Incredible Article From Football Outsiders on the Greatest QB in Football

[TylerDurden]

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/film-room/2016/film-room-cam-newton

This wraps it up perfectly, but incredible analysis and article overall.

 

We can compare his efficiency numbers to the other quarterbacks in the league. The quarterbacks who thrive from completely clean pockets. The quarterbacks who have ball-winning receivers who erase the need for accuracy. The quarterbacks who throw to dynamic, creative runners who can create yards after the catch on screens and other simple throws. Or we can be realistic. We can actually assess how rare a talent the Panthers passer is. We can actually acknowledge how high his performance level has been each week. We can appreciate how important he has been to his team's 15 victories this season without feeling compelled to diminish it by pointing to Luke Kuechly and Josh Norman.

Maybe it's inconvenient for some, but Cam Newton is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL now. He was the best in 2015.

[FootballMaestro]

Agreed with the article entirely (and with my own eyes from watching games).

Cam Newton's passing ALONE stands up to any QB.

You don't have to defer, by citing his running, because you concede he's not as good a QB as whatever alleged elite QB your arguing against.

My eyes; the film, and Football Outsiders disagrees.

Cam Newton was the best passer in the NFL this year.

[ladypanther]

Vey nice find.

[Jangler]

[TheRumGone]

Comment section is horrible.

someone said "I don't think cam could run the offense that carson Palmer runs in Arizona"

wut.

 

 

[hepcat]

2 minutes ago, TheRumGone said:

Comment section is horrible.

someone said "I don't think cam could run the offense that carson Palmer runs in Arizona"

wut.

 

 

lol no poo.  Carson Palmer is an entirely different QB than Cam Newton, of course they run different offenses.  Carson Palmer could NEVER run a read-option offense on his bum knee

[logic1977]

This article was Panthers porn at its finest

[TheRed]

5 minutes ago, TheRumGone said:

Comment section is horrible.

someone said "I don't think cam could run the offense that carson Palmer runs in Arizona"

wut.

 

 

Hmm. Hand the ball off to Chris Johnson, or throw the ball to Larry Fitzgerald/John Brown/Michael Floyd.

I don't know. Sounds pretty tough.

[tiger7_88]

This article was posted yesterday, but I read it again anyway and enjoyed it just as much.

[FootballMaestro]

2 minutes ago, hepcat said:

lol no poo.  Carson Palmer is an entirely different QB than Cam Newton, of course they run different offenses.  Carson Palmer could NEVER run a read-option offense on his bum knee

Newton runs a pro-set Passing offense.

That's no different than Palmer.

However, Newton has more involvement in line plays/formations than Palmer. We know this from comments between both Palmer and Arians regarding line play during broadcast (so you don't think I'm making this up). And certainly the Read Option gives Cam an additional load of responsibility (just the decision making, not even the running).

So Cam actually runs a more complex offense than Palmer from both a passing and certainly running perspective.

[mbarbour21]

I loved most of the article. The only part I find iffy is that after Cam played in the NFL he states that you could still call him "an athletic player who plays QB". I don't agree with that. He had some issues with mechanics and some accuracy issues, but his o-line didn't help that. Many QBs have issues as rookies, but they are still called QBs. Still don't buy that. 

[PandaPancake]

That article had nothing to do with Eli

[Swan]

From the comments section:

 

"While some of Newton's low completion percentage can be explained by pass distance, the majority is due to Newton's low accuracy. Comparing him to Ben Roethlisberger, another downfield slinger, you can see that Newton has a significantly lower completion percentage at every depth than Roethlisberger. I'll also throw Carson Palmer into the mix, as he's another downfield gunner who is Cam's direct competition for MVP. 

Completion percentage by distance, per ESPN "splits" tab:

Distance in the air Cam Carson Ben
Behind LOS 76% 79% 89%
1-10 yards 64% 69% 75%
11-20 yards 54% 64% 59%
21-30 yards 33% 37% 39%
31-40 yards 32% 39% 38%
41+ yards 36% 15% 42%

(note that 41+ yard passes represent an extremely small sample size - less than 3% of attempts for all 3 of these vertical QBs)

Some of that can be explained by receiver quality, where Newton is in sharp contrast to the other two. However, Newton's completion % by depth is not significantly different this year than it has been in each of the past 4 seasons, so if his low completion percentage were due solely to receiver quality then you would need to argue that he's been held back by poor receivers every year. Having watched only a few of Cam's games throughout his career, I would also note that throwing a 90mph rocket at a receiver's chest does not automatically make it an accurate throw - part of the QB's job is to throw a catchable ball, and from casual observation of Cam it seems he has a tendency to over rely on his fastball.

I'm not anti-Cam, I'm just sick of the excuse parade that this year's MVP race has become. It seems like this year's MVP is all about "coulda, woulda". Newton's mediocre conventional stats (outside TD% and running) are excused by his "poor supporting cast". Brady's MVP argument is centered around overcoming so many injuries to other players. MVP should be about who did the most - instead, it's become an exercise in imagining what X player could have done if only Y had occurred. So when we get yet another excuse about Cam this year - this time, his completion % - it riles me up a little bit. Yeah, Palmer's weapons were mostly healthy, but he put up some fantastic numbers. Stop with the coulda woulda when we've got a guy who actually pulled through with what he was given."

Found this gem. Buncha stats-loving d*ckheads, completion percentage....what are, we playing madden or something

[FootballMaestro]

8 minutes ago, Swan said:

From the comments section:

 

"While some of Newton's low completion percentage can be explained by pass distance, the majority is due to Newton's low accuracy. Comparing him to Ben Roethlisberger, another downfield slinger, you can see that Newton has a significantly lower completion percentage at every depth than Roethlisberger. I'll also throw Carson Palmer into the mix, as he's another downfield gunner who is Cam's direct competition for MVP. 

Completion percentage by distance, per ESPN "splits" tab:

Distance in the air Cam Carson Ben
Behind LOS 76% 79% 89%
1-10 yards 64% 69% 75%
11-20 yards 54% 64% 59%
21-30 yards 33% 37% 39%
31-40 yards 32% 39% 38%
41+ yards 36% 15% 42%

(note that 41+ yard passes represent an extremely small sample size - less than 3% of attempts for all 3 of these vertical QBs)

Some of that can be explained by receiver quality, where Newton is in sharp contrast to the other two. However, Newton's completion % by depth is not significantly different this year than it has been in each of the past 4 seasons, so if his low completion percentage were due solely to receiver quality then you would need to argue that he's been held back by poor receivers every year. Having watched only a few of Cam's games throughout his career, I would also note that throwing a 90mph rocket at a receiver's chest does not automatically make it an accurate throw - part of the QB's job is to throw a catchable ball, and from casual observation of Cam it seems he has a tendency to over rely on his fastball.

I'm not anti-Cam, I'm just sick of the excuse parade that this year's MVP race has become. It seems like this year's MVP is all about "coulda, woulda". Newton's mediocre conventional stats (outside TD% and running) are excused by his "poor supporting cast". Brady's MVP argument is centered around overcoming so many injuries to other players. MVP should be about who did the most - instead, it's become an exercise in imagining what X player could have done if only Y had occurred. So when we get yet another excuse about Cam this year - this time, his completion % - it riles me up a little bit. Yeah, Palmer's weapons were mostly healthy, but he put up some fantastic numbers. Stop with the coulda woulda when we've got a guy who actually pulled through with what he was given."

Found this gem. Buncha stats-loving d*ckheads, completion percentage....what are, we playing madden or something

Yes.  They're laughable. And certainly don't need any additional comments from us. LOL