Bean: What to make of Cam Newton after four starts

With the victory laps taken over a 166-yard, two-touchdown performance from Tom Brady Sunday, it's well-established that Patriots fans have lowered the bar for what they consider a great quarterback performance.

Still, I'll try: How do we think Cam Newton has played this season?

The answer is "fine," and that's notable because Cam Newton has never been a "fine" quarterback. He's been awesome. He's been an MVP.

So when he said after Sunday's loss to the Broncos that he's "extremely frustrated" with his play, you can understand why. This isn't business as usual for him.

Newton has five rushing touchdowns and has averaged 56.25 rushing yards per game. His longest play Sunday came on the ground, where he has generally been great this season.

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That's the only facet of his game that's been great, though. As a passer, he's yet to have more touchdowns than turnovers in a game. He's thrown for 165 yards just once this season.  With just two passing touchdowns, he's on pace to throw for just seven and a half touchdowns this season. Five years ago, he threw for eight over the course of two games. Newton ranks 27th in ESPN's adjusted QB rating, which, as we all know, is a thing we occasionally reference despite having no idea what it is.  

Here's Newton's game log as a passer:

• Week 1 vs. Miami: 15-of-19, 155 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
• Week 2 @ Seattle: 30-of-44, 397 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
• Week 3 vs. Las Vegas: 17-of-28, 162 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
• Week 6 vs. Broncos: 17-of-25, 157 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT

We rightfully read heavily into Newton going off against the Seahawks, because it was his second game with the Patriots/back from injury. That performance, which also included 47 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, was extremely impressive given what little information we had.

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Now that great performance looks a little more ordinary because we know that everybody throws for a ton against the Seahawks. Newton's passing performance was basically the average of what the rest of the quarterbacks to face Seattle have done.

• Matt Ryan, Week 1: 37-of-54, 450 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
• Dak Prescott, Week 3: 37-of-57, 472 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
• Ryan Fitzpatrick, Week 4: 29-of-45, 315 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT
• Kirk Cousins, Week 5: 27-of-39, 249 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT

I'm absolutely not blaming Newton for the Patriots being 2-3. That would be stupid. To prove that, I'm going to run down the list of reasons why maybe we shouldn't be shocked that Newton hasn't lit it up:

- He's four games into his first season with a new team after signing late in the offseason. On the whole, quarterbacks who changed teams this offseason haven't been great.

- His offensive line has had multiple absences.

- His receivers aren't very good and his tight ends stink.

- He's the first quarterback we've seen get COVID during the season and return.

All of these things are out of Newton's control. He can't catch balls for Julian Edelman, even though he did catch one from Edelman Sunday. Blame falls on Bill Belichick for not getting more help. The Patriots signed Newton for cheap because he was cheap. Perhaps they didn't know if he could still play.

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He can, but I was guilty of watching two games and declaring Newton was all the way back. In reality, maybe that was an overstatement. Maybe this team isn't good enough for us to see vintage Newton.