguably the greatest quarterback ever, who consistently played on team-friendly contracts, makes it even harder.

It's possible that Brady was the glue holding all of this together for the Patriots for the last 19 seasons.

Newton and Belichick have nine more games to prove that not to be the case.