Regardless of the Situation, Cam Newton Still Needs to Grow Up
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
What a difference a year makes.
The Panthers rolled in 2015, going 15-1. They had a super-strong running attack with Jonathan Stewart and a passing game that came out of nowhere with Cam Newton, even with Kelvin Benjamin out for the season. The defense was top-notch, with Josh Norman manning one side of the field and a strong pass rush and having two great LB's in Thomas Davis & Luke Kuechly. The style of play and how they took it irritated football purists as Cam & Co. danced their ways to winning, taking pictures of them "celebrating" midway through blowout wins, etc. They made it to Super Bowl 50 and many penned the Panthers to win after curb-stomping every team they saw as opposed to a Denver squad with a good defense and questions with Manning at QB.
Was this moment a beginning of the end for Cam?
And then the needle hit the balloon.
Of course, we heard how Cam Newton sat up on the conference seat after the Panthers got stunned by Denver, sat there, sulked, and pouted. Even some of my friends who were die-hard Cam Newton supporters and jersey holders bashed him for his antics. Until that point, I was never really a Cam fan (not really today either) largely because of his antics and questions surrounding his issues in college. The irony was, his little pouting episode post-Super Bowl did not bother me. It showed to me he wanted to win and be a champion in the NFL. So for me, I wasn't bothered by it despite the fact I can see the view of people not liking it where when he won games he gloated, danced and would take the limelight and now he couldn't handle losing. To me, the second "interview" that same week irked me saying that he was a sore loser and he felt his actions after the Super Bowl was fine as well as adding not wanting to sacrifice his body for the late fumble. Anyway, despite that cloud hanging over his head, many still thought Newton & Carolina would stomp the tar out of the NFC South and be favorites in the NFC for the Super Bowl.
Of course, dominoes fell. Josh Norman, originally tagged as the franchise player, was let go by the Panthers and signed with Washington. Many didn't believe Norman was a key cog in Carolina's success on defense and was a "system player." So nothing was wrong there by the eyes of many.
Cam was focused on his new dances more than actually getting back to the Super Bowl.
Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
And then Cam said something that made me wonder how true he was to winning: "The dab is dead. I have a new dance lined up in 2016." Okay, I am paraphrasing.
And it propelled me to write a piece on Cam in July of how 2016 was going to be more important than 2015 for him. At that point I wondered if Cam was zeroed in on another Super Bowl run or just being an entertaining football player. Because now he needed to be BETTER than 2015 when the Panthers went 15-1 and were Super Bowl bound. They needed to show they were battle-ready in January and in that first week of February. HE needed to show it.
Deion Jones was a nightmare for Cam in Week 4.
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When the season began, Cam struggled, despite showing off his new moves. Denver knocked him senselessly all game (yes, some of those hits were illegal) and the Panthers lost on a missed FG. After a win agianst SF in Week 2, the Panthers lost to a Minnesota team that just hounded Newton all day (despite doing his dance). Then Atlanta exposed the defense of Carolina, letting Julio Jones shred up the Panthers D for 300 receiving yards, but the other big story was how Cam's antics got Carolina in big trouble. Getting a short yardage situation, then getting up to do his little first down pose in front of a Falcons linebacker Deion Jones cost the team 15 yards (and ended the drive shortly thereafter). Later on, Cam, going for a two-point conversion eased up going in the end zone (possibly to either save energy or do a dance), gets drilled by Jones out of nowhere as he crossed the goal line, thus giving Cam a concussion, knocking him out of the remainder of the Falcons game (and then the Bucs game where the Panthers generated little offense). People ripped Cam for those incidents of acting like a child and not being mature about how he handled the Falcons game. Adding on, he didn't do any favors riding on a scooter all around Charlotte during the concussion protocol.
When he came back, Cam had ups & downs. He had some good games and some not-so-good ones. The ones where he struggled, he ran out talking about how the refs weren't calling the hits (and then was refuted by his own head coach Ron Rivera at times) on him. Then he took not-too-subtle hints about how the defense was letting him down. The result was a Panthers team that is on life support for the playoffs.
The Seattle game is how the Panthers season has gone.
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
And then the Seattle game happened. The rock bottom game for the Panthers in 2016. The offense stunk. The defense stunk. And the Panthers just looked like they quit. Of course, what was talked about and the reason for my post was this issue with Cam being "suspended" for 1 play for allegedly not wearing a tie. But given Cam's choices of wardrobes during pressers, he hasn't worn a tie on more than a few occasions. Now rumors persist of what actually happened (some are off-field issues that Ron Rivera could allegedly suspend Cam for remainder of the season), but let's face facts: Cam has failed in 2016.
