Hello, and welcome back to the Week's Side podcast. I'm Jenny Frentist. I'm here with Connor Or as always and Connor, we had a good old fashioned Sunday night news splash reminded me a little bit of when McNabb was traded to Washington, just because it was like, happened on a Sunday night and was like, I mean a slightly different time of year that was Easter, but like, I don't know, did it have that feeling like kind of a I don't know, quiet night, don't expect news and then all of a sudden, yeah, this is I feel bad um saying this is somebody who's covered the NFL. But in starting after free agency and the draft were over, I started a hard Um. The alert the do not disturb goes on my phone at eight fift and last until five o'clock in the morning, and I put the phone in another room, um, and then I will periodically check it, like every hour, so just to make sure that everything is going on. And I just went to go put the phone down, and that's when our editor, Mitch goldich Um texted me and he's like, yeah, well, we gotta write. I thought it was a joke because Mitch had a long running bit about how Cam was going to go to the Bills and lead them to the Super Bowl. Um, and I honestly thought it was a joke. And then uh, you know, I started looking at and I was like, okay, we gotta we got ourselves an old fashioned uh well, it was a little bit of breaking news combined with the backdoor news dump because news of the Patriots penalties came out obviously not an accident. There, well done public relations maneuvering. By that, I mean that wasn't incredibly like intentional obviously yea, the timing was impeccable. The Cam news drops first, and then shortly thereafter from the same outlet the news of the penalties for filming the Bengals sideline, and no one is talking about that today because everyone is talking about Cam. So just PR PR one O one, what what would you call that? Would you call that? Like a uh? In racing right Nascar? You you draft behind someone, you use the tailwind and then you kind of like, uh, maybe it's like PR drafting. I don't know, okay, right drafting? You do that in cycling to I don't know, Connor every time we venture off to other sports analogies that feel like it doesn't go well, maybe we should cheerful. Yeah, very nervous to check our mail after that soccer debacle last week. That was that was a little bit of a debacle. I agree. Um, not really a soccer expert, but you know, I do my best when I have to write about it, I do my research. You know, we might need to be The Bundesliga might be all we have at this point, so in the US and the NWSL. Yeah, I watched then. That was a great weekend infusion of live sports. So enjoyed that. So maybe we should all become soccer experts. I don't think it could hurt, um, But yeah, to your point, Cam Newton was interesting and I think we talked about this last week little bit and we'll get into the whole thing. And this is going to be a campod today. Um. But um, it was energizing in the way that the Jamal Adams contract dispute is energizing. It is purely like speculative, like what's going to happen? Football news? You know, it's your meat and potatoes football news, and so that's always good. It's a it's a little bit of a buzz um, you get that like emotional lift out of that you're thinking about, oh wow, um, you know they're going to be better than the Buccaneers probably maybe a little bit. And and yes, I don't know, I got I got pretty fired up about Did you get at least moderately fired up about it? I did because one of the huge off season storylines has been the post Brady Patriots, and obviously that's been kind of tamped down with everything going on in our world, rightly so, but this was kind of the answer to that lingering question of what will they look like the year after Tom Brady? And obviously Stidham wasn't the only plan they were willing to go into, and so it was just interesting. I mean, this has been rumored for months, right everyone said, okay, well this cam of course, we'll sign for the Patriots for pennies on the dollar at some point. But I think it just kind of fell off the radar a little bit. You know, so much time had gone by where it hadn't happened, and also the usual checkpoints didn't really matter this year. Perhaps that's part of it too, Like it doesn't help necessarily to have a quarterback by the time you have Mini camp, because there wasn't Mini camp that was virtual offseason program, so it probably didn't really matter. I'm just like, I would just love to know when the deal was agreed to, if they were waiting for the NFL penalties to come out, and like how that was all timed up. That's the story that I really want to know. Oh. Um, So I think what we'll do is right, Well, we'll do a little winners and losers from the Cam Newton trade. Um. But I want to try out because you're You're my favorite person to try out takes on. You have the awful disposition in this world of being my take to esther. Um. I always text Jenny, I'm like, what do you think about this? Before I write? And Jenny's always very nice and she never says this is a horrible idea, even when I think, you know, she might be thinking it, you know. But my take here is, how did the rest of the NFL let this happen? Like the Patriots, you finally have them in a place where you kind of want them, you kind you know, Jared Stidham might be good, but he's an unproven commodity. They haven't added anybody to the roster unless this deal was agreed upon three months ago, and Cam was completely unapproachable. You know. Adam Schefter reported on Monday that the Cleveland Browns were the only other team that even reached out um to to to even talk to Kim Newton. Why and how did this happen? And I asked that for two reasons. One, why would you just let the rich get richer? Because you know the season is going to be delayed. You know that he's gonna have more time to recover from Liz Frank. You know that he's gonna have more time to um get acclimated to that offense. And the other side of that is, even if he doesn't, he's going to recover at some point before the trade deadline of the season. And the Patriots now have either a tradeable asset to get rid of before the deadline or be a compensatory pick that replaces the one they lost um theoretically from uh from the video spying thing. So why do teams just continue to let them make easy, good decisions like, yes, New England, there is a black ops deal to this. I mean, they do do things that we don't think about. You know, there are portions of this program that are a little bit of magic, but this is everybody should have been beating down Cam Newton's door to sign him, even if you had a starting quarterback. This makes no sense to me how every other team allowed this to happen, right, because it becomes this joke, right, insert X player here. Oh, of course Belichick will grab him, you know, and it'll be for reduced ice. And it was such a widespread joke that everyone was making it about Cam Newton, and yet the other teams in the league still let it happen. Now, I will say, okay, one thing about it is Newton obviously wanted to go to a place where he would have a chance to start, and I think when teams were sort of filling out those spots in March, the health situation was a different concern. So Belichick benefited from having the confidence to wait that period out right, So he was confident enough to go through the off season with the presumption being okay, I guess it will be Stidham and then make this move later on, whereas other teams were not as confidence. So like, if you're the Bears, like why didn't you make this move back then, but it was like, I guess they you know, and we said it, I like the Folds move at the time, Um, but then you think about the price that you're paying for Folds versus Cam Newton. It is a wild comparison at this point in time. And I guess he just felt like we needed to have that other plan besides true bisky in place because of the scrutiny, because of whatever