Very good point sir... To go along with the fact that he didn't really have anyone else at that position worth starting other than Newton.
Anytime Seth Payne talks about Newton on 610, he brings up that Newton partially tore his patella tendon at the end of 2012. Payne had the same injury and says it took him a year to fully recover and he thinks that at leas partially why Newton struggled against more powerful defensive ends last year. I think it's fair to expect some improvement out of Newton this year, but I don't have a clue how much.
I would agree that Newton is an easy target and he did get thrown to the wolves in a way, but I don't think you can completely write him off. With that being said, it's wise to have a plan B and C.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>New Texans offensive tackle Tyson Clabo gets $2.4 million over two years.</p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/statuses/492080349380231169">July 23, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Starter's money I think.
It's borderline starter money. 32 right tackles had a larger average salary than $1.2M last year. Arizona paid Winston $1.25M last year.