Jump to content
  • Welcome!

    Register and log in easily with Twitter or Google accounts!

    Or simply create a new Huddle account. 

    Members receive fewer ads , access our dark theme, and the ability to join the discussion!

     

He Aint Supercam Anymore, and That's Okay.


beo
 Share

Recommended Posts

NOTE: Unless noted otherwise, I got the stat from Pro Football Reference.

People are getting caught up on the fact that we just resigned Cam Newton. That's understandable, but I believe some people around here are expecting too much and some are expecting too little. Cam isn't what he was, but he's also an upgrade over what we had and frankly this team doesn't need that much at the QB position as things are now. We need Cam to protect the football, find the open man, sustain drives so that our defense isn't pinned back, and be a vocal leader for our offense. Anything else like his running ability is just gravy.

A lot of folks have soured on our defense but I personally think this is a little misguided. They still make mistakes, but most of them are very common and typical of a younger unit such as overrunning sacks, biting on read options and play fakes, and the occasional large rushing lane. You don't want this obviously but it's the NFL and our defense is young and growing, poo happens. As things are now, our defense is ranked 31st in average starting field position, the defense being set up at the opponents 32 yard line on average. The only team they are ahead of are the Jets, who are ranked DEAD LAST in points allowed. In fact of the bottom ten lowest ranked teams by this metric, only two have good defenses. The Buffalo Bills who come in at 26th (#1 PF, #1 YDS) and the Pittsburgh Steelers who come in at 22nd (#8 PF, #14 YDS). On the year our defense ranks 7th in PF and 2nd in YDS, with that going up to 5th in PF and unchanged in yards if you look at the per drive stats. As well, the average starting field position for the D predictably gets worse in the third quarter with them on average being set up at the 35 yard line (as seen below). This isn't a huge difference, but it's still considerable and the offense needs to improve in the third and stop turning the ball over so much in rapid succession.

image.thumb.png.bfde7c55eadf705b5c59a9b3a6c004f5.png

So where does Cam come into this? Well we need Cam to be careful with the ball. For the most part last season he was. Though his overall statline of 21 total tds to 10 turnovers nor his total yardage of 3,249 yards were very impressive, he had 5 ints immediately after getting off of the rona list in the two games afterwards but finished weeks 6 through 16 with only 3 ints to 6 touchdown passes. He also added 7 more rushing touchdowns in this span, meaning he had 14 total tds (1 receiving td in week 17) to only 3 total turnovers over the last 10 weeks of the season. This is despite a pourous receiving cast, questionable offensive playcaller, and being pressured at a percentage the tenth highest of any QB last season at 26%. Those receivers by the way mostly played better last season with Cam than they have so far this year. Julian Edelman had his best career game with Cam, Jakobi Meyers was higher/more efficient in nearly every category last year than he is so far this year (Catch%, YPG, Y/TG, Y/REC, you name it), and he even got 600 yards out of Damiere Byrd. It's also worth considering that our offensive line while still definitely bad, has slightly improved from being unquestionably bottom 2 in the last couple weeks. In week 8, the offensive line only allowed 5 hurries and 2 QB hits. In week 9, it allowed five pressures and 1 sack according to PFF. Will this continue? Probably not, at least not at this rate, but it's at least an encouraging sign though the injury to Paradis hurts. There's also the fact he'll have a much better supporting cast than he had in New England with CMC, DJ, Robby and other solid support pieces like Chubba.

image.thumb.png.97d48ca3fba66c956b341303ea1e93d7.png

There are some questions regarding the fit though. Cam has never really played in a pure west coast system like offensive coordinator Joe Brady runs. Speaking of Brady, there's been a lot of concerns over him. These are absolutely reasonable but you must question how much of this mess is his fault. We have a bad offensive line and had a quarterback who misses open receivers, and it was known going in that Brady did not call the plays at LSU meaning he'd have growing pains there. Sam also just misses open receivers and throws a lot of hospitial balls. It's no coincidence that our receivers are dropping so many more passes than usual all of the sudden.