the reason is they needed. They wanted that backup plan in place earlier this offseason, whereas the Patriots just kinda waited it out. Cam Newton and Jamis Winston combined are making less than Chase Daniel. How does this happen? It's just like, my goodness, great and I'm not equating Jamison Cam because I think that Kim is a transcendent player, probably one of the hardest to defend players of our era, whereas Jamis Winston needs a lot of work, and I don't think that's you can lump them in fairly together. But my goodness, like this off season was so weird, and that was the weirdest thing that happened, even though we all joked and speculated about it. Right when Cam Newton was released. Yeah, this was such a weird I mean weird. Yeah, it's just expected, and then it happened and we're just all like, oh my gosh. Of course, just of course. So and I'm really excited, Connor. I we've expressed skepticism that there will be a season as normal this year, but if there is, this is one of the top three things I'm excited to watch. I have visions of us on a socially distant train Jersey to train journey to Providence, um in our near future, to uh to maybe do some double coverage of Cam Newton's first start as Patriots quarterback. God, that feels weird to say. It really feels weird to say. What everything's upside down? So I guess it makes sense. It is. Do you want to hop into winners and losers? Connor, let's do it? Um Okay, So I think that outside of Cam, who I think is a big winner here, although taking seven and a half million to play this season, UM obviously not ideal, you know for somebody who deserves and should be making you know, top ten quarterback money. But um, I would say that the spoil riches continued. Patriots fans are the biggest winners in this. They have the best coach in football and now they have the hardest to defend quarterback and football in a system that um, Tom Brady ran with with great you know, enthusiasm and all that kind of stuff, and he was totally immobile. Whereas him is, he's going to add whole new dimension to this. You know, if if listeners did not check out Connor's story that you wrote Sunday night, you had a great line in there, and I don't want to quote it, so I said that, um, you know, this offense was run successfully with an a mobile forty one year old vitamin salesman. And now we get Cam Newton behind there. And I will say thank you to Mitch for pointing out that that made it onto Patriots Reddit, which I would imagine to be a relatively dangerous place, But I did get some compliments there, so that, oh you've got compliments on Patriots Reddit for that line. Yeah, there were people saying it was pretty funny. So uh, you know, there was obviously that you have no right to disrespect Tom. Tom is the goat, blah blah blah. I mean, there was as expected, but I would say, like probably a small handful of Hey, this is pretty funny, So I felt pretty good about that. So yeah, yeah, okay, so Patriots fans definitely a winner. What other winners are on your list? Connor? Um, I think and uh, this is again thanks to our editor Mitch, who was brainstorming these all all morning UM and does a great job. Josh McDaniels, I think you gotta love that because he goes from coaching the greatest quarterback of all time, UM has teams eating out of his hands for four years during the head coaching cycle, maybe a little bit of that enthusiasm has been tamped down a bit, but then goes to Cam Newton and there will never be a time now where he has not thought of as a top head coaching candidate. I don't think. Yeah, it's going to just be a really interesting pairing, and I think that that is one of the things that we're most excited about with Newton being and they're just seeing like him having the chance to work with McDaniels. It's you know, there's just a lot of possibility in that system and a lot of possibility with the creativity that the two of them can have together. And I was like I was going back and looking Connor. I think we reference this on a pot a couple months ago when we were talking about Newton and kind of his progression as a quarterback. But did a story on him in obviously season that he led the Panthers to a Super Bowl appearance, And it was interesting that time at that time to hear Ron Rivera talk about Newton's growth in the offense and I feel like this is such a good fit with McDaniels. They said, you know, late in the season, which was the lost season for them, but they decided to try something new. That's when they figured they give the no huddle scheme a try. Um, it wasn't up tempo like the Eagles no huddle offense, but it allows Newton to stand in the shotgun and decipher the defense, often pushing the second Plague clock to the end on nearly sid any percent of the offensive calls. Rivera estimates Newton has the ability to choose the play coordinator. Mike Schuler will send in a formation in a handful of play calls, and then it's up to Newton to adjust the alignment of the skill position players, call for motions and pick the play he thinks has the best chance of success against the defensive. Look, it's not much different than what you have seen with Peyton Manning in terms of being out of the shotgun, having to look at defenses and make determinations. Rivera says, so like, this is like perfect. This maybe just what we've been waiting for for Cam Newton. I know, oh my goodness, if you go back to that UM that Super Bowl year where I mean, yes, Cam was an electric player, UM won the m V p UM, but that offense was so like he had control of it, but it was just so unimaginative, you know, and and it was basically his sheer force of will. I mean, the amount of years he took off his career just gutting through games in that season and putting his body on the line was unfathomable. And you know, I think that's certainly we've all waited for the moment when Cam could be paired with somebody who has a vision of the NFL's future. And I'm not saying that NORV Turner doesn't UM, which is who they replaced Mike Schula with, But that was not what I had in mind when Ron Rivera had that second higher, right, you know you're thinking of somebody like Joe Brady from l s U or you know, somebody that has steeped in that college program and where all these fun offenses kind of funnel up and just would have a better idea of how to use them. But you know who knows, I think he's in a better spot now. And uh, man, I'm I'm pretty excited. And if you're like you know, any of these guys, um, Julian Edelman, you're starting to look around and say, oh, you know, things aren't things aren't so bad after all. I think everything's gonna be okay, Yes that is Yeah, there's just a lot of excitement here. Connor, I was going to make a comment about people who, um, but then I realized that my limitations and my knowledge of gambling. But if people put money on a certain Patriots win total like a couple weeks and like we told them to do on this shows. We did talk about this. Okay, I gotta give us a little bit more credit here, but um, it struck me as those people might be winners to oh my goodness them and uh, the Cam Newton m v P odds were like four hundred to one or now forty to one. So if you got in at a certain point, good for you. I mean, yeah, yeah. The Patriots division odds went from seventeen ten to ten and they are now tied with the Bills. That ten am I saying that right to the last yeah, okay, which I think segways nicely into our loser section. Yes, but before we one audible, here's one sneaky winner in all this that wasn't on the list that I sent you. That just popped into my head. Kim does great impressions of his coaches. As we know. Um, he had a phenomenal North Turner impression. It was like just just be you, baby or whatever. You know how I could say that sometimes. And uh so, I don't think he's just gonna stop being cam when he goes to New England. I think that Bill Belichick is smart enough to let him lead in the way that he has led it past. And we're