Cam Newton advises Lamar Jackson to copy Patrick Mahomes’ homework and find a way to win the “ugly games”

Cam Newton is not one to stay silent. The former Carolina Panthers quarterback says what he thinks when he thinks it, so when it was his turn to advise Lamar Jackson on how to improve his game, he did not hesitate to tell him: do what Patrick Mahomes does.

Newton knows what he’s talking about. Newton had to settle for mid-quality receivers for most of his nine-year stint with the Carolina Panthers. Except for the 2015 season, when he made it to the Super Bowl with receivers like Kelvin Benjamin, Corey Brown, and Jerricho Cotchery, Newton always had an uphill battle in the receiving department.

Jackson is in the same tight spot Newton was for most of his career. Both have that rare combination of a privileged arm and a unique ability to run the ball. However, his teams rely too much on the legs of their quarterbacks and forget to give them the support of good receivers.

Be like Mahomes: Newton

In a chat with Shannon Sharpe on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast, Newton felt that Jackson is overthinking things. Although he admitted that the most talented players tend to overthink, he recommended Jackson stop doing it and focus on winning.

True to his style, the former quarterback declared: “Everybody knows your signature is smoked, man, smoke this m*therf*cker and get it and get on about your day. You got to win. Find a way to win the ugly games. And we can talk about the other stuff later.”

According to Newton, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback’s mentality is: “I don’t care what we need to do. Well, we could talk about all this other… didn’t drop balls, we can worry about all that sh*t after the end of the game. Let’s find a way to win.”

Mahomes’ year

The Chiefs signal-caller did not have the best numbers of his career in 2023. With 4,183 yards on 401 completions of 597 attempts, only 27 touchdown passes, and 14 interceptions, his rating was just 92.6, far from the 113.8 he achieved in 2018 and the 103.5 he averages in his career.

Despite this, Mahomes led his team to win Super Bowl LVIII, where he won the third title of his career and the second in a row. Despite the lack of a stellar receiving corps, Mahomes did what Newton advised Jackson to do: He found a way to win the ugly games.