Let us pretend for the moment that we will have a normal NFL season in the fall complete with normal fantasy football tribulation. In that nirvana Cam Newton has suddenly found relevance with his signing with the New England Patriots.
Cam Newton landed in the only spot he could at this point in the offseason and suddenly his fantasy prospects look very good. Newton soared up 11 spots on the fantasy pros cumulative quarterback rankings. Newton is not a starting fantasy quarterback yet but it will not take much to make him worthy of a super flex spot.
Cam Newton fantasy impact
The Patriots are confident in his condition and believe all will go well with the results of the physical. Newton should be all systems go for training camp with his new teammates at the end of July. While it’s been reported that he’s not guaranteed the starting job, it’d be hard to imagine the Patriots not rolling with the former MVP in favor of Jarrett Stidham.
My hesitation in drafting Newton as a starter is not based on whether or not he will get a chance to play. My concern is how well he will mesh with the Patriots offense or at least how long it might take Newton to mesh. Newton should finally have a decent offensive line in front of him for the first time in many seasons. The logical assumption is the Patriots will require him to be a pocket passer. I doubt they have many quarterback runs in the playbook. My other concern is the Patriots have become a more run-oriented team the last couple of seasons. I do not think that bodes well for Newton cracking the top ten in fantasy production.
Teddy Bridgwater fantasy impact
A quarterback I do think will crack the top ten is Carolina Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. I find Bridgewater way under-valued in the consensus rankings at No. 25. That is crazy in my view given the weapons he has in 2020.
Fantasy impact
The knock on Bridgewater throughout his career has been his below average arm strength. When asked about his inability to throw the deep ball, Rhule said “I don’t really listen, hear those things. Teddy, for us, is exactly what we want.” Bridgewater will have a lot of weapons with whom to work with on offense this season in Carolina, from Christian McCaffrey to D.J. Moore, Curtis Samuel, and Robby Anderson. He’s currently the ECR’s QB25, but has an opportunity to prove he’s worth a whole lot more than that in what should be an offense that is playing catch-up in a lot of games this season.
The top 11 fantasy quarterbacks
Looking at these top two tiers I would make some changes (of course). I’m not so high on Dak Prescott. I can see Kyler Murray having a sophomore slump even with Deandre Hopkins. Josh Allen is getting a bump on the assumption he will continue to get better, which is no guarantee. If I’m wrong about one of those three it would be Murray and the impact of getting Hopkins. Hence the Deshaun Watson downgrade from losing Hopkins could be very real.
This is definitely a year to wait until the fourth or fifth round to draft a starting quarterback. You could even wait until later in the draft, but that depends on how the board falls. I think there will be some very good options in the sixth and seventh rounds.
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