going to get some Bill Belichick impressions. We're gonna get some Josh McDaniel's impressions. Like this is like it's it's like they they got new friends, like fun new friends that all want to just like hang out and and make each other laugh, you know, and I think that's going to be like the Patriots Place is going to be so much brighter, I think. You know. Okay, another winner that I just thought of too. You know, I love a good hat in the wintertime. In the playoffs two years ago, I wore my Tom Landry fedora after most of the playoffs. It was largely because I had a large blemish on my forehead. However, it became my style piece that playoffs run. Um, so we're gonna see some phenomenal all winter hats out of Cam Newton. I am really excited for that. So many winners, so many winners. I mean, he already had good hats in Carolina, but like Boston opens up a whole other range of fashion options. No question, definitely question. Okay, So let's move on to the losers. So, as I alluded to, you know, we've got some of the a f C East opponents, Um, we had well, while we're while we're talking about the Bills and the Jets, just casual mention of like Jamal Adams just like throwing out some thirsty tweets to the Patriots. Yeah, I said, oh great signing. Good job Belichick. Do you need another safety too? I know the accordions are getting old, but he he didn't say that, but you know, you know he's thinking that. Oh yeah, yeah, you know he's thinking yet. But yes, obviously this has been an off season of a lot of expectations for the Bills, you know, maybe less so for the Jets. I mean, also, you could have put the Dolphins on here to Connor, they could have a retoolt Yeah, I agree, like what were not that? What were they thinking? But you know he wanted to go similar to the chance to compete. And sure you're drafting to AH, but wouldn't Cam to make a little bit more sense? I mean, I know you're bringing in chan Gailey and so Ryan Fitzpatrick is the ideal person there. Um, but um, I think Cam would have gone to the Dolphins and viewed that as a as a suitabowl and they had more money to play with. You know, they could have paid him more Patriots or pressed up against the cap pretty significantly. But yeah, I mean, if I were them, I would have at least tried because you want him out of the division, right or you don't want him in the division, And and that's exactly what happened. Like, that's the thing, right, if you're Joe Douglas, if you're you know, if you're any of these gms in the division, Like, are you just saying, well, they're gonna do it and we're gonna have to figure out how to stop it. I mean, is that how like the defeatist attitude around the division that you're just expecting this to take place? Yeah, I mean, especially like looking at the Dolphins, you know two is coming off as hip injury. You don't know exactly when he'll be ready. Obviously he's a rookie coming into the league, and so it seems like Cam would have been the perfect signing there too. I mean, I honestly never thought it made sense for the Panthers to just let him go. Like I still have a problem with that decision. And I also don't know why Rivera didn't bring him to Washington. That's another good point. Are not on our pre That's good. I think life. Life is a journey. You know, there are no plans um and I would say, um, you know, obviously another loser. And I hate to say this because I don't think he is a loser, right, but I do think that Jared Stidham was probably at some point sitting there thinking he was going to be the starter of this offseason. And I think that that just kind of sucks in general. I mean, here's somebody who's making these big plans, and of course you're you're always gonna have your you know, your eye over your shoulder, but if your Stidham, you might have uniquely thought like, Okay, Bill Belichick likes to develop his own players. What was the stat the Patriots have not started a quarterback, they haven't drafted um, and so you're probably thinking, Okay, you know, maybe this is just how they do things here. And then when Kim new, you know right right, and I mean, and you know, in fairness to him, it could be next year, right. I mean, I think the feedback that I had heard all along was kind of like they like him, he just might need a little bit more time to develop. And then it kind of shifted to well, maybe he's ready now. But there didn't ever seem to be a lot of confidence and that maybe he's ready now. It always seemed to be like a little bit of a projection. So okay, you signed Cam for one year. You see how it turns out. Maybe it's wildly successful, maybe he leaves, and like you mentioned at the top corner, that Patriots get the compic and then Sidham's opportunity is next year. There's a lot of different ways this could play out. Yeah, and I think that at the end of the day, I mean, it doesn't change what he did much. I mean, you know, he took you know, he took that opportunity to develop and grow this offseason. I mean it's unfortunate for every player that doesn't have the benefit of you know, maybe the Patriots decision making would have been different if Stidham was in the building every day and he could show them what he was doing, and he could lead these workouts in person. I mean, as as analytical as you want to be, there's definitely a feel perspective to this. Our guys following him around, is he leading? Is he doing all the things that he's supposed to be doing. And so, you know, it's one of those things that it's unfortunate for myriad reasons why we've you know, had this had this shortened offseason or no off season at all. But you know, it bites a lot of players like that just because you know, maybe there would have been more of a legitimate competition, and who knows. I mean, this could be maybe we're not done yet. I mean, you know, maybe there is a competition. Maybe Cam Newton is not healthy enough yet. I mean, there could be a hundred different ways that this breaks at this point. Yeah, And I mean that's the wild cards, certainly, like will he be full health? Will he stay at full health all season? If he is full health? So I think there's a lot of factors here, But you make a really smart point Connors, that development period was totally lost to this spring, and so does that diminish your confidence in a young quarterback being able and ready to start? Would it have been a different conversation if the circumstances were different, And certainly would it have been a different conversation if you know, teams would have had a greater village ability to evaluate Cam Newton's health. So this is definitely a signing that it's fair to wonder how much of an impact the circumstances from COVID had on this new direction for the Patriots, or maybe it's what they hadn't mind all along. Another loser here, Jenny is just and I don't know what the word is for it. But you know those people in your school, Like so when you were growing up in State College, and I was grew up kind of a similar area in Pennsylvania where there wasn't a lot of like penn State was obviously the big thing um for your school and pretty much for us too. But you know, there were the kids that like the Bulls fans and and the Cowboys fans that made no sense and they just globbed onto this dynasty. And there are so many probably just smartass little Patriots fans out there that just get no break at all. And and you're this whatever, you know, you're this kid in Buffalo, or you're this kid in Miami, or do this kid in in Long Island, and you just love your local team because you're doing things the right way. And then here comes this kid to school with a brand new cam Newton Patriots jersey, and man, I mean, if you're listening to this potting know what that's like. I feel for you. When I picked my NFL team, I did it responsibly and fairly, and uh and I picked the Browns And there's no joy in that whatsoever. But you know, yeah, you know, it's just one of those things that you just feel for those kids. You