Sports Q

Or should Cam have stuck around a while longer?

Mac Jones put up a solid performance in the Patriots' preseason win over the Eagles. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, and email. He’ll pick one each weekday to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation. 

Did the Patriots make the right decision at quarterback?

Well, there are a couple of parts to it. I think naming Mac Jones as the starter is great and bold and encouraging. It’s reassuring to learn that Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels were seeing the same things we were – the command of the offense, the poise, the quick pace and decisive tempo. He was clearly the better quarterback – and the one who has the skill-set to fit the familiar Patriots offense. The quarterback of the future is good enough to be the quarterback of the present, and that is incredibly encouraging.

I do wish Cam Newton had stuck around as the backup, though. It was a joy to have that guy around for the last year-plus. As I write this, I’m unsure of the details of his release and whether he had a say in it. But I thought it would have been fun to see him contribute here or there with a trick play or the occasional run-pass option wrinkle. I don’t buy the notion that he would have cast a long shadow over Jones. It’s clear Newton isn’t the same quarterback he used to be. But Bill Belichick knows best, and I guess releasing him had to be the way to go with this.

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This is a good day for the Patriots, though. Mac Jones has done everything he can to indicate that the Patriots have found their starting quarterback for the long haul. Here’s to seeing what he can do now that the games begin to matter.

But what does everyone else think? Did the Patriots make the right decision at quarterback? I’ll hear you in the comments.