After watching 42 year-old Tom Brady sign with Tampa Bay for upwards of $50 million this offseason, Bill Belichick's Patriots signed 31 year-old Cam Newton to a one-year deal over the weekend... at the league minimum.
New England's acquisition of the former NFL MVP offer has both fans and rivals marveling over the franchise's ability to bring in high upside players while taking on little-to-no risk.
But are the Patriots taking on more risk than one can see at first glance? Surely 31 of the NFL's 32 organizations did not pass on a bargain deal out of pure ignorance. What other factors did these teams take into consideration? And what else is New England giving up to bring in the seasoned signal caller?
In this episode of Fanalytics, Professor Mike Lewis applies concepts such as The Winner's Curse and Probability Distribution to evaluate New England's acquisition of Cam Newton from an analytical angle.
Then, Mike and I analyze how The Patriots' inexpensive effort to win now may ultimately cost the organization years of Super Bowl contention down the road.
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