know, they were waiting so long to just get get a little jab and at the Patriots, and they have no opportunity to do so. Well. I have to say that I was a Bulls fan growing up, but well I had a reason though, because my parents, my mom was born and raised in Chicago. We went to Chicago every summer to visit my grandparents, and my parents met in Chicago. My dad's from Illinois as well, Southern Illinois, so I feel like I had credibility there. I also had one of those shirts. I don't know if this was like a little bit more my We're not that far a partner age, but like sometimes we're far enough a partner age, Like there are some things that are slightly different. Did you have those shirts? Were like it was a different color underneath when you rolled up the cuff on the shirt. Okay, so I had one of those like bull shirts it was black and then when you rolled up the cuffs on the sleeves it was red, and then I still had it. So like in college, I would like sometimes wear my retro bull shirt. So I was home last summer and I was like where's that bull shirt? I've got to find it. So I brought it back. It's like in my dresser. Um, I've not worn it, but I just like wanted it in my apartment. So you'll have to break it out soon. Yeah, and I will say that I certainly dabbled. I mean, we had this um store down the street from us called House of Bargains. I don't know if anybody else had a House of Bargains, but it was basically where they just sent all the stuff, like the equivalent of the wrong team winning the Super Bowl shirts, but not that severe, you know, just misprinted things. And I remember loading up on a lot of ninety four rockets gear like, and so for a very short period of time, I was all in on like hachemala Jawan and everyone could see through that. But that was not a dynasty. We got like one or two good years out of it, and then that was it. And then the Spurs and the Bulls and all that Cavaliers and all that fun stuff happened. So I missed out on that. But yeah, I feel bad for those kids, because that's when you live and die with your team, really is when you're like six to I don't know, eighteen seventeen and then and then problems started after that, But in that time period, you're very emotionally invested and you were probably pretty bummed out when you heard that can we signed with the Patriots. I would be right, that's a pretty good winners the losers left. Connor, well, thank you, And as always I just I I go into it with an idea, and then I talked to Jenny about it, and then she actually gives me all the good ideas and then I flesh it out, you know, typical you know, typical globber. You know. So now you'll write something along those lines that people can read on the dot com. That's great, should be up on Tuesday. But the last part of the show today is basically something that happens during every show, but just more formally, we're going to talk about conspiracy theories. I mean pretty much every week we touch on conspiracy theories, and you know, we always spell it with the O R R capitalized and theories, you know, just to continue with our obsession with or puns. Um So, Connor, you put out a call on the mm QB Instagram, which by the way, has been really fire lately. If people didn't check out the post that Connor made on the MQB Instagram right after Newton was signed, you're really missing out. So we direct you to the Instagram feed. Basically every post is almost reposts from Connor. Like posts Connor is behind. He doesn't put a byline or anything. He's just like a behind the scenes worker, doesn't care what's the credit, just wants to make people laugh. But there's a really good one from Sunday night that I urge you to check out. But Connor had another one. This is Monday evening that we're recording, and what's your best cam to Patriots conspiracy theory? Oh you didn't use the punt in the post, but that's okay. We've got it on the show. Winner gets read live on this week's week Side Podcast. Thank you to everybody. We've got some nice replies there. Um, and I only put the call like ten minutes before the we started taping, so that was exciting. Uh, And we really appreciate the engagement on Instagram. We've read a lot of direct messages on Twitter that which we both check with regularity and that's been super cool. And as always, weak Side Pod at Gmail dot com. If you ever want to just reach out, as Andy Reid says, the time is yours, so you know, uh, whatever you want to say, you just just reach out to us at at weeks side pot of email dot com. Um so, uh, two really good ones and then just a comment. I'll read the comment first. Manny two Fresh said I don't have a conspiracy theory, but I did notice how underpaid is compared to Chase Daniel laughing emoji. So good, uh good one on you there. Gustavo vos b says that this is totally to light a fire under Jared Stidham, so he beats cam for the QB one spot like a Bledsoe situation. I really like that. That's not bad. I love that. That's my favorite one, I think, definitely. And then Bennett jumps in with what we talked about the top of the show that the Patriots waited to sign until the NFL punished them for cheating against the Bengals as a means for distracting the public from their cheating ways. Again, I mean, yes, there is an element of that with the Patriots. I remember, um, before the Super Bowl two years ago, Josh McDaniels talking about the fact that they can get four hours worth of sleep in forty five minutes because they use sleep tanks. And that was a great story. Oh thank you. Um. And at the time, like sleep tanks were becoming popular enough, like I think they were in half major college football. Um, maybe like eight or nine in the NFL teams had them. But the origin story goes back to Bill Belichick was visiting the Black ops, like, you know, Navy Seals like the and that's where he goes for information, you know, is you know, what are you guys doing to prepare And he gets all of his cool stuff from them. And so certainly there is and that's not illegal to do. I'm not saying that, but certainly is there's that element of rooting against the Patriots. That's what you have to compete against is a guy who is spending his free time with the Navy Seals figuring out how to beat you. And that's scary. Um. But I just this cam thing was just it was basic arithmetic. It's just I don't know, even at the end of the show, I feel no less angry about the fact thirty one other teams just let this happen. Yeah, No, I think you capture that and what you wrote Sunday night, and I think you were spot on, and uh, definitely a lot of intrigue. As I said before, really interested to hear the timeline of how this actually happened and when a deal was worked out and what the arrangement was. Um, but the end result is a very exciting development of the football world and a lot of fodder for us to talk about in our Tuesday show, Connor. So I'll take it. I'll take it. You know, it's a it's a slow week in the NFL. Obviously, this year's calendar was weird anyway, but one thing that seems to be pretty on target is that right now is the slow time in the NFL. But this was lightning bolt of news, so I really enjoyed it. Lovely, lovely. All right, Well, thanks everyone for joining us. We will be back later this week. Perhaps there will be more news, Connor. Who's to know what's to come, You never never, you never know, but thanks as always for listening and we will see you then. The mm QB week Side Podcast is Meet Jenny Rerentis and Connor Or. We are produced by Shelby Royston, Sis Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody, Ben Eagles, Director of editorial Projects and product Mark Marivik is a meritus executive director of the mm q B. Keep up with our entire lineup of podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, and while you're there, please do us a favorite and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify Radio dot com, sitch r si dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts,

