The Panthers Grounded Cam Newton Into Dust

The Carolina Panthers placed Cam Newton on IR for a lingering Lisfranc issue yesterday, effectively ending his season and, if all the reporting is to be believed, ending his tenure as the Carolina Panthers franchise quarterback.

There will be much talk and so called “analysis” of where Cam Newton goes from here. It remains to be seen how much blame the Panthers receive for accelerating the end of one of the most electrifying careers in NFL history. The Panthers feel comfortable enough with rookie back-up Kyle Allen playing efficiently and Christian McCafferty breaking out, because we all know running backs don’t have an expiration date. They will likely convince themselves that they can sustain this and move forward without losing much.

As is typical, they’ll underestimate how important Newton is and how much he’s carried them since being drafted 1st overall.

Newton’s litany of injuries over the last few seasons are almost entirely due to Newton carrying the franchise kicking and screaming towards relevancy, and the Panthers lack or urgency to put anything resembling and functioning offense. Newton put his body on the line and often single-handedly won the Panthers game, a fact the team used to their advantage to cheap out at prominent positions.

Here’s something that should infuriate you; after drafting Cam Newton, the Panthers only drafted one offensive tackle until drafting Greg Little in the second round in 2019. In that time, the Panthers had a literal revolving door of also-rans like Michael Other and Matt Khalil and a litany of undrafted free agents and lower round draft picks protecting him. Andrew Norwell was perhaps the best lineman the Panthers had managed to luck into, but they let him walk in free agency in 2018. Ryan Khalil got old and got bad and they seemingly had no plan to replace him.

Outside of insanely reliable Greg Olsen, Newton had a hodgepodge of nobodies to throw the ball to. Kelvin Benjamin ate his way off the team. Ted Ginn Jr. was a reliable field stretcher that was allowed to sign with the division rival New Orleans Saints. Brandon LaFell flashed some early chemistry with Newton, but quietly left the Panthers in 2014, where he proceeded to win a Super Bowl with Tom Brady.

Much is said about how Cam’s best weapon wasn’t his arm, but his legs. But with little in the way of reliable lineman or players at the skill positions, the only way to get offense was by utilizing Cam’s way. In a perfect world, where an organization didn’t choose to have Marty Hurny, then David Gettleman, and then Marty Hurny *again*, running the team, an effort would’ve been made to build a team around Newton that could facilitate a graceful transition into Cam more reliably throwing the ball.

But that effort was never made, probably because there was an organizational belief that it wasn’t necessary. When Cam was so supernaturally gifted that he basically didn’t even require a proper football team be successful, why not load up the carries on his back and spend money elsewhere, if you spend it all? Pocket the savings and ride Can until the wheels fall off.

Only now, the wheels basically have come off. Newton has been battling rib injuries and shoulders injuries and lower body injuries for a few seasons now. All the “what’s wrong with Cam” analysis seemed to miss an obvious point; Cam’s body was breaking down, and the Panthers were only tangentially interested in making that situation less so.

It says a lot that the NFL has taken two of it’s best ever prospects — Cam Newton and Andrew Luck — and turned them into paste before they even entered their 30s. Like Newton, Luck was entrusted to carry a franchise. Like Newton, Luck was an athletic freak who has the “perfect build” so many scouts look for. Like Newton, the Colts never seemed interested in giving Luck more than one decent receiver and one decent offensive lineman and one decent running back. Like Newton, Luck played through injuries and carried a team further than it would go with just about anyone else, and like Newton, Luck’s injuries finally started to get the better of them right around the time the organization decided it might be a decent idea to *checks notes* not let the franchise QB die.

Luck decided to hang it up before his 30th birthday, unable to deal with the constant cycle of pain and rehabilitation. It’s hard to imagine Newton retiring, but it’s harder to imagine that, if the Panthers do release him, a team will pay him what he deserves and commit to protecting him. And that’s a damn shame. The Panthers negligence is robbing us of what should be the prime years of Newton’s career. And if all the career retrospectives and analysis of his career don’t include that fact, then they are robbing their readers of the truth.