There are a lot of unanswered questions about this move that will be answered soon, but for now I feel good about it even from just a football perspective. Cam doesn't need to be great, he just needs to be a veteran leader for this young team and offense, get the ball to open receivers, eat up clock, and prevent giving our defense short fields by taking good care of the ball. His now limited deep ball's wild misses and occasional spike at the ground will occur in some unfortunate instances, but I think Cam can once again be great for this team; just in a much different way compared to the big play flash of his vintage days.

Carolina Panthers auf Twitter: "Game Photo | Cam Newton makes his entrance  at Bank of America Stadium. #CHIvsCAR http://t.co/kDC7Og3ECC"

 

  • Pie 7
  • Beer 1
  • Flames 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cam’s last regular season start -

Cam went 21-30 for 242 yards, 3 TD’s, 0 picks / 11 rushes, 79 yards / 1 reception, 19 yards, 1 TD

There’s obviously some talent still there and I’d give my first born to see a Panthers QB with that stat line after the type of poo we’ve seen this year.

If he can provide anything close to that for the remainder of the year then he has a chance to lead this team to the playoffs with a 9-7 record or so, the defense behind him is truly that good.

  • Pie 2
  • Beer 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reality is he’s going to have to get use to the system before I expect anything good to happen.

good news he’s actually had a training camp and preseason, bad news is the tougher part of our schedule starts, doesn’t give him much room for error.

  if we can continue to lean heavily on the defense, our run game will have a boost with Cam, I’m assuming Brady knows how to utilize him in that aspect, we have the wrs to prevent teams from loading the box, in a perfect world this strategy gets us into the playoffs, and the next 2 years we can enjoy Cam until we can finally draft a proper replacement without Teddy and Sam’s cap hit on the books. 

  • Pie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, MillionDollarCam said:

Cam’s last regular season start -

Cam went 21-30 for 242 yards, 3 TD’s, 0 picks / 11 rushes, 79 yards / 1 reception, 19 yards, 1 TD

There’s obviously some talent still there and I’d give my first born to see a Panthers QB with that stat line after the type of poo we’ve seen this year.

If he can provide anything close to that for the remainder of the year then he has a chance to lead this team to the playoffs with a 9-7 record or so, the defense behind him is truly that good.

Me trying to remember a Panthers QB with that state line:

 

3D988C37-FB23-49AC-8D00-A58DC9A296D2.gif

  • Beer 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, OneBadCat said:

I'd actually be curious to see just how much his shoulder has improved 2-3 years from surgery.  I'm not expecting his old rocket launcher. But he may have more juice than we think.

I saw some NE practice film and what looked like a ball thrown from the heavens.

It was him and I've seen that long arching contrail many many times before. He's still strong. 

I've always hated how coaches want Cam to do this and that and conform, surrender but not "what do you want to run?"

Hint to Joe Brady from someone who has watched every detail of in game Cam Newton as a Panther.

GIVE CAM A DESIGNED RUN EARLY.

It settles him down and he becomes more accurate.

  • Beer 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was a wrong that is being corrected . Rivera ran Cam into the ground and then Hurney threw him out like yesterdays trash .  I don't think Rhule had anything to do with that decision but maybe Tepper had a hand in it I don't know .  This move will heal some wounds no matter how Cam plays .  Cam took us to a superbowl and will always have a place in Carolina football history . Keep pounding !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, rippadonn said:

I saw some NE practice film and what looked like a ball thrown from the heavens.

It was him and I've seen that long arching contrail many many times before. He's still strong. 

I've always hated how coaches want Cam to do this and that and conform, surrender but not "what do you want to run?"

Hint to Joe Brady from someone who has watched every detail of in game Cam Newton as a Panther.

GIVE CAM A DESIGNED RUN EARLY.