Hello, and welcome back to the Week's Side podcast. I'm Jenny Frentist. I'm here with Connor Or as always and Connor, we had a good old fashioned Sunday night news splash reminded me a little bit of when McNabb was traded to Washington, just because it was like, happened on a Sunday night and was like, I mean a slightly different time of year that was Easter, but like, I don't know, did it have that feeling like kind of a I don't know, quiet night, don't expect news and then all of a sudden, yeah, this is I feel bad um saying this is somebody who's covered the NFL. But in starting after free agency and the draft were over, I started a hard Um. The alert the do not disturb goes on my phone at eight fift and last until five o'clock in the morning, and I put the phone in another room, um, and then I will periodically check it, like every hour, so just to make sure that everything is going on. And I just went to go put the phone down, and that's when our editor, Mitch goldich Um texted me and he's like, yeah, well, we gotta write. I thought it was a joke because Mitch had a long running bit about how Cam was going to go to the Bills and lead them to the Super Bowl. Um, and I honestly thought it was a joke. And then uh, you know, I started looking at and I was like, okay, we gotta we got ourselves an old fashioned uh well, it was a little bit of breaking news combined with the backdoor news dump because news of the Patriots penalties came out obviously not an accident. There, well done public relations maneuvering. By that, I mean that wasn't incredibly like intentional obviously yea, the timing was impeccable. The Cam news drops first, and then shortly thereafter from the same outlet the news of the penalties for filming the Bengals sideline, and no one is talking about that today because everyone is talking about Cam. So just PR PR one O one, what what would you call that? Would you call that? Like a uh? In racing right Nascar? You you draft behind someone, you use the tailwind and then you kind of like, uh, maybe it's like PR drafting. I don't know, okay, right drafting? You do that in cycling to I don't know, Connor every time we venture off to other sports analogies that feel like it doesn't go well, maybe we should cheerful. Yeah, very nervous to check our mail after that soccer debacle last week. That was that was a little bit of a debacle. I agree. Um, not really a soccer expert, but you know, I do my best when I have to write about it, I do my research. You know, we might need to be The Bundesliga might be all we have at this point, so in the US and the NWSL. Yeah, I watched then. That was a great weekend infusion of live sports. So enjoyed that. So maybe we should all become soccer experts. I don't think it could hurt, um, But yeah, to your point, Cam Newton was interesting and I think we talked about this last week little bit and we'll get into the whole thing. And this is going to be a campod today. Um. But um, it was energizing in the way that the Jamal Adams contract dispute is energizing. It is purely like speculative, like what's going to happen? Football news? You know, it's your meat and potatoes football news, and so that's always good. It's a it's a little bit of a buzz um, you get that like emotional lift out of that you're thinking about, oh wow, um, you know they're going to be better than the Buccaneers probably maybe a little bit. And and yes, I don't know, I got I got pretty fired up about Did you get at least moderately fired up about it? I did because one of the huge off season storylines has been the post Brady Patriots, and obviously that's been kind of tamped down with everything going on in our world, rightly so, but this was kind of the answer to that lingering question of what will they look like the year after Tom Brady? And obviously Stidham wasn't the only plan they were willing to go into, and so it was just interesting. I mean, this has been rumored for months, right everyone said, okay, well this cam of course, we'll sign for the Patriots for pennies on the dollar at some point. But I think it just kind of fell off the radar a little bit. You know, so much time had gone by where it hadn't happened, and also the usual checkpoints didn't really matter this year. Perhaps that's part of it too, Like it doesn't help necessarily to have a quarterback by the time you have Mini camp, because there wasn't Mini camp that was virtual offseason program, so it probably didn't really matter. I'm just like, I would just love to know when the deal was agreed to, if they were waiting for the NFL penalties to come out, and like how that was all timed up. That's the story that I really want to know. Oh. Um, So I think what we'll do is right, Well, we'll do a little winners and losers from the Cam Newton trade. Um. But I want to try out because you're You're my favorite person to try out takes on. You have the awful disposition in this world of being my take to esther. Um. I always text Jenny, I'm like, what do you think about this? Before I write? And Jenny's always very nice and she never says this is a horrible idea, even when I think, you know, she might be thinking it, you know. But my take here is, how did the rest of the NFL let this happen? Like the Patriots, you finally have them in a place where you kind of want them, you kind you know, Jared Stidham might be good, but he's an unproven commodity. They haven't added anybody to the roster unless this deal was agreed upon three months ago, and Cam was completely unapproachable. You know. Adam Schefter reported on Monday that the Cleveland Browns were the only other team that even reached out um to to to even talk to Kim Newton. Why and how did this happen? And I asked that for two reasons. One, why would you just let the rich get richer? Because you know the season is going to be delayed. You know that he's gonna have more time to recover from Liz Frank. You know that he's gonna have more time to um get acclimated to that offense. And the other side of that is, even if he doesn't, he's going to recover at some point before the trade deadline of the season. And the Patriots now have either a tradeable asset to get rid of before the deadline or be a compensatory pick that replaces the one they lost um theoretically from uh from the video spying thing. So why do teams just continue to let them make easy, good decisions like, yes, New England, there is a black ops deal to this. I mean, they do do things that we don't think about. You know, there are portions of this program that are a little bit of magic, but this is everybody should have been beating down Cam Newton's door to sign him, even if you had a starting quarterback. This makes no sense to me how every other team allowed this to happen, right, because it becomes this joke, right, insert X player here. Oh, of course Belichick will grab him, you know, and it'll be for reduced ice. And it was such a widespread joke that everyone was making it about Cam Newton, and yet the other teams in the league still let it happen. Now, I will say, okay, one thing about it is Newton obviously wanted to go to a place where he would have a chance to start, and I think when teams were sort of filling out those spots in March, the health situation was a different concern. So Belichick benefited from having the confidence to wait that period out right, So he was confident enough to go through the off season with the presumption being okay, I guess it will be Stidham and then make this move later on, whereas other teams were not as confidence. So like, if you're the Bears, like why didn't you make this move back then, but it was like, I guess they you know, and we said it, I like the Folds move at the time, Um, but then you think about the price that you're paying for Folds versus Cam Newton. It is a wild comparison at this point in time. And I guess he just felt like we needed to have that other plan besides true bisky in place because of the scrutiny, because of whatever