Interesting article by NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell about Cam Newton

[mbarbour21]

The story with Cam, if you have been paying attention, is quite simple. He is crazy talented, and was blessed physically with his build. (You can't teach 6'5") He only played one year on the big stage in college and won it all. He went to the worst offense (32nd), and immediately turned them into a top 10 (7th). He has lacked playmakers/consistent running game and protection. However, he has still made his team relevant. His progression has been slowed, in opinion of most here, by a number of things. Lack of protection, weapons, running game, lack of consistency in receivers/coaches, and more. Not making excuses for him, but whether people want to admit it or not, this will be the first year we have seen them truly try to build around Cam (offensively). If Oher pans out, look for an amazing year. 

[@bonafidebanter]

Greg repeats this on WFNZ EVERY time he's on there. I like Greg and his Philly accent makes me laugh. Here's to Cam taking this team with a college-like offense to the NFC Championship and beyond!

[Louie]

Greg Cossell is awesome. He really knows his stuff, but I do think he missed the obvious fact, brought up by Oudaman90, that when Cam has good protection he is a better passer. The reason he was better earlier in his career is he had Jordan Gross at LT. Its hard to pass effectively when you are the most hit QB in the league. IF our offensive line can be average at pass protection this year, our offense will be much better this year. Cam does need to work on some touch throws on short and intermediate throws, but he can develop it. Warren Moon wasn't the most accurate passer with touch early in his career, but he developed it and became a HOF QB. Cam can, and I belive will, do it too.

[TheRed]

The line about haters made me think this was written by a huddler for a second, hmm, is Cosell a lurker?

Cosell usually makes many good points. Overall he knows what he's talking about for the most part.

I think he's off about Newton not really making his receivers better though. Steve Smith experienced some pretty nice numbers with Newton his first couple of seasons, Ted Ginn had a career year here, Greg Olsen is having his best years yet with Newton, and even Lafell ended up with a decent payday from New England. Not to mention he just spent an entire season with a rookie Benjamin as his #1 WR, and the guy put up 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns.

[teeray]

You have to evaluate Cam on the whole.  

Think about it.  If Cam was a perfect precision passer he would literally be unstoppable and the greatest QB the world has ever seen when you factor in his arm strength and running ability.

 But he does miss some throws here and there (as do most QBs).  But when you evaluate him, you have to take into account also the things he CAN do that other NFL QBs CAN'T.

And those things even out some of the bad things (like missing certain throws occasionally).

You can't say "look at this throw, only 4 or 5 people can make that throw and is one of the best scramblers/runners we have ever seen" and then say "he misses, therefore he is frustrating"

It is like saying Cam is frustrating because he isn't the best QB you can ever imagine.  A precision passer, with a cannon for an arm, amazing scrambling ability, with amazing strength.

It isn't frustrating, it is God's way of keeping it fair for the rest of the football world.

[Mr. Scot]

Cam is a bigger strong faster version of Brett Favre. Not a terrible player to be.

 

We all HOPE his touch and accuracy improve. Early otas tell us this may be a thing, but shorts/hats/ect

Favre's didn't really improve all that much. They built around him to minimize the WTF throws, but they never went away.

That might be Cam too, but Favre was successful anyway.

[TheRed]

We all know about the inconsistencies with Newton's accuracy.

Much of that is due to footwork though. We know the guy is a worker, and we know he is now fully healthy. It only makes sense that obviously his accuracy has been a point of emphasis with him and coaches this offseason. But even with his inconsistent accuracy, I think people exaggerate it a little bit considering where some of the current top QB's were only 4 years in. For a comparison, look at Newton's completion % versus a guy like Luck who is the consensus top young QB right now, they are both hovering right around 59% for their career, and their QB ratings are each around 86%. Luck is 25, and Newton is 26, they have many years ahead of them, and it stands to reason that they will be improving in those years. You add in the fact that Newton only came in with 1 full year in the SEC, he's a little further behind than some of these other guys were at this point in their careers.

[pantherking15]

That's what you get when you get an actual analyst that has watched every snap of his professional career. 

​I put a lot of stock into what Cosell says because, like Gettleman, he forms his opinion based on watching game tape, unlike your typical NFL.com or ESPN writer that has subtle agendas to promote or narratives to follow (looking at you David Newton).

[Mr. Scot]

​I put a lot of stock into what Cosell says because, like Gettleman, he forms his opinion based on watching game tape, unlike your typical NFL.com or ESPN writer that has subtle agendas to promote or narratives to follow (looking at you David Newton).

Cosell is one of the single best analysts out there right now.

[CelibatePimp]

We all know about the inconsistencies with Newton's accuracy.

