I know he’s a former MVP, but he didn’t look good when we last saw him. Cam Newton is making an NFL comeback as he’s throwing at the Auburn Pro-Day, but does any team actually need him these days?
I guess the circle of life is real. Mufasa would be proud watching Cam Newton go through it before our very eyes.
Almost 12 years ago to the day (well, actually it was two weeks earlier than the one this year), Cam Newton was throwing at his first Auburn Pro Day to start off his journey of being the #1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft as Carolina Panthers would select him 1st overall just a month later.
Now, instead of trying to be the 1st overall pick for the Carolina Panthers (who find themselves back in the #1 position) to take and rebuild their franchise, he’s throwing to the next generation of young NFL stars to not only improve their draft prospects, but to also resurrect the kingdom that was his own NFL career as Mufasa resurrected his father’s kingdom in the Lion King.
Well, I don’t want to presume his motivations, but the social media videos he put out makes it clear he’s only using the 2023 Auburn Pro Day to prove he’s still one of the top-32 quarterbacks in the NFL, despite not playing a single minute last season.
Yeah, I think you can see where I’m going with this article. And, unfortunately for Cam, this path he’s taking is not going to be nearly as poetic as Mufasa’s.
Okay, enough with the Lion King references, and back to the NFL and Cam Newton’s chances of becoming a starting quarterback once again. To be honest, I don’t think he has a chance in hell to supplant one of the Top-45 quarterbacks in the NFL (which includes the best 15 backup QBs), let alone beat out one of the starting 32 QBs from last season.
I know that sounds mean and cruel, but that’s just the truth of where Cam Newton is as a quarterback these days. Everyone likes to reminisce and remember “Super Cam”, the 2015 NFL MVP that led the Carolina Panthers to a 15-1 record and an appearance in Super Bowl 50 (which the Panthers lost 24-10 to the Denver Broncos), but that guy hasn’t been in the NFL since injuries derailed his career in 2018.
In the last three years Cam Newton played at least 1 game (2019, 2020, 2021), he has a grand total of 3,913 yards, 12 TD passes, 15 INTs, an average completion percentage of 58.9%, 820 rushing yards, and 17 rushing TDs in two stints with the Panthers (2019, 2021) and a year with the Patriots (2020).
For comparison, Bears QB Justin Fields, who played for the worst ranked NFL team last season, finished the 2022 season with 2,242 passing yards, 17 TD passes, 11 INTs, 60.4% completion percentage, 1,143 rushing yards, and 8 rushing TDs.
Yeah, Newton has superior stats in passing yards and rushing TDs, but he’s blown out of the water in practically every other meaningful passing and rushing statistic against a QB that’s nine years younger.
Now, to be fair to Justin Fields, this is only his 2022 stats as if I included his 2021 stats, he and Newton wouldn’t have even been comparable. In Fields last two seasons (the only two of his career), he has 4,1112 passing yards, 24 TD passes, 21 INTs, an average completion percentage of 59.7% completion percentage, 1,563 rushing yards, and 10 rushing TDs.
Those numbers blow Newton’s out of the water, and he was one of the worst passing QBs in the NFL last season on the NFL’s worst team.
Does Newton really think he can beat out guys like Fields, who are the younger, faster, more athletic (at this stage of their, respective, careers) QBs, to be the starting QB of an NFL franchise? I hope not or else he’s simply delusional.
Obviously, I don’t want to sound like I’m being needlessly cruel or rude as Cam Newton deserves all the respect a former NFL MVP should afford him, but the truth lies in the stats. Cam Newton couldn’t throw by the end of his time in New England, and he was a glorified running back during his half-season stint in Carolina during the 2021 season.
At this stage of Newton’s career, I think it would serve him better to forget about playing professional football as he’s only going to find disappointment and dissatisfaction in the results. Maybe some team will pick him up as a backup or a 3rd stringer (or maybe even as a running back), but that’s not what Cam Newton wants to be.
He’s earned his stripes as a starter in the NFL, and justifiably wants to regain his throne as one of the NFL’s 32 best QBs.
Sadly for Cam, every kingdom falls, and the reign of Cam Newton ended in the last decade.
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