Cam Newton should be happy he’s not facing the Vikings in 2020

Now with the New England Patriots, the quarterback has recently struggled against the Minnesota Vikings.

During his first two matchups with the Minnesota Vikings in 2011 and 2013 when he was a member of the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton threw for a total of 532 yards (266 per game), six touchdowns, and no interceptions to go with a quarterback rating of 130.5.

Since Mike Zimmer took over as the head coach of the Vikings in 2014, however, Newton’s difficulty level has been much higher during his showdowns with Minnesota.

In three matchups against the Vikings with Zimmer as their head coach, Newton threw for a total of 593 yards (198 per game), two touchdowns, and five interceptions while also getting sacked 14 times. The veteran quarterback has never finished a contest against Minnesota since 2014 with a rating higher than 65.7.

The Minnesota Vikings have faired well against Cam Newton since Mike Zimmer arrived in 2014.

On Sunday, it was revealed that Newton and the New England Patriots had agreed to a one-year deal. After nine seasons with the Panthers, the former MVP will attempt to replace Tom Brady as the Patriots starting quarterback.

Newton and New England will have a number of intriguing matchups in 2020, but none of them will come against Zimmer and the Vikings. For this, the former Carolina quarterback should be thankful.

As we mentioned previously, Newton has struggled against Minnesota since Zimmer became their head coach in 2014. The Vikings did their best to force the talented signal-caller to beat them from the pocket and for the most part, their strategy worked.

In three matchups with Minnesota since 2014, Newton was only able to lead his team to one win. And even though he was able to rush for a total of 145 yards in these three games, 62 of these yards came on a single carry. Without this run, Newton has averaged under 30 rushing yards in his matchups with the Vikings since 2014.

Minnesota last faced the Patriots in 2018 and it resulted in a loss for the Vikings (and a memorable moment between Adam Thielen and Bill Belichick). Since New England is in a different conference, Minnesota won’t face them until the 2022 season unless they both end up making it to the Super Bowl before then.

If Newton had remained with the Panthers though, he actually would have had to go up against the Vikings inside U.S. Bank Stadium during the upcoming season. Instead, Minnesota will welcome Carolina and their new quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, to their home field in 2020.