Much of that is due to footwork though. We know the guy is a worker, and we know he is now fully healthy. It only makes sense that obviously his accuracy has been a point of emphasis with him and coaches this offseason. But even with his inconsistent accuracy, I think people exaggerate it a little bit considering where some of the current top QB's were only 4 years in. For a comparison, look at Newton's completion % versus a guy like Luck who is the consensus top young QB right now, they are both hovering right around 59% for their career, and their QB ratings are each around 86%. Luck is 25, and Newton is 26, they have many years ahead of them, and it stands to reason that they will be improving in those years. You add in the fact that Newton only came in with 1 full year in the SEC, he's a little further behind than some of these other guys were at this point in their careers.

Luck has had under 60% comp once in his career, his rookie year where he was at a terrible 54%. Since then his comp% has gone up every year. Same with his rating, he was a terrible 76.5 his rookie season but have been improving since. He was at 96.5 last season. Cam has never been 90 in a season.

That's the whole point of this article. He suggests that the staff have probably realized that Cam may not improve any further so it's time to build and run the offense to his other strengths.

[TheRed]

Luck has had under 60% comp once in his career, his rookie year where he was at a terrible 54%. Since then his comp% has gone up every year. Same with his rating, he was a terrible 76.5 his rookie season but have been improving since. He was at 96.5 last season. Cam has never been 90 in a season.

That's the whole point of this article. He suggests that the staff has probably realized that Cam may not improve any further so it's time to build and run the offense to his other strengths.

​Do you really want to split hairs regarding their completion percentage?

Career: Luck - 58.6. Career: Newton - 59.5.

I'll have a discussion with you, but I'm not going to debate this. If you want to go in depth on things, okay.

Luck's QB rating last year improved because he threw for 40 touchdowns on 616 attempts, and he still only had a 61% completion rate.

You don't actually believe that our staff does not think Newton will improve any further, do you? The guy is 26 years old, lol. Do you think the Colts doubt that Luck will improve any further? No? That's just about the stupidest poo you ever heard of? Yes? Well that's good, because it should be.

[CelibatePimp]

​Do you really want to split hairs regarding their completion percentage?

Career: Luck - 58.6. Career: Newton - 59.5.

I'll have a discussion with you, but I'm not going to debate this. If you want to go in depth on things, okay.

Luck's QB rating last year improved because he threw for 40 touchdowns on 616 attempts, and he still only had a 61% completion rate.

You don't actually believe that our staff does not think Newton will improve any further, do you? The guy is 26 years old, lol. Do you think the Colts doubt that Luck will improve any further? No? That's just about the stupidest poo you ever heard of? Yes? Well that's good, because it should be.

​Sometimes it's not that simple. You are looking for a trend here not the simple career stats. Career will suggest they are the same but looking at it season by season, it will show that his completion and rating have been improving each year whereas Newton's has sort of hovered around the same place.

I think that's the premise of the whole article, it's time to build around his strengths and not try to make him who he is not.

[TheRed]

​Sometimes it's not that simple. You are looking for a trend here not the simple career stats. Career will suggest they are the same but looking at it season by season, it will show that his completion and rating have been improving each year whereas Newton's has sort of hovered around the same place.

I think that's the premise of the whole article, it's time to build around his strengths and not try to make him who he is not.

​The thing about it is, the 2014 season threw a monkey wrench into everything.

We saw how much Newton improved in 2013, his completion rate was at 61%, he didn't throw for a ton of yards but he put up 31 total touchdowns, and his QB rating was 89%. Luck has definitely steadily been improving, but we haven't seen him hobbled yet by ankle surgery, a rib injury, a back injury, a completely new WR corps, and a very limited offseason. That is a tough scenario for any quarterback, and to view the complete picture, you have to take it into account.

But I don't want to make this another one of those direct comparison threads.

Both Luck, and Newton look to have very bright futures, and my whole point was, nobody knows how much room they have left to improve. The sky is the limit.

[CelibatePimp]

​The thing about it is, the 2014 season threw a monkey wrench into everything.

We saw how much Newton improved in 2013, his completion rate was at 61%, he didn't throw for a ton of yards but he put up 31 total touchdowns, and his QB rating was 89%. Luck has definitely steadily been improving, but we haven't seen him hobbled yet by ankle surgery, a rib injury, a back injury, a completely new WR corps, and a very limited offseason. That is a tough scenario for any quarterback, and to view the complete picture, you have to take it into account.

But I don't want to make this another one of those direct comparison threads.

Both Luck, and Newton look to have very bright futures, and my whole point was, nobody knows how much room they have left to improve. The sky is the limit.

​Last year definitely made it difficult to gauge Newton. I'm really interested in this year since he will be healthy and will have enough weapons to work with. If he improves over 2013 then we know that he hasn't peaked.