You can throw out numbers and say he is still doing a decent job, though I don't know how you can equate of completing less than 50% of your passes the last 3 games and the numbers are well down since last season as doing a "good job." Yes, I get it: there are on-field issues of having an injured offensive line, and Stewart has been dinged up. But still, there are other facets.
A ritual Cam does unlike other QB's: first snap of the game.
The issues with Cam are all between the ears. I mentioned before about the dab stuff. When do you hear Brady, Brees, Rodgers, etc. say after a disappointing end to a great season, "I am going to develop a new pose when I make a big play" instead of "I will improve myself to get back to the Super Bowl?" That still bothers me as it shows the priorities are different. I remembered on the radio as Cam was about to be drafted in 2011 that Jerry Richardson was skeptical of drafting him because of his drive not to be a champion, but to be a revolutionary of the game, a Michael Jordan of his time, or a LeBron, or Jeter, or whoever. And it shows with using the dab, the posing for first downs, the Superman move, the first play thing, etc. Go to any football field and see kids do it. They all do it. That's fine. But do you need to announce what you're doing and focus on that more than winning the game?
Cam lets too many things get to him...........and that has been his downfall in the NFL to this point (save 2015).
Cam has always been one to ride emotions on his sleeves. At quarterback it is not necessarily a good thing. I don't want to hear about "well Brady spikes footballs when he scores" or "Brees gets his team pumped before a game," etc. therefore Cam can do that stuff. But the difference is though, when the chips are down those guys still play hard and focus while not sulk in the game. There were very few times in 2015 Cam was ever down, but he never sulked when he was. He was focused. Now, after last night and a few other games, Cam's body language has shown that he is out of it. And with it, so has gone the team. It happened in Seattle where the Panthers quit.
Entertaining commercial, but probably not really far from the truth.
When news broke out of Cam possibly violating a team rule, it made me wonder about his position of what he is to the team. And a good buddy has pointed it out. Notice games when the Panthers lose, Cam is directing blame at other facets of the game besides his own. When the team wins, it is about him and then congratulates his teammates. Also, my buddy pointed out that watch when a Panthers player scores a touchdown and celebrates, Cam runs up to him quickly and points to tell them to give a football to a kid so they look like a million bucks. Then see when Cam scores. Every Panther has a nice healthy distance away so Cam could be in the spotlight. It DOES come off that Newton feels like he is bigger than the team. Of course, there was a commercial last year with him & favorite target Greg Olsen where Olsen is resting in the ice bath after a game and Cam told him to get out, to which Olsen was tuned out listening to music, so Cam just hopped in with him. Funny, but it feels like art does imitate life. Which has might have driven a wedge between him & Rivera to this point. Now, we don't know what the situation is over in Charlotte, but it seems evident something isn't right over there and it looks to be the coach and the quarterback. Again, it is observation. Nothing definitive.
Cam was amazing at Auburn, and everybody there worships the ground he walked on.
The last bit of a head issue for Cam is probably not one that is self-inflicted (nor the other ones really) and it is one I mentioned when I talked about Bryce Harper: Cam has been fed so much drivel by other people, including family members, friends, and others to the point of he has been caught up in it. When you're good, and don't get me wrong, Cam is a great QB, but when you are told by your daddy (who also pulled strings for the pay-to-play bit in college) how great you are as well as friends and family, you start thinking you are invincible like Superman. Listening to Cam's father on the radio during interviews, it makes me think that has been the case of how he just did whatever he could for him and praised him every chance he got. Great, but if you don't tell him like it is, there is a problem. And after the issue at Florida where Urban kicked him out of there for off-field issues, he went to JuCo and then to Auburn where the Auburn faithful praised him and if you ever go to Auburn, he is practically a god there as everything is Cam. That's what happens when 1. you beat Alabama on your own and 2. you win a national championship. But whenever he goes to Auburn to visit or watch the Tigers play, anyone and everyone will do his bidding. And I think that has summed up Cam's life to this point. When things aren't going your way and you are like that, the adversity grows and you have no answers.
The 2016 season for Cam has been a failure. Let's be clear. His numbers are on par for the career lows in most categories (QBR, Pass Comp%, TD's etc.). But most of it has been mental. Yes, you can blame the fact of the offensive line being dinged up or the defense struggling or Stewart hurt. But right now, even if the line was healthy and the defense improved, Cam's issues would remain. But Cam has got to grow up. It felt like last season he was finally there, but now he is back to nearly square one.
This looks to be the closest Cam will get to Super Bowl glory.
The question is right now, will Cam Newton ever grow up and be that superstar he could be and hoist Lombardi Trophies similar to Tom Brady, the Mannings, and Roethlisberger? Or will he continue being his own enemy and ruin any chance of being better than last year and be just another quarterback?
Right now, it looks to be the latter.
-Fan in the Obstructed Seat
