Great article - the evolution of Cam Newton

[KB_fan]

Ignore the source.  It's not one that most of us like or respect.  But it's a great long, feature article about how Cam has evolved as a QB:

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/11/05/nfl-cam-newton-carolina-panthers

A few excerpts, but the whole thing is a good read, and it's amazingly positive considering the source.
 

Quote

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cam Newton had just played three hours and 50 minutes of football in a relentless rainstorm, but the hot shower could wait a few more minutes.

A few stalls over in the Panthers’ locker room, one of his receivers, Philly Brown, just wanted to keep talking to his quarterback. Specifically, about how on point all his passes were. There was that ‘6’ route in overtime, a dig, which Newton had placed high and inside, where only Brown could catch it. They gained 23 yards.

“That was a tight-ass spiral,” Brown called over. “An absolute dime!”

“You looked like me catching that ball,” Newton told Brown, who leaped out of his 5-foot-11 frame to make the play. Then Newton flashed a mega-watt grin, his way of saying this is the most fun he’s ever had playing in the NFL.

The Panthers’ 29-26 overtime win against the Colts on Monday night improved their record to 7-0, uncharted territory for this 20-year-old franchise and its 26-year-old quarterback. Five seasons after being taken with the first overall pick in the 2011 draft, Newton seems to have fulfilled his promise. He’s finally made the leap from having played just one season of major college football, winning a national championship at Auburn largely based upon his abundant physical gifts, to directing an NFL offense like a savvy veteran, calling the shots at the line of scrimmage in a flexible no-huddle system more than half the time.

“The evolution of our offense,” head coach Ron Rivera says, “has been as much the evolution of Cam.”

 

Quote

Eleven months ago, the Panthers were 3-8-1 after losing six straight. That’s when Rivera and offensive coordinator Mike Shula implemented a no-huddle version of their offense—not to push the pace of the game, but rather to get Newton to the line of scrimmage earlier, so he could survey the defense and get the Panthers into the best play possible. Carolina has now rattled off 11 straight regular-season wins, the longest active streak in the NFL, placing Newton in the elite company of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers as quarterbacks with 10 straight wins over the last five years.

Quote

 

Football scarcely looks more fun than it does when Newton is playing it well. Consider how he reacted to throwing an eight-yard touchdown pass to Brown in the fourth quarter on Monday night.

That play stood out to Rivera for the adjustment Newton made before the snap—more on that later—but for the crowd of 74,136 at Bank of America Stadium, what happened after the play showed why Newton alone is worth the price of admission.

He bounded toward the end zone to celebrate, hurling his 6-foot-5, 245-pound frame at Brown, who would later lament that his quarterback is much too big for that. “He’s a monster,” Brown teased. “Shoot, he can’t do that anymore.”

Newton then took the football from Brown and gave it to a pair of young fans in the front row who were wearing his jersey. He started dancing; he raised his index finger skyward; he mimicked a jump shot. Then he ran the length of the Panthers’ sideline to the other corner of the stadium, where he took his helmet off and waved his arms up and down, stirring up another round of cheers.

 

Quote

 

Newton’s unapologetic belief in himself has been a huge reason why the Panthers have been able to withstand trying circumstances: Losing top receiver Kelvin Benjamin to an ACL tear in training camp; star linebacker Luke Kuechly’s missing three early games with an concussion; and winning behind a reworked offensive line that was down two starters last week.

That resilience was on display after the Colts battled back from a 17-point deficit to send the game to overtime. When the Panthers got the ball in the extra period, Newton aired out a perfect rainbow of a throw to Ted Ginn, Jr., who had a clear path to the end zone. But Ginn dropped it. How did Newton respond? He went back to him two plays later, and Ginn made a 12-yard catch that set the Panthers up to kick a field goal and extend overtime.

“Even when the Colts kicked the [first] field goal in overtime, we felt good about where we were. I can’t really explain it,” veteran receiver Jerricho Cotchery says. “We believe in [Cam]. He has that belief in himself, and everyone on the team sees it—we play the same way that our quarterback plays.”

 

Quote

 

There was a road game during the 2013 season that Ron Rivera views as a watershed moment for his young quarterback. Newton’s early years in the pros were what the coach calls “a grace period, a learning period,” as Newton adjusted from the simpler spread offense he ran in college. Late in his third season, the Panthers trailed by three points in the fourth quarter at Miami. Newton led a no-huddle drive, which included converting a fourth-and-10, to score the winning touchdown in the final minute.

It proved to the coaches that Newton was ready to take on more responsibility in their offense. The plan heading into the 2014 season was to adjust their system so he would have more control at the line of scrimmage. But his injuries intervened: Newton missed the spring program after major ankle surgery, and then fractured a rib in the preseason, sidelining him for the season opener.

Much of 2014 became, as Rivera calls it, a “lost season.” But in early December, with the Panthers 3-8-1, the coaches figured they’d give the no-huddle scheme a try. It’s not up-tempo like the Eagles’ no-huddle offense, but it allows Newton to stand in the shotgun and decipher the defense, often pushing the 25-second play clock to the end. On nearly 70% of the offensive calls, Rivera estimates, Newton has the ability to choose the play. Coordinator Mike Shula will send in a formation and a handful of play calls, and then it’s up to Newton to adjust the alignment of the skill position players, call for motions and pick the play he thinks has the best chance of success against the defensive look. “It’s not much different than what you have seen with Peyton Manning in terms of being out of the shotgun, having to look at defenses and make determinations,” Rivera says.

 

Go read the rest at MMQB...

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/11/05/nfl-cam-newton-carolina-panthers