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Steve Smith Is ON WFNZ Having A Confessional, Won't Let the Story End
By
FootballMaestro,
in Carolina Panthers
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Yeah I was crying about this earlier in the year when we got to 6 wins. Equal number to Wilks. We are still a QB away. -
Hey y'all, a topic that has been on my mind has always been the parallels between two of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NFC South and ultimately their place in history and how they are viewed moving forward through the rest of NFL history. These two quarterbacks as you might have guessed are their respective franchises greatest signal callers, Cam Newton and Matt Ryan. Cam Newton (144 Games Started): 269 TDs (1.8 per contest), 123 INTs, Super Bowl Appearance, OROTY, MVP Matt Ryan (234 Games Starter): 394 TDs (1.6 per contest), 183 INTs, Super Bowl Appearance, OROTY, MVP Obviously on first glance, these are very similar players with identical top accomplishments. Let's zoom in a little bit on their surrounding talent. C Cam Newton top offensive producers: Greg Olsen (TE) (9 Seasons) (3 Pro Bowls) Steve Smith Sr. (WR) (3 Seasons) (1 Pro Bowl) Matt Ryan top offensive producers: Julio Jones (WR) (10 Seasons) (7 Pro Bowls) Roddy White (WR) (8 Seasons) (4 Pro Bowls) Tony Gonzalez (TE) (5 Seasons) (4 Pro Bowls) Wow, quite the difference here. Through Cam's career his top option was Greg Olsen, who was one of the best tight ends of his generation and a real difference maker in an offense reliant on their quarterback making plays outside of structure. Newton post Steve Smith Sr was saddled with a revolving door of Chicken McNobodies at the receiver position and the offense had to be funneled through the tight end and running attack as Jericho Cotchery, Corey Brown, Jason Avant, Kelvin Benjamin, etc was not getting the job done. Ryan on the other hand was consistently surrounded with top level offensive weapons, including one of the best receivers and tight ends in the history of the game, thanks in part to an aggressive general manager who wanted to ensure they could maximize the arm talent of their franchise quarterback. How about protection? Cam Newton top offensive lineman: Jordan Gross (3 Seasons) (1 Pro Bowl) Ryan Kalil (8 Seasons) (2 Pro Bowls) Andrew Norwell (4 Seasons) Trai Turner (6 Seasons) (5 Pro Bowls) Matt Ryan top offensive lineman: Jake Matthews (8 Seasons) (1 Pro Bowl) Alex Mack (5 Seasons) (3 Pro Bowls) Andy Levitre (3 Seasons) Todd McLure (5 Seasons) While Matt Ryan certainly had more consistency and high level talent on his offensive line, one could argue they had similar protection through the bulk of their career. Though one has to acknowledge some of the absolute dog water lineman that were trot out to protect Newton at his tackle spots post Jordan Gross retirement. Byron Bell, Mike Remmers, Matt Kalil, Chris Clark, Amini Silatolu, Nate Chandler, etc were all a collective pile of garbage save for two seasons from Remmers and a few splashes of brilliance from Michael Oher, Daryl Williams, and early career Taylor Moton. Defense should be fairly simple. Cam Newton defense average rank: 17th/32 Matt Ryan defense average rank: 18th/32 Honestly I was a bit surprised by this, I had thought Cam consistently had the better defenses, but when you look at the average it's shockingly close. While Newton did have the higher peaks of defense, Atlanta placed higher more consistently and only really faltered towards the end of Ryan's career. Both these players had on and off again defenses to rely on. So what does all this mean? 1. I am bored at work 2. Cam Newton has the better body of work given the talent around him While I am not sure either is necessarily a lock to get a gold jacket, it's undeniable that Newton carried his franchise on his back for the better part of his career and changed how quarterbacks are viewed as a whole. Newton became the blueprint for a new breed of signal caller, and Ryan is the standard that is set for pocket quarterbacks in the modern league. Both players deserve their kudos for what they did for their franchises and how they morphed their team's identity, but Newton I think was clearly the better of the NFC South quarterbacks, especially if he had remained as healthy as Ryan did. -
100% agree, trading him would be the best possible scenario. It allows for a clean start at QB and you get something back.
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