There's no question that Carolina Panthers' rookie quarterback, whom they took #1 overall in this past year's draft, is very talented and physically speaking, is ideal. The guy is 6'6'' and anything but skin and bones, to go along with a strong throwing arm and an ability to make something out of nothing with his running abilities. The rookie has played well in his first three games in the NFL, throwing for close to 900 yards in his first two games and winning his first NFL game yesterday against Jacksonville. However, unlike most sports "analysts," I'm not buying the notion that Newton is the next great quarterback in the league.
Newton may have thrown for close to 900 yards in his first two games, but was also picked off 4 times and his team lost both games. If we're looking at it from a Fantasy Football perspective, Newton was quite a steal the first two weeks of the season, but was also careless with the ball at times and from a team standpoint, led the Panthers to an 0-2 start. I'm not bashing the guy and saying he's going to be a joke. It's too early to say that, but just the opposite is true. It's too early to lay claim that he's going to be the next great quarterback in the league. He's 3 games into his NFL career. That's an extremely small sample size. Hall-of-Fame quarterback Troy Aikman had some growing pains his rookie season for the Dallas Cowboys. If we were to judge the guy based on his first three games, he wouldn't have lasted two years in the league. Word has it he did okay. Another Hall-of-Fame quarterback, Steve Young, was back-up for several years behind Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers. Once again, Young turned out to be one of the better quarterbacks in the game. On the flip side, Rex Grossman got off to a great start quarterbacking the Chicago Bears, but has played the role of back-up since then, until this year with the Washington Redskins. Former Steelers' quarterback Kordell Stewart generated a lot of excitement his rookie season, but as teams began to figure out how to defense him, he ended up becoming more of a utility player than a quarterback. So, let's not make such predictions with Cam Newton yet. Give the guy time to learn the offense, improve and the defenses time to adjust and Newton time to re-adjust before we come to such conclusions.
The fact of the matter is Cam Newton played in a very simplistic offense at Auburn. That gimmick won't be consistently successful in the NFL. Coming out of college, Newton reminded me of a quicker, more elusive JaMarcus Russell (of LSU, drafted #1 by the Oakland Raiders). Like Russell, Newton is very raw. The guy started one year in college before going pro. Both quarterbacks played in un-NFL-like offenses in college. Both have strong throwing arms, but weren't the most accurate of passers coming out of college. They also possessed some power and speed with running the football, Newton definitely being the more dangerous of the two. One could also make the argument that Newton is somewhat similar to Vince Young, but Young is arguably quicker with less powerful of a throwing arm. Also, Young quarterbacked the Texas Longhorns for more than a single season, so he was much further along in the development process than Newton and to his credit, Young improved as a passer in each of his years at Texas and this carried on into the NFL until he had some personal problems. We're too early in Newton's career to know just how well he will develop. Has he reached his ceiling? When defenses have enough film of him and they make adjustments, will Newton be able to successful adjust to the defensive adjustments? Cam Newton is an extremely talented athlete, but I'm not ready to crown the guy as the next great quarterback. Talk to me next year and while I still won't be able to give a definitive answer, I'll likely have a better hunch on what to expect of the youngster.
Newton may have thrown for close to 900 yards in his first two games, but was also picked off 4 times and his team lost both games. If we're looking at it from a Fantasy Football perspective, Newton was quite a steal the first two weeks of the season, but was also careless with the ball at times and from a team standpoint, led the Panthers to an 0-2 start. I'm not bashing the guy and saying he's going to be a joke. It's too early to say that, but just the opposite is true. It's too early to lay claim that he's going to be the next great quarterback in the league. He's 3 games into his NFL career. That's an extremely small sample size. Hall-of-Fame quarterback Troy Aikman had some growing pains his rookie season for the Dallas Cowboys. If we were to judge the guy based on his first three games, he wouldn't have lasted two years in the league. Word has it he did okay. Another Hall-of-Fame quarterback, Steve Young, was back-up for several years behind Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers. Once again, Young turned out to be one of the better quarterbacks in the game. On the flip side, Rex Grossman got off to a great start quarterbacking the Chicago Bears, but has played the role of back-up since then, until this year with the Washington Redskins. Former Steelers' quarterback Kordell Stewart generated a lot of excitement his rookie season, but as teams began to figure out how to defense him, he ended up becoming more of a utility player than a quarterback. So, let's not make such predictions with Cam Newton yet. Give the guy time to learn the offense, improve and the defenses time to adjust and Newton time to re-adjust before we come to such conclusions.
The fact of the matter is Cam Newton played in a very simplistic offense at Auburn. That gimmick won't be consistently successful in the NFL. Coming out of college, Newton reminded me of a quicker, more elusive JaMarcus Russell (of LSU, drafted #1 by the Oakland Raiders). Like Russell, Newton is very raw. The guy started one year in college before going pro. Both quarterbacks played in un-NFL-like offenses in college. Both have strong throwing arms, but weren't the most accurate of passers coming out of college. They also possessed some power and speed with running the football, Newton definitely being the more dangerous of the two. One could also make the argument that Newton is somewhat similar to Vince Young, but Young is arguably quicker with less powerful of a throwing arm. Also, Young quarterbacked the Texas Longhorns for more than a single season, so he was much further along in the development process than Newton and to his credit, Young improved as a passer in each of his years at Texas and this carried on into the NFL until he had some personal problems. We're too early in Newton's career to know just how well he will develop. Has he reached his ceiling? When defenses have enough film of him and they make adjustments, will Newton be able to successful adjust to the defensive adjustments? Cam Newton is an extremely talented athlete, but I'm not ready to crown the guy as the next great quarterback. Talk to me next year and while I still won't be able to give a definitive answer, I'll likely have a better hunch on what to expect of the youngster.
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