the reason is they needed. They wanted that backup plan in place earlier this offseason, whereas the Patriots just kinda waited it out. Cam Newton and Jamis Winston combined are making less than Chase Daniel. How does this happen? It's just like, my goodness, great and I'm not equating Jamison Cam because I think that Kim is a transcendent player, probably one of the hardest to defend players of our era, whereas Jamis Winston needs a lot of work, and I don't think that's you can lump them in fairly together. But my goodness, like this off season was so weird, and that was the weirdest thing that happened, even though we all joked and speculated about it. Right when Cam Newton was released. Yeah, this was such a weird I mean weird. Yeah, it's just expected, and then it happened and we're just all like, oh my gosh. Of course, just of course. So and I'm really excited, Connor. I we've expressed skepticism that there will be a season as normal this year, but if there is, this is one of the top three things I'm excited to watch. I have visions of us on a socially distant train Jersey to train journey to Providence, um in our near future, to uh to maybe do some double coverage of Cam Newton's first start as Patriots quarterback. God, that feels weird to say. It really feels weird to say. What everything's upside down? So I guess it makes sense. It is. Do you want to hop into winners and losers? Connor, let's do it? Um Okay, So I think that outside of Cam, who I think is a big winner here, although taking seven and a half million to play this season, UM obviously not ideal, you know for somebody who deserves and should be making you know, top ten quarterback money. But um, I would say that the spoil riches continued. Patriots fans are the biggest winners in this. They have the best coach in football and now they have the hardest to defend quarterback and football in a system that um, Tom Brady ran with with great you know, enthusiasm and all that kind of stuff, and he was totally immobile. Whereas him is, he's going to add whole new dimension to this. You know, if if listeners did not check out Connor's story that you wrote Sunday night, you had a great line in there, and I don't want to quote it, so I said that, um, you know, this offense was run successfully with an a mobile forty one year old vitamin salesman. And now we get Cam Newton behind there. And I will say thank you to Mitch for pointing out that that made it onto Patriots Reddit, which I would imagine to be a relatively dangerous place, But I did get some compliments there, so that, oh you've got compliments on Patriots Reddit for that line. Yeah, there were people saying it was pretty funny. So uh, you know, there was obviously that you have no right to disrespect Tom. Tom is the goat, blah blah blah. I mean, there was as expected, but I would say, like probably a small handful of Hey, this is pretty funny, So I felt pretty good about that. So yeah, yeah, okay, so Patriots fans definitely a winner. What other winners are on your list? Connor? Um, I think and uh, this is again thanks to our editor Mitch, who was brainstorming these all all morning UM and does a great job. Josh McDaniels, I think you gotta love that because he goes from coaching the greatest quarterback of all time, UM has teams eating out of his hands for four years during the head coaching cycle, maybe a little bit of that enthusiasm has been tamped down a bit, but then goes to Cam Newton and there will never be a time now where he has not thought of as a top head coaching candidate. I don't think. Yeah, it's going to just be a really interesting pairing, and I think that that is one of the things that we're most excited about with Newton being and they're just seeing like him having the chance to work with McDaniels. It's you know, there's just a lot of possibility in that system and a lot of possibility with the creativity that the two of them can have together. And I was like I was going back and looking Connor. I think we reference this on a pot a couple months ago when we were talking about Newton and kind of his progression as a quarterback. But did a story on him in obviously season that he led the Panthers to a Super Bowl appearance, And it was interesting that time at that time to hear Ron Rivera talk about Newton's growth in the offense and I feel like this is such a good fit with McDaniels. They said, you know, late in the season, which was the lost season for them, but they decided to try something new. That's when they figured they give the no huddle scheme a try. Um, it wasn't up tempo like the Eagles no huddle offense, but it allows Newton to stand in the shotgun and decipher the defense, often pushing the second Plague clock to the end on nearly sid any percent of the offensive calls. Rivera estimates Newton has the ability to choose the play coordinator. Mike Schuler will send in a formation in a handful of play calls, and then it's up to Newton to adjust the alignment of the skill position players, call for motions and pick the play he thinks has the best chance of success against the defensive. Look, it's not much different than what you have seen with Peyton Manning in terms of being out of the shotgun, having to look at defenses and make determinations. Rivera says, so like, this is like perfect. This maybe just what we've been waiting for for Cam Newton. I know, oh my goodness, if you go back to that UM that Super Bowl year where I mean, yes, Cam was an electric player, UM won the m V p UM, but that offense was so like he had control of it, but it was just so unimaginative, you know, and and it was basically his sheer force of will. I mean, the amount of years he took off his career just gutting through games in that season and putting his body on the line was unfathomable. And you know, I think that's certainly we've all waited for the moment when Cam could be paired with somebody who has a vision of the NFL's future. And I'm not saying that NORV Turner doesn't UM, which is who they replaced Mike Schula with, But that was not what I had in mind when Ron Rivera had that second higher, right, you know you're thinking of somebody like Joe Brady from l s U or you know, somebody that has steeped in that college program and where all these fun offenses kind of funnel up and just would have a better idea of how to use them. But you know who knows, I think he's in a better spot now. And uh, man, I'm I'm pretty excited. And if you're like you know, any of these guys, um, Julian Edelman, you're starting to look around and say, oh, you know, things aren't things aren't so bad after all. I think everything's gonna be okay, Yes that is Yeah, there's just a lot of excitement here. Connor, I was going to make a comment about people who, um, but then I realized that my limitations and my knowledge of gambling. But if people put money on a certain Patriots win total like a couple weeks and like we told them to do on this shows. We did talk about this. Okay, I gotta give us a little bit more credit here, but um, it struck me as those people might be winners to oh my goodness them and uh, the Cam Newton m v P odds were like four hundred to one or now forty to one. So if you got in at a certain point, good for you. I mean, yeah, yeah. The Patriots division odds went from seventeen ten to ten and they are now tied with the Bills. That ten am I saying that right to the last yeah, okay, which I think segways nicely into our loser section. Yes, but before we one audible, here's one sneaky winner in all this that wasn't on the list that I sent you. That just popped into my head. Kim does great impressions of his coaches. As we know. Um, he had a phenomenal North Turner impression. It was like just just be you, baby or whatever. You know how I could say that sometimes. And uh so, I don't think he's just gonna stop being cam when he goes to New England. I think that Bill Belichick is smart enough to let him lead in the way that he has led it past. And we're