Bill Voth breaks down Cam Newton's season

[Nick_81]

Agreed.  Voth makes his argument extremely well, and adds a couple of graphics for good visual evidence.

 

Now I can predict that some folks will respond "but Newton running is the only thing that's consistent;y effective in our offense", and that point is, sadly, a valid one.

 

The problem though is that using him that way is hurting his development as a passer.

 

So the question right now becomes this: Do you want to win games this year, or do you want to save Newton from taking any further damage and start working on making him the kind of passer that's going to be effective into his 30s?

 

Very true about Newton's running.  This is very perplexing to me though.  We've all seen, for most of this season, how effective Stewart has been with the ball in his hands.  Multiple games where he's averaged 5+ YPC, but only getting 5, 8, 12 touches.  There's really no reason that Cam should be given a "green light" to run the ball, unless he absolutely has to.  He doesn't need to have a page of designed run plays, specifically for him.  This goes back to the coaching issues that have been mentioned over, and over.  We remember the FO saying, "sometimes, the answers are already on the roster."  They were right, to an extent.  We did/do have some answers on the roster, more than a couple, but the coaches chose the wrong answers out of the gate.  The problem is, they stuck with the wrong answers for far too long, and would likely still be sticking with them if not for injuries.  That's got to be on of the single biggest issues with this coaching staff.  Almost anyone could see, even since training camp,  Norwell>Silatolu, almost anyone>Chandler, Stewart>Williams, Godfrey was going to be garbage, KK should be starting, Avant wasn't needed... and the list goes on.  An argument could be made for Cason, as he looked somewhat decent in the beginning, but fell off fairly quickly.  Still... he was here far too long.

[thefuzz]

The biggest thing I need/want to see from Cam, are accurate throws from the pocket.  Especially in the red zone.  We can all argue that we don't have the best weapons, but that little piece is awfully important to the Panthers and Cam, long term.

 

 

I fully expect us to sign him to an extension in the off season, and I hope that we can bring in some talent, and a HC more suited to grooming a QB.

[Mr. Scot]

Since we hired Rivera, he has been more focused on getting by on Newton's athletic ability than maximizing his raw talents.

 

We basically hired just about the absolute worst guy we could pair with a player like Cam. It's sad.

 

Which is one reason why I'm iffy on the notion of hiring a college coach.

 

College coaches are notorious for using athletic quarterbacks as essentially a third runningback rather than trying to develop them as passers.

 

Mind you, I don't have a particular coach in mind when I say this, but seeing how athletic QBs are usually used in the college ranks, hiring someone with that mindset spooks me.

[Ricky Spanish]

That's a damn interesting article that makes a lot of really good points. 

 

He was dropping dimes on people at the beginning of the year. Now he isn't. Perhaps it's because he's running, or perhaps its even because when they "unleashed" Newton they basically gave him permission to put the team on his back. Newton has been at his best when he trusts those around him and he doesn't try and do everything himself. It's almost like the coaching staff is encouraging the "Cam is our only weapon mindset by making him run read option and the what not.

 

Very interesting. 

[AceBoogie]

Basically what I took from that is that Cam needs a coaching staff that knows offense and how to properly use Cam.

[TheRed]

Basically what I took from that is that Cam needs a coaching staff that knows offense and how to properly use Cam.

 

The only thing our HC knows about offense is when to piss the game away in the 4th quarter by playing for field goals instead of the win.

[BIGH2001]

A predominantly running qb has never been successful in the NFL long term and the stats in this article bear that out. It might work for a few games or even a year but once it gets figured out the fun is over. We should have scrapped the read option in 2012 and developed cam as a better passing QB back then.

Outside of a tackle the #1 offsesson priority has to be a speed receiver who can consistently get separation from a DB. When Cam has that weapon to go with a big possession guy in Benjamin and Olsen as a security blanket he shouldn't need to run the ball to move the offense. At that point we can find out who he really is as a QB.

[pstall]

I still say from the moment we saw the blurb to turn Cam loose or something to that effect its gone downhill. The Bengals game I thought the team turned the corner and was making due with what they had.

[GoobyPls]

That Bengals probably took a toll on Cam's body, he had more designed runs that game than any QB since The Golden Calf of Bristol

[WOW!!]

Great article I agree with a lot of it..

[electro's horse]

I don't really agree with this article and his dividing line is also when defenses realized the panthers line couldn't block poo.

 

Cinci doesn't count since they were beat up as hell. 

[grateflday]

Can not disagree with this article at all.  We all saw it ourselves.  Cam was looking great in the pocket, then got healthy and our brilliant coaching staff went right back to the pistol offense as a base formation and tossed out the first four games as if they did not exist. 

[WOW!!]

The Oline started falling apart in that game as well.

[gettlemanjack]

Cam would flourish in Chip Kelly's offense that has plenty of designed run and read option, and it's not making Foles or Sanchez worse as pocket-passers