Cam Newton reportedly could be out until training camp with hand injury

Newton suffered the injury at Friday's OTA practice.

June 5, 2021

1 minute to read

Cam Newton’s right hand isn’t broken, but the reported bone bruise he suffered might force him to miss time.

Newton could be shut down for the rest of OTAs and mandatory minicamp later in June, a source told ESPN’s Mike Reiss. A source close to the situation told Reiss that Newton is “all good.”

The injury occurred at Friday’s OTA practice when Newton’s hand hit a teammate’s helmet as he attempted to throw a deep pass to Nelson Agholor during an 11-on-11 portion of practice. Newton did participate in positional drills later, but appeared to aggravate the injury after throwing a pass.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick has said Newton is still the team’s starting quarterback, but his potential absence from the remainder of OTAs and minicamp could allow Mac Jones or Jarrett Stidham to gain ground in the quarterback competition.

Stidham had a better practice than Jones on Friday, according to several media members who attended the practice. Stidham made the three best throws of the day, Boston.com’s Khari Thompson opined, by completing deep passes to Isaiah Zuber, Jakobi Meyers, and Kendrick Bourne. Stidham was also the first quarterback to take snaps in the second 11-on-11 session of the day.

As for Jones, he worked on pocket pressure with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels during position drills. Jones was also “less-than-stellar” during the 11-on-11 drills, according to Thompson.

The Patriots will hold four more voluntary OTA practices (June 7-8 and 10-11) and three mandatory minicamp practices (June 15-17) before taking a month off prior to the start of training camp.