Ah, how I love when some people's thoughts and beliefs are strengthened to the point of unbreakability when one consumes alcohol. It's true. I don't tend to have very strong opinions about a lot of things and if I do, I tend to not want to talk about them while drinking alcohol, especially if in an already loud bar environment.
One of the bar owners at a pub I frequent has been known to get into some heated arguments with people, especially pertaining to politics. Last night, it was with regard to Carolina Panthers' quarterback Cam Newton. I wrote a blog a couple weeks ago or so that while I thought Newton is an extremely gifted athlete and is off to a great start in his NFL career, I'm not going to herald the guy the next great quarterback of the league like some sports writers and commentators have done. I don't even remember how the conversation started last night, but the bar owner was riding the Newton-hype train and I played things cool. I smiled and kept saying, "Well, we'll have to wait and see." He didn't accept that non-combative response.
He went on saying things like, "Have you seen the guy play? There's only a few guys in the league that can make certain throws and he's one of them, along with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers.," "He's already great and he's only going to get better.," "Did you see how many yards he's passed for? 400 yards? Who else has done that? Not even Marino or Aikman!"
I kind of laughed and said, "Yes, I've seen him play and he's off to a great start, but we can't sit here and accurately predict this guy's NFL career based on four games."
He then came back with the weak argument, "Joe Bauserman (Ohio State's back-up quarterback)... I knew he wouldn't be good after four starts." Yeah and there are no differences between college and NFL football.
I just kept saying, "It's too early to conclude on what this guy will be able to do in the NFL"
He kept responding with, "He's already doing it! Have you seen him play? He threw for 400 yards!"
I said, "Come on. Troy Aikman got off to a rough start. Peyton Manning did. (Last I heard, they had (have had) fairly decent careers) If we had predicted their NFL careers based on their first few games, they wouldn't have lasted two years in the league and they both won Super Bowls."
He came back with, "Did Aikman throw for 400 yards in his first couple starts? Did Marino?"
He wouldn't let up. He finally changed his initial strong statement and said, "You can't tell me he doesn't have the ability to be a great NFL quarterback." To that, I agreed, but again, potential doesn't equal sustained success.
Let me be the first to say it's utterly ridiculous to compare Cam Newton to the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and/or Aaron Rodgers. The three of them have won more Super Bowls than Cam Newton's played games. The sample size of Cam Newton is WAY too small to make such lofty predictions.
Also, like I said last night, while it's true that Newton threw for over 400 yards in each of his first two games, there's usually a reason for when quarterbacks throw for 400+ yards - their team is down, they're forced to throw the football and this results in more passing yards. The bartender agreed with this, especially considering the fact that Carolina is 1-3 and has had to play from behind for a good chunk of their four games.
Alright, so, let me say that I think Cam Newton is extremely gifted and that, physically speaking, he has all the tools to be a very good NFL quarterback. However, I'm not going to over-hype the guy based on his first four games as a pro. Also, while the passing yard numbers have been stellar (ranked 3rd in the NFL with 1,386 yards through the air), some of his other passing numbers aren't quite as good. Newton is ranked 21st in completion percentage (59.5%), 17th in touchdown passes (5), 3rd in interceptions thrown (5), 14th in sacks (8) and 16th in quarterback rating (84.5). Overall, those numbers are very average, great for a rookie quarterback, but average for a NFL quarterback in general.
Digging deeper inside the numbers, Newton had a great debut game against the Arizona Cardinals, where he amassed 422 yards, 2 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 110.4. Since then, the league has adjusted a bit and while Newton has still averaged to throw for over 300 yards in these past three games, his other numbers have regressed a bit. Against Green Bay, Jacksonville and Chicago, Newton has completed 57.9% of his passes (which would place him 26th in the league in that category), averaged 7.65 yards per pass attempt (down from 8.50 and ranked 6th to 15th), thrown 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions and has a rating of 76.8 (which would be 28th in the league at this time). In the last three weeks, Newton has one of the worst quarterback ratings in the NFL. He's toward the very bottom in completion percentage. He's toward the top in interceptions and he's middle of the league in yards per attempt.
