I have no reason to think he'll be worse than last year, partially because he's had a whole off-season, and partially because the coaches knew what they were getting into and had seen tons of tape and practice time with him. If he needs Crabtree on his side 2/3rds of the time against Jared Allen and Julius Peppers, they'll know to put him there. There shouldn't be any surprises.
Also, complain about his pass blocking, but he's an upgrade over Clifton in the running game, no doubt. Clifton was a totally 1 dimensional tackle, as witnessed by so many of our runs going right year after year.
Finally, it's TOTALLY RIDICULOUS to imply that he's so bad that he got Sherrod injured. Injuries happen all the time on the field and you can't pick one guy and put it on him. What's sad is that Sherrod was having by far his best game against KC, and if/when he's back I expect him to push Newhouse hard for the starting spot. It'd be really nice to have Newhouse as a backup at both tackles.