Talking Cam Newton

There was an enormous amount of debate on Cam Newton prior to his being tagged by Carolina as their first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.  The naysayers had him pegged as a pure scrambler with little or no throwing accuracy and not enough intelligence to grasp the intricacies of the NFL game. The Pro Cams had him out there as a stellar athlete with a strong-arm and can’t miss qualities across the board. The truth is the jury is still out on Cam Newton with the results of his first game on the table. I personally think it is way to early in the game to start talking about him in the same sentence as Marino, Brady, Elway, Namath and Manning, even though he did throw for more yards than those guys did in their pro debuts. However, he certainly put up some numbers and gained some supporters and made a lot of fantasy football guys very happy, his 110.4 passer rating didn’t suck either.

I think he did a good job under pressure, he made some nice reads and he threw some nice balls, Steve Smith was 10yds behind the defender on his first TD pass.  On the second TD pass he made a nice throw put the ball where Smith could catch it and Smith made a nice play on the ball. I just don’t think it means anything other than he threw for 422 yds in a loss. There are no prizes for second place and no game balls for losers – it doesn’t matter if you look good losing – you are still a loser. One loss does not make his season, but let’s see how he does as he moves through his schedule.

Cam was a stellar 24-37 passing for 422 yards ( probably 12 more yards then Eli Manning will throw for in his 3 games this year) with 2 TD passes and 1 rushing TD  he and the Panthers lost the game so he is 0-1. He had a monster debut for all the media swirling around him, but the reality is this is the NFL and the Panthers lost to the Cardinals in week one. Yes he was involved in all 3 TD’s for his offense and he kept them in the game but he wasn’t playing the super bowl champion Green Bay Packers – who he gets to face this week.

I for one am not sold on Cam Newton after 1 game in which he racked up the passing yards, kept his composure, but missed out on the win. How will he respond if he takes a beating this week from Green Bay ? I am actually selling on Cam for now – I think it is going to be a long and losing season for the Panthers and I don’t see a lot of support for him or wins coming his way. He is a big talented athlete, I will give you that, but he is a long road from a success story just yet.  In truth, he does remind me a little of a Manning, not Peyton but Archie Manning. He was a decent QB on crappy teams for his entire career. What made Archie famous were his sons who wear super bowl rings, not his career. Maybe Cam will have a big career and produce talented offspring, like Fig or Apple or Cherry Newton.

I also didn’t care for the TD dance which I have provided in the video, one of the worst I have seen in a long time. Not great for a guy who had so much experience in the end zone in college. For now I am selling on Cam, but I could be very wrong on this guy, I hope so …. What do you think

I included the highlights for your review.