Who Do Sportsbooks Think the Patriots' Starting QB Will Be in 2021?
Last season, former MVP quarterback Cam Newton said all the right things off of the field — but was pretty horrible, especially throwing the ball (eight TD passes and 10 interceptions), when he was on it as the starter for the New England Patriots.
A free agent this offseason, Newton has been vocal about wanting to return to New England and even went so far as to praise noted curmudgeon Bill Belichick for being “a cool dude.”
“I think Bill Belichick is the most misunderstood person in all of sports. He dope as shit,” Newton said on the I Am Athlete podcast. “He is a cool dude who understands the game. He’s like a historian of the game. And for you to just sit down and chat with him, it’s like ‘Damn!’ He’s going back and he’s got film, literally teaching the game.”
Despite what 31-year-old Newton appears to want, the odds at SportsBetting.com indicate that his lessons with the 68-year-old coach may be over.
Though Newton is listed with 5/1 odds to return to New England as the starter, 2014 Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota is listed as the favorite to be under center for the Patriots to start the regular season with 5/2 odds. He is followed by former Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7/2), current New England backup Jarrett Stidham (4/1) and impending free agents Blaine Gabbert (7/1) and Andy Dalton (8/1).
Currently the backup to Derek Carr in Las Vegas, Mariota is owed a $10.625 million base salary and could be a player the Raiders are looking to move in order to free up some money to improve their porous defense and land a mid-to-late-round draft pick.
Still young, fairly inexpensive and relatively cheap to acquire, 27-year-old Mariota certainly fits the bill for what the rebuilding Patriots are looking for at quarterback.
“The Patriots love to be value shoppers, Marcus Mariota played really well last year in relief, he’s due just $10.5 million, which means he could easily be paired with a young quarterback,” ESPN NFL analyst Tim Hasselbeck said on Get Up! this week. “His ability as a runner, but also as a passer, I think it would actually be a great fit in New England and makes a lot of sense.
One quarterback who the Patriots certainly won’t have next season is longtime starter Tom Brady. The 43-year-old quarterback is entering the second half of a two-year, $50 million contract he signed with Tampa Bay in free agency last March following a 20-season stint with New England, and the Buccaneers are already looking into giving Brady a contract extension after winning the Super Bowl.
“Bruce [Arians] and I both have a great relationship with Tom. I have a good relationship with his agents. We thought Tom played incredibly well this year, along with the entire team, and we would love to have Tom play here — and I can speak for Bruce, I think — as long as he continues to want to play,” said general manager Jason Licht. “If that comes to fruition at some point, then we’d be elated. But I’d like to keep those conversations private that we have right now.”
More Like This
Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.
The post Who Do Sportsbooks Think the Patriots’ Starting Quarterback Will Be in 2021? appeared first on InsideHook.
The article Who Do Sportsbooks Think the Patriots' Starting QB Will Be in 2021? by Evan Bleier was originally published on InsideHook.