going to get some Bill Belichick impressions. We're gonna get some Josh McDaniel's impressions. Like this is like it's it's like they they got new friends, like fun new friends that all want to just like hang out and and make each other laugh, you know, and I think that's going to be like the Patriots Place is going to be so much brighter, I think. You know. Okay, another winner that I just thought of too. You know, I love a good hat in the wintertime. In the playoffs two years ago, I wore my Tom Landry fedora after most of the playoffs. It was largely because I had a large blemish on my forehead. However, it became my style piece that playoffs run. Um, so we're gonna see some phenomenal all winter hats out of Cam Newton. I am really excited for that. So many winners, so many winners. I mean, he already had good hats in Carolina, but like Boston opens up a whole other range of fashion options. No question, definitely question. Okay, So let's move on to the losers. So, as I alluded to, you know, we've got some of the a f C East opponents, Um, we had well, while we're while we're talking about the Bills and the Jets, just casual mention of like Jamal Adams just like throwing out some thirsty tweets to the Patriots. Yeah, I said, oh great signing. Good job Belichick. Do you need another safety too? I know the accordions are getting old, but he he didn't say that, but you know, you know he's thinking that. Oh yeah, yeah, you know he's thinking yet. But yes, obviously this has been an off season of a lot of expectations for the Bills, you know, maybe less so for the Jets. I mean, also, you could have put the Dolphins on here to Connor, they could have a retoolt Yeah, I agree, like what were not that? What were they thinking? But you know he wanted to go similar to the chance to compete. And sure you're drafting to AH, but wouldn't Cam to make a little bit more sense? I mean, I know you're bringing in chan Gailey and so Ryan Fitzpatrick is the ideal person there. Um, but um, I think Cam would have gone to the Dolphins and viewed that as a as a suitabowl and they had more money to play with. You know, they could have paid him more Patriots or pressed up against the cap pretty significantly. But yeah, I mean, if I were them, I would have at least tried because you want him out of the division, right or you don't want him in the division, And and that's exactly what happened. Like, that's the thing, right, if you're Joe Douglas, if you're you know, if you're any of these gms in the division, Like, are you just saying, well, they're gonna do it and we're gonna have to figure out how to stop it. I mean, is that how like the defeatist attitude around the division that you're just expecting this to take place? Yeah, I mean, especially like looking at the Dolphins, you know two is coming off as hip injury. You don't know exactly when he'll be ready. Obviously he's a rookie coming into the league, and so it seems like Cam would have been the perfect signing there too. I mean, I honestly never thought it made sense for the Panthers to just let him go. Like I still have a problem with that decision. And I also don't know why Rivera didn't bring him to Washington. That's another good point. Are not on our pre That's good. I think life. Life is a journey. You know, there are no plans um and I would say, um, you know, obviously another loser. And I hate to say this because I don't think he is a loser, right, but I do think that Jared Stidham was probably at some point sitting there thinking he was going to be the starter of this offseason. And I think that that just kind of sucks in general. I mean, here's somebody who's making these big plans, and of course you're you're always gonna have your you know, your eye over your shoulder, but if your Stidham, you might have uniquely thought like, Okay, Bill Belichick likes to develop his own players. What was the stat the Patriots have not started a quarterback, they haven't drafted um, and so you're probably thinking, Okay, you know, maybe this is just how they do things here. And then when Kim new, you know right right, and I mean, and you know, in fairness to him, it could be next year, right. I mean, I think the feedback that I had heard all along was kind of like they like him, he just might need a little bit more time to develop. And then it kind of shifted to well, maybe he's ready now. But there didn't ever seem to be a lot of confidence and that maybe he's ready now. It always seemed to be like a little bit of a projection. So okay, you signed Cam for one year. You see how it turns out. Maybe it's wildly successful, maybe he leaves, and like you mentioned at the top corner, that Patriots get the compic and then Sidham's opportunity is next year. There's a lot of different ways this could play out. Yeah, and I think that at the end of the day, I mean, it doesn't change what he did much. I mean, you know, he took you know, he took that opportunity to develop and grow this offseason. I mean it's unfortunate for every player that doesn't have the benefit of you know, maybe the Patriots decision making would have been different if Stidham was in the building every day and he could show them what he was doing, and he could lead these workouts in person. I mean, as as analytical as you want to be, there's definitely a feel perspective to this. Our guys following him around, is he leading? Is he doing all the things that he's supposed to be doing. And so, you know, it's one of those things that it's unfortunate for myriad reasons why we've you know, had this had this shortened offseason or no off season at all. But you know, it bites a lot of players like that just because you know, maybe there would have been more of a legitimate competition, and who knows. I mean, this could be maybe we're not done yet. I mean, you know, maybe there is a competition. Maybe Cam Newton is not healthy enough yet. I mean, there could be a hundred different ways that this breaks at this point. Yeah, And I mean that's the wild cards, certainly, like will he be full health? Will he stay at full health all season? If he is full health? So I think there's a lot of factors here, But you make a really smart point Connors, that development period was totally lost to this spring, and so does that diminish your confidence in a young quarterback being able and ready to start? Would it have been a different conversation if the circumstances were different, And certainly would it have been a different conversation if you know, teams would have had a greater village ability to evaluate Cam Newton's health. So this is definitely a signing that it's fair to wonder how much of an impact the circumstances from COVID had on this new direction for the Patriots, or maybe it's what they hadn't mind all along. Another loser here, Jenny is just and I don't know what the word is for it. But you know those people in your school, Like so when you were growing up in State College, and I was grew up kind of a similar area in Pennsylvania where there wasn't a lot of like penn State was obviously the big thing um for your school and pretty much for us too. But you know, there were the kids that like the Bulls fans and and the Cowboys fans that made no sense and they just globbed onto this dynasty. And there are so many probably just smartass little Patriots fans out there that just get no break at all. And and you're this whatever, you know, you're this kid in Buffalo, or you're this kid in Miami, or do this kid in in Long Island, and you just love your local team because you're doing things the right way. And then here comes this kid to school with a brand new cam Newton Patriots jersey, and man, I mean, if you're listening to this potting know what that's like. I feel for you. When I picked my NFL team, I did it responsibly and fairly, and uh and I picked the Browns And there's no joy in that whatsoever. But you know, yeah, you know, it's just one of those things that you just feel for those