The Carolina Panthers selected quarterback Cam Newton with the first overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft. He quickly became a star.
Newton had some issues in his debut campaign, but still won the Rookie of the Year award and made the Pro Bowl (he's done that three times in his career).
Newton tends to be a very solid quarterback while being a tank in the running game, making him a pretty unstoppable force. That all came together perfectly in 2015. He threw a career-high 35 touchdowns with just 10 interceptions, while running for 636 yards and a career-high 10 touchdowns on the ground.
Newton won MVP and was a first-team All Pro that year. He also led the Panthers to a 15-1 record that season, and a Super Bowl appearance (although they did not win a ring).
Of course, this also made him a superstar in the fantasy football world.
A few years later though, and the great reputation that he built seems to have gone away. Many do not see Newton as a star quarterback anymore, and after missing almost all of 2019 with an injury, he was released by the Panthers.
It took far too long, but someone finally scooped up Newton. Now with the New England Patriots, could he rekindle the fire of his career? And possibly finally win that first ring?
It all starts with year one, though. So how will that first year play out? And what about Newton's fantasy numbers, could they spike back up as well?
Let's take a look at 2020 and try to figure out exactly what the fantasy football outlook is for the quarterback.
2019 Fantasy Stats
As already stated, Cam Newton missed almost all of the 2019 season. In fact, he only appeared in two games. In those two games, the quarterback completed just 56.2 percent of his passes for 572 yards and one interception (no touchdowns).
Even the rushing numbers were bad. The man that averaged over 600 rushing yards a season had five carries for -2 yards in those two games.
Clearly, something was off.
Since he appeared in just two games last year, let's cheat a little bit here. Let's take a look back at some recent seasons and try to add those into the mix when considering Newton's fantasy football prospects for 2020.
2018 was an odd season for the quarterback.
Carolina went just 6-8 in games in which Newton appeared. However, he posted a new career-high in completion percentage, connecting on 67.9 percent of his passes. He also managed 3,395 passing yards. While that is not fantastic, it was slightly better than 2017, when he appeared in all 16 games.
Although Newton did throw nearly one interception a game, at 13. He also threw a solid 24 touchdown passes.
The rushing numbers were down, though. Newton ran for just 488 yards and four touchdowns. To that point, it was only the second time in his career that he had under 500 rushing yards. Meanwhile, it was the first time in the quarterback's career that he did not have at least five rushing touchdowns in a season.
Newton is unsurprisingly a consistent starter in fantasy, too. He tends to get you some points thanks to his dual abilities. In 2018, he had four games with under 200 passing yards. The first one saw him run for 58 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, the second one saw him throw for two touchdowns. Oh, and he had 36 rushing yards and another two touchdowns on the ground.
The third one saw him run for just 10 yards and no touchdowns, but he threw two passing touchdowns. Finally, the fourth game was the only real stinker. He had no touchdowns at all and just 15 rushing yards.
Newton tended to give you some kind of touchdown most weeks, and the combination of passing and rushing yards was usually pretty solid.
While he has not been able to ever replicate that absurd 2015 season, Newton's always been a fantastic fantasy football quarterback. 2019 seems to have changed a lot, though. So what does 2020 have in store for the quarterback now that he is on a new team?
2020 Fantasy Projections
Cam Newton is in an interesting situation with the Patriots. A lot of people are quick to point out that he did not have many weapons in Carolina.
Yes, Christian McCaffrey is an absolute superstar at running back, but Newton only really got one season of cheat code McCaffrey with the Panthers. Due to that, it's not really fair to pretend like that was some big combination.
We also can't pretend like New England is going to give him anything better than Carolina, though. They certainly don't have a weapon like McCaffrey.
That being said, James White, Sony Michel and Lamar Miller together is a really solid combination at running back.
Then there are the receiving options. Julian Edelman is a constant stud. Mohamed Sanu Sr. struggled when joining New England last year, but is a solid receiver who could bounce back in 2020. Meanwhile, N'Keal Harry and Jakobi Myers had promising moments in their rookie seasons of 2019. A step forward could make them legitimate threats in 2020.
So while this group isn't perfect, there is some hope. And maybe Cam Newton infuses some energy into the group and gets the best out of them.
There's one other problem though: Bill Belichick. We already know the head coach has made some unusual decisions in his time. No one is ever going to question him though because all Belichick ever does is win. If his decisions keep working, how can you ever question him?
Recently though, there have been rumors that Newton does not have the job locked down yet. It sounds odd considering the other options are Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham—but it seems that is the case. Even if Newton does win the job, maybe his security isn't perfect. Could we see Stidham steal some time in games? Or even take over if Newton has a bad outing or two?
This definitely hurts the quarterback's projections—as he could be benched at any moment. For now though, we're treating him as if he's the starter (because that makes the most sense).
With that in mind, he's going to have a strong bounce-back year. Not perfect, but Newton is going to give fantasy owners consistent numbers. You don't have to worry much about the quarterback dropping a stinker and losing you a week.
3,650 yards and 25 touchdown passes. At the same time, he'll get you 550 rushing yards and another six touchdowns on the ground.
That's a really solid year. In fact, it might make him one of the better fantasy-football quarterbacks in the league.
Rank At Position
Cam Newton is not the top fantasy quarterback anymore. Those days are behind him. However, he could still flirt with the top 10.
Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson are right at the top. Dak Prescott is not far behind and Kyler Murray might jump into the top conversation if he builds off his rookie year.
Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Carson Wentz, Deshaun Watson and Josh Allen make up that next tier. Jared Goff, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers and (possibly) Baker Mayfield are next. That's the group in which Newton could join.
In fact, that's the group Newton could lead.
We will put everyone on ahead of that last group ahead of Newton. But if Newton gets the chance to quarterback the Patriots for all of 2020 then he's right behind them. That puts him in at No. 11.
So he should not be taken early, but don't wait too long on Newton. He could still very easily be the QB1 on your fantasy football team. And waiting on him could mean loading up on other positions.
Then you can have studs all around the field, while still getting a quarterback that could give you some elite-type production on a weekly basis. That sounds like a fantasy football winning recipe to me. Don't be surprised if Newton is the QB on some championship teams in 2020.
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