So, please, let's not herald the guy as the next great quarterback in this league. He's had just four games under his belt and hopefully he'll have many more.
One of the bar owners at a pub I frequent has been known to get into some heated arguments with people, especially pertaining to politics. Last night, it was with regard to Carolina Panthers' quarterback Cam Newton. I wrote a blog a couple weeks ago or so that while I thought Newton is an extremely gifted athlete and is off to a great start in his NFL career, I'm not going to herald the guy the next great quarterback of the league like some sports writers and commentators have done. I don't even remember how the conversation started last night, but the bar owner was riding the Newton-hype train and I played things cool. I smiled and kept saying, "Well, we'll have to wait and see." He didn't accept that non-combative response.
He went on saying things like, "Have you seen the guy play? There's only a few guys in the league that can make certain throws and he's one of them, along with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers.," "He's already great and he's only going to get better.," "Did you see how many yards he's passed for? 400 yards? Who else has done that? Not even Marino or Aikman!"
I kind of laughed and said, "Yes, I've seen him play and he's off to a great start, but we can't sit here and accurately predict this guy's NFL career based on four games."
He then came back with the weak argument, "Joe Bauserman (Ohio State's back-up quarterback)... I knew he wouldn't be good after four starts." Yeah and there are no differences between college and NFL football.
I just kept saying, "It's too early to conclude on what this guy will be able to do in the NFL"
He kept responding with, "He's already doing it! Have you seen him play? He threw for 400 yards!"
I said, "Come on. Troy Aikman got off to a rough start. Peyton Manning did. (Last I heard, they had (have had) fairly decent careers) If we had predicted their NFL careers based on their first few games, they wouldn't have lasted two years in the league and they both won Super Bowls."
He came back with, "Did Aikman throw for 400 yards in his first couple starts? Did Marino?"
He wouldn't let up. He finally changed his initial strong statement and said, "You can't tell me he doesn't have the ability to be a great NFL quarterback." To that, I agreed, but again, potential doesn't equal sustained success.
Let me be the first to say it's utterly ridiculous to compare Cam Newton to the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and/or Aaron Rodgers. The three of them have won more Super Bowls than Cam Newton's played games. The sample size of Cam Newton is WAY too small to make such lofty predictions.
Also, like I said last night, while it's true that Newton threw for over 400 yards in each of his first two games, there's usually a reason for when quarterbacks throw for 400+ yards - their team is down, they're forced to throw the football and this results in more passing yards. The bartender agreed with this, especially considering the fact that Carolina is 1-3 and has had to play from behind for a good chunk of their four games.
Alright, so, let me say that I think Cam Newton is extremely gifted and that, physically speaking, he has all the tools to be a very good NFL quarterback. However, I'm not going to over-hype the guy based on his first four games as a pro. Also, while the passing yard numbers have been stellar (ranked 3rd in the NFL with 1,386 yards through the air), some of his other passing numbers aren't quite as good. Newton is ranked 21st in completion percentage (59.5%), 17th in touchdown passes (5), 3rd in interceptions thrown (5), 14th in sacks (8) and 16th in quarterback rating (84.5). Overall, those numbers are very average, great for a rookie quarterback, but average for a NFL quarterback in general.
Digging deeper inside the numbers, Newton had a great debut game against the Arizona Cardinals, where he amassed 422 yards, 2 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 110.4. Since then, the league has adjusted a bit and while Newton has still averaged to throw for over 300 yards in these past three games, his other numbers have regressed a bit. Against Green Bay, Jacksonville and Chicago, Newton has completed 57.9% of his passes (which would place him 26th in the league in that category), averaged 7.65 yards per pass attempt (down from 8.50 and ranked 6th to 15th), thrown 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions and has a rating of 76.8 (which would be 28th in the league at this time). In the last three weeks, Newton has one of the worst quarterback ratings in the NFL. He's toward the very bottom in completion percentage. He's toward the top in interceptions and he's middle of the league in yards per attempt.
So, please, let's not herald the guy as the next great quarterback in this league. He's had just four games under his belt and hopefully he'll have many more.
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