I have no idea if Newton will be the bomb or a bust either. My guess, based on the little I saw in the spring, the fact that Florida got him initially and film I saw of him in JUCO....would be that he'll be as advertised. I would counter the writers concern about him doing it at this level because these are SEC defenders, with the fact that Newton also has SEC offensive players on his side of the ball too. He won't be on an island trying to create everything himself. He'll be throwing behind senior linemen like Pugh, Isom and Ziemba. He'll be throwing to top flight SEC receivers in Adams and Zachary etc.
IMO, what Newton needs to do is stay within Malzahn's system like Todd did, but be able to add that extra dimension in taking off on designed runs and/or when the pocket breaks down.