It settles him down and he becomes more accurate.

Yeah he’ll need some designed runs. But I also don’t want to see us running him like we used to. I’d really like see how Cam does playing within our system.

Hes a smarter QB than Darnold. If he can the open guys Sams been missing then we will already be drastically improved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We just need Cam to be average and that should make us competitive with our defense. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be our easiest stretch on the schedule has been brutal so a playoff push is highly unlikely with our remaining strength of schedule. Let’s just hope this team can be fun again to watch on sundays

  • Pie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


  • PMH4OWPW7JD2TDGWZKTOYL2T3E.jpg

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Oh, the high expectations after a draft. Keep your expectations low, people. Darin Gantt's latest "Ask The Old Guy" gives life to one of those lessons about pro football reality as a fan: "Rasheed Walker was a three-year starter at left tackle for the Packers, so Freeling is going to have to work. Hunter's got another big 'un in front of him in Bobby Brown III and a different kind of defensive tackle in Tershawn Wharton. Chris Brazzell II's got a lot of traffic at his position. Zakee Wheatley has to be better than the chronically underappreciated Nick Scott, and Sam Hecht is a fifth-round rookie at the hardest position on the line to play, who probably doesn't have immediate positional flexibility, and a solid free agent addition in Luke Fortner in front of him. "Fans generally love their draft class as soon as it arrives, because there is no evidence to the contrary yet. Once guys get on the field, the reality begins to creep in, and the seasoned among you remember that if you get three or four good players out of a draft, that was an amazing draft." https://www.panthers.com/news/ask-the-old-guy-things-looking-up-after-the-draft-monroe-freeling-luke-kuechly-bryce-young-derrick-brown Don't get crazy. Winning the draft (or the offseason BTW) on paper always leads to good feelings and great expectations, especially when you seemingly succeeded the season before, but let's remember that the Panthers are very much a work in progress. Team building takes time. If we get a couple of starters out of the draft, it's a good draft, but three or four would be an amazing draft, and anything more than that is actually sensational--even if entails a few multiple high end rotational players along with three starters. Moreover, kind of within that same vein, the coaches have to let the kids off the chain. Remember the coach-speak of past coaches about competition that is anything but because coaches have their notions about veteran experience? Not saying that they're necessarily wrong, but sometimes I think their reluctance to put the young guys out there is based somewhat in dogma or possibly fear because big stakes are on the line (e.g., their jobs). It can be frustrating to say the least, but the coaches are supposed to know best. Again, I say all of this so that we can remember to temper expectations and keep them within the realm of reality. It's like telling your mind to think of it as something akin to under-promising and over-delivering. Leave room to be pleasantly surprised for the best case scenario, but be cognizant that that rarely happens. I would think at this point, most of us should be able to recognize growth when we see it, and sometimes that growth doesn't manifest itself in the form of immediate supremacy, but a setting of the stage for long term dominance for years to come. It seems like we're on track for an emergence by 2028 or 2029. We still have huge questions, but by 2029, hopefully we will take our seat at the table of the perennial contenders in the NFL.  
    • You’re playing madden we’re talking real football stuff…. He does have you seen his special on internet he def thinks he’s getting paid 
    • Without the team having an identity kinda hard to predict what they value.  They either are really trying to build a balanced team, or preparing for another swing at qb if Bryce doesn’t pan out. Seems like we value the o line but the $ spent there has been underwhelming besides Lewis, you could say it’s because of injuries but still hasn’t been worth the investment. as already stated, the whole handling of Bryce young as a whole has been ass backwards, we spent the years we’re supposed to take advantage of having a qb with a lower cap hit, building the team up to be adequate. now It appears, key word appears, the saints have done it correctly, which is painful to even think about. Regardless, I hope the front office has paid attention to qb contracts recently, such as Tua, Kyler, Daniel jones(pre colts) and don’t settle for subpar qb play at franchise qb rates    
×
×
  • Create New...