Usually when the expansive Newton family gathers in Monroe, La., for Thanksgiving, or any other holiday for that matter, youngest grandson Josh Newton leads the prayer or speaks whatever other words fit the occasion and has been doing it since high school.
"Positivity. Growth. Posterity and life," says Brandon Newton, his father-figure brother says. "Not a negative bone in his body."
As Newton, the Bengals' energetic and enterprising rookie cornerback, practiced this Thanksgiving, the Newtons seek another speaker. Meanwhile, he hopes to find his voice in what may very well be his first NFL start Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) against the Steelers at Paycor Stadium.
"I've been in the NFL six years and he's the sharpest rookie I've seen," says Bengals cornerbacks coach Charles Burks. "He's almost psychotic trying to learn information."
Burks has stopped being surprised when Newton drops him a late-night text asking about his technique. Too high? Too low? The eyes all wrong? The midnight missives are often accompanied with clips older than a decade showing cornerbacks he coveted as a kid. Usually it's Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis working against receivers like Calvin Johnson or Dez Bryant. The latest is one of Revis' matches with Reggie Wayne.
During one of Newton's first days as a Bengal in the spring after he arrived as a fifth-round pick, Burks showed him what Revis did to Bengals Ring of Honor member Chad Johnson in the 2009 Wild Card on the very field Newton may end up dueling the dangerous George Pickens on Sunday.
"But he already knew it was a nine route and where the interception came on the field," says Burks of the Carson Palmer pass Revis picked on the right sideline in the second quarter on a day he was draped on Johnson so long he held him to two catches for 28 yards.
"Not only does he love playing it, he's a fan of the game."
So Newton knows all about Sunday's opposing quarterback in the Steelers' Russell Wilson, stalking his ninth playoff berth late in his 13th season with a revived big-throw game.
"He's going to throw it. A Hall of Famer quarterback. A Super Bowl champ. Long time in the league. Have to respect him, but you also can't fear him," says Newton, told he probably watched Wilson lead the Seahawks as a youth. "Ain't no probably. Junior high, yeah. I liked their defense for sure. Any quarterback that gets his team to the Super Bowl … I feel like you can't get to the Super Bowl without a quarterback. In this league, that's just how it goes."
But it won't be a welcome-to-the-NFL moment for a kid who observed when the ping-pong tables got put back in the Bengals locker room this week, "I don't play ping pong, I play DB." If there was one, maybe it was three weeks ago in Baltimore.
"I played Lamar Jackson, too," Newton says.
That night, the Bengals chose to give Newton a drive in primetime. With his work in practice and the 52 snaps in the first nine games, more time was dictated.
"Just give him a feel for it," Burks says.
When he got out of those career-high 19 snaps against Jackson intact, they didn't hesitate in the next game. Also in primetime. Against the Chargers. When Cam Taylor-Britt struggled, they benched him and Newton responded with a career-high 51 snaps that included his third-and-long deflection of a Justin Herbert deep ball on the first third down of the second half that ignited the Bengals' comeback.
"That play got us going," Burks says. "If you look at his plays, they were on third down. Which shows you're headed in the right direction."
When the other starting cornerback, DJ Turner, snapped his collarbone late in the game, speculation says Newton draws his first start Sunday in the wake of Pro Football Focus rating him their second-best defensive player against the Chargers after Turner.
"If that's what it is, that's what it is," Newton says. "Going to rock out."
If Newton sounds ready, he is. He may have turned 24 the day before the second game of the season, but his 38-year-old brother has helped make him wise beyond his years, as did the discipline of a mother raised by a Purple Heart veteran.
"His family upbringing. Female alphas. Brought up in the church. All that contributed to his maturity," says his mother, Shandria Newton. "It was a single-parent home with a lot of family support and a lot of instrumental coaching.
"Having an older brother he could talk to also was important. Josh has always been determined at whatever there was to do."
If anyone could foster the passion for a vocation, it's Shandria Newton, a counselor at Monroe's Carroll High School and coordinator of the school's medical magnet program guiding students interested in the health field.
She also says he drew on the experiences of family members whose memories were pretty much passed on after they passed away. Her father Sherman Newton, an Army E5 (sergeant) veteran of more than 20 years who received two Purple Hearts during two tours in Vietnam, died when Josh was about three or four.
"I think he barely remembered him," Shandria Newton says. "But there was a time Josh wanted to go into the military and when he heard my dad ran track in the army, he ran what he did, like the second leg and fourth leg."
Josh Newton never met his cousin Toby Caston, a linebacker who played 90 games in the NFL for the Oilers and Lions before he died in a car accident at age 29. It was Caston's mother who would do a lot of speaking at the family gatherings before she died a few years ago.
"No. 50 for the Detroit Lions," Brandon Newton says. "He died in 1994, and Josh was born on Sept. 14, 2000. He never knew him. But he's heard a lot about him. Toby was a cool guy."
Sebastian Tobias Caston came out of LSU as a sixth-round pick and maybe that's the guy who helped Josh Newton realize that a very good career in his hometown at the University of Louisiana-Monroe wasn't going to get him to this Sunday against Russell Wilson. Especially after the miserable 0-10 season of 2020.
ULM has been his only offer out of high school. That's why Burks says the major reason he's so mature is because, "He's had nothing handed to him. He 's earned everything he's got."
Josh Newton, who had never lived anywhere but Monroe, knew he had to transfer and he knew it had to be Texas Christian.
"I tell people (TCU) had 20 receivers and four cornerbacks. Weigh that," Newton says. "I'll go with four DBs. TCU is known for putting DBs in the league. I'll take my effort and mentality and put it with those guys and let's win. Which we did."
His mother, who has an undergrad degree in social work and a master's in counseling from ULM, had to be educated about a move from Monroe.
"He wanted to challenge himself at the next level, which was the Power 5," Shandria Newton says. "Mama was not aware he wanted to do that. He said, 'Mama, let's trust the process.' And with the grace of God and determination, this is where he is."
Brandon Newton won't soon forget that week of the TCU decision. It was the week his brother gave him what he wanted for his 36th birthday, Josh's degree from ULM. Then they talked for two hours in the car.
"I look at him like a son. That's where my heart is," Brandon Newton says. "He said, 'I'm going. I have to make this move.' I told him, 'I'm supporting anything you want to do in life. TCU it is.'"
Within the year, Newton became one of the loudest voices in the Horned Frogs' run to the national title game whenever they gathered around the table.
"So 2022 happens. When you're around like-minded guys and working together, it's a beautiful thing," Newton says. "My teammates came to me and said, 'We need that.' For them to say that, respect is the first thing that comes to mind."
The Newtons had a bit of an early Thanksgiving last week during the Bengals' bye when Josh was home. But it was more like a pregame meal before an AAU championship game in Monroe. Brandon Newton's 12-year-old son, Brandon Jr., was playing and Josh not only watched, but he spoke to both teams after the game and led a prayer.
"He's that guy," Shandria Newton says.
He's looking to speak into existence Sunday.