kids. You know, they were waiting so long to just get get a little jab and at the Patriots, and they have no opportunity to do so. Well. I have to say that I was a Bulls fan growing up, but well I had a reason though, because my parents, my mom was born and raised in Chicago. We went to Chicago every summer to visit my grandparents, and my parents met in Chicago. My dad's from Illinois as well, Southern Illinois, so I feel like I had credibility there. I also had one of those shirts. I don't know if this was like a little bit more my We're not that far a partner age, but like sometimes we're far enough a partner age, Like there are some things that are slightly different. Did you have those shirts? Were like it was a different color underneath when you rolled up the cuff on the shirt. Okay, so I had one of those like bull shirts it was black and then when you rolled up the cuffs on the sleeves it was red, and then I still had it. So like in college, I would like sometimes wear my retro bull shirt. So I was home last summer and I was like where's that bull shirt? I've got to find it. So I brought it back. It's like in my dresser. Um, I've not worn it, but I just like wanted it in my apartment. So you'll have to break it out soon. Yeah, and I will say that I certainly dabbled. I mean, we had this um store down the street from us called House of Bargains. I don't know if anybody else had a House of Bargains, but it was basically where they just sent all the stuff, like the equivalent of the wrong team winning the Super Bowl shirts, but not that severe, you know, just misprinted things. And I remember loading up on a lot of ninety four rockets gear like, and so for a very short period of time, I was all in on like hachemala Jawan and everyone could see through that. But that was not a dynasty. We got like one or two good years out of it, and then that was it. And then the Spurs and the Bulls and all that Cavaliers and all that fun stuff happened. So I missed out on that. But yeah, I feel bad for those kids, because that's when you live and die with your team, really is when you're like six to I don't know, eighteen seventeen and then and then problems started after that, But in that time period, you're very emotionally invested and you were probably pretty bummed out when you heard that can we signed with the Patriots. I would be right, that's a pretty good winners the losers left. Connor, well, thank you, And as always I just I I go into it with an idea, and then I talked to Jenny about it, and then she actually gives me all the good ideas and then I flesh it out, you know, typical you know, typical globber. You know. So now you'll write something along those lines that people can read on the dot com. That's great, should be up on Tuesday. But the last part of the show today is basically something that happens during every show, but just more formally, we're going to talk about conspiracy theories. I mean pretty much every week we touch on conspiracy theories, and you know, we always spell it with the O R R capitalized and theories, you know, just to continue with our obsession with or puns. Um So, Connor, you put out a call on the mm QB Instagram, which by the way, has been really fire lately. If people didn't check out the post that Connor made on the MQB Instagram right after Newton was signed, you're really missing out. So we direct you to the Instagram feed. Basically every post is almost reposts from Connor. Like posts Connor is behind. He doesn't put a byline or anything. He's just like a behind the scenes worker, doesn't care what's the credit, just wants to make people laugh. But there's a really good one from Sunday night that I urge you to check out. But Connor had another one. This is Monday evening that we're recording, and what's your best cam to Patriots conspiracy theory? Oh you didn't use the punt in the post, but that's okay. We've got it on the show. Winner gets read live on this week's week Side Podcast. Thank you to everybody. We've got some nice replies there. Um, and I only put the call like ten minutes before the we started taping, so that was exciting. Uh, And we really appreciate the engagement on Instagram. We've read a lot of direct messages on Twitter that which we both check with regularity and that's been super cool. And as always, weak Side Pod at Gmail dot com. If you ever want to just reach out, as Andy Reid says, the time is yours, so you know, uh, whatever you want to say, you just just reach out to us at at weeks side pot of email dot com. Um so, uh, two really good ones and then just a comment. I'll read the comment first. Manny two Fresh said I don't have a conspiracy theory, but I did notice how underpaid is compared to Chase Daniel laughing emoji. So good, uh good one on you there. Gustavo vos b says that this is totally to light a fire under Jared Stidham, so he beats cam for the QB one spot like a Bledsoe situation. I really like that. That's not bad. I love that. That's my favorite one, I think, definitely. And then Bennett jumps in with what we talked about the top of the show that the Patriots waited to sign until the NFL punished them for cheating against the Bengals as a means for distracting the public from their cheating ways. Again, I mean, yes, there is an element of that with the Patriots. I remember, um, before the Super Bowl two years ago, Josh McDaniels talking about the fact that they can get four hours worth of sleep in forty five minutes because they use sleep tanks. And that was a great story. Oh thank you. Um. And at the time, like sleep tanks were becoming popular enough, like I think they were in half major college football. Um, maybe like eight or nine in the NFL teams had them. But the origin story goes back to Bill Belichick was visiting the Black ops, like, you know, Navy Seals like the and that's where he goes for information, you know, is you know, what are you guys doing to prepare And he gets all of his cool stuff from them. And so certainly there is and that's not illegal to do. I'm not saying that, but certainly is there's that element of rooting against the Patriots. That's what you have to compete against is a guy who is spending his free time with the Navy Seals figuring out how to beat you. And that's scary. Um. But I just this cam thing was just it was basic arithmetic. It's just I don't know, even at the end of the show, I feel no less angry about the fact thirty one other teams just let this happen. Yeah, No, I think you capture that and what you wrote Sunday night, and I think you were spot on, and uh, definitely a lot of intrigue. As I said before, really interested to hear the timeline of how this actually happened and when a deal was worked out and what the arrangement was. Um, but the end result is a very exciting development of the football world and a lot of fodder for us to talk about in our Tuesday show, Connor. So I'll take it. I'll take it. You know, it's a it's a slow week in the NFL. Obviously, this year's calendar was weird anyway, but one thing that seems to be pretty on target is that right now is the slow time in the NFL. But this was lightning bolt of news, so I really enjoyed it. Lovely, lovely. All right, Well, thanks everyone for joining us. We will be back later this week. Perhaps there will be more news, Connor. Who's to know what's to come, You never never, you never know, but thanks as always for listening and we will see you then. The mm QB week Side Podcast is Meet Jenny Rerentis and Connor Or. We are produced by Shelby Royston, Sis Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody, Ben Eagles, Director of editorial Projects and product Mark Marivik is a meritus executive director of the mm q B. Keep up with our entire lineup of podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, and while you're there, please do us a favorite and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify Radio dot com, sitch r si dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts,