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Panthers alumni answer questions about Cam Newton

Icege

By Icege,
in Carolina Panthers

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Icege

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The Athletic article

Joe Person has a two part series that he is working on where he speaks with former Panthers players about Panthers-related topics.

Some interesting answers... excerpt below of two of the questions asked as well as all seven players' responses.

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In a word or two, life without Cam Newton as the Panthers’ QB will be …?
Mike Tolbert (fullback, 2012-16): Boring, like quarantine. Cam brought the excitement, man. To the locker room, to the community, to the team. Every team out there has a personality. And right now I don’t see anybody that can fill that void on this Panthers team, other than maybe Curtis Samuel. But he’s not as out there like that.

Roman Harper (safety, 2014-15): A place of anxiety. I think we’re anxious to see what’s gonna happen, what it’s gonna look like. You have this new name of Joe Brady and this offensive (system) everybody’s talked so great about it. So excited to see how that unfolds. And also, you don’t have the No. 1 overall quarterback with a big personality that overshines that. Now everything that does happen that’s great will go to Joe Brady. Teddy Bridgewater’s not gonna overshadow that part of it. And also, the organization as a whole, I think they’re anxious to see how they move on and how they trend without Cam Newton because you can’t say the Carolina Panthers without saying the (name), Cam Newton, in a sentence before this.

Jordan Gross (left tackle, 2003-13): Unusual.

Muhsin Muhammad (receiver, 1996-2004, 2008-09): Less controversial and less entertaining.

Colin Cole (defensive tackle, 2013-15): A growing pain. There’s gonna be some growing pains. It’s gonna be a situation where you learn. I think you change your philosophy as a team. I say life without Cam in the Panther locker room is gonna be different. You don’t have that big, boisterous personality, and a guy that was definitely a known leader.

Frank Garcia (guard/center, 1995-2000): Boring, bland, vanilla.

Wesley Walls (tight end, 1996-2002): Very different.

Did the Panthers err by waiting to release Newton fairly late in free agency?
Tolbert: Yes. They’ve been doing him wrong timing-wise for the past two or three years, if you ask me. It goes back to his shoulder surgery. Everyone knew his shoulder was messed up in the middle of the year two years ago. But they wait until offseason gets ready to start to have shoulder surgery. Makes no sense. Timing’s off. As soon as he got hurt (last) preseason against the Patriots, they were saying, “Oh, he’s got a high ankle sprain.” I looked at it on film carefully. It’s not a high ankle sprain, you could tell that 10 minutes after the play. You knew it’s a mid-foot sprain, Lisfranc, something like that. But you wait ‘til December for him to beg you to have surgery. He shouldn’t have been out there Week 1 and 2. He shouldn’t have been out there probably ‘til Week 4 or 5, at minimum.

Harper: Yes, I totally think so, 3,000 percent. I don’t like the excuse of, “Well, we didn’t know.” If you have any questions and you have anything doing, I think you make the move. And I don’t think Cam would be on the street right now if everybody knew in the whole NFL that Cam Newton was gonna be available. That’s a huge deal, where now you actually get to shop around. When they released him, teams had already bid and picked their quarterbacks. The Colts had already went and found Philip Rivers. You also gotta have the right (chemistry) to be able to take on a personality and a player of Cam Newton’s existence.

Cole: I think it’s difficult no matter how you look at it. This is a business. They could have done things differently. Things could always be done differently. … I’ve been part of an organization that let a first-ballot Hall of Famer in Brett Favre walk away. And I’ve been around to see another first-ballot-to-be Hall of Famer Peyton Manning leave an organization he’d set multiple records with. And now we’ve all lived to be able to see something we never thought we’d see, which is Tom Brady in the NFC South. Anything is possible in this game, so nothing surprises me. But at the end of the day, nobody’s gonna like being cut, nobody’s gonna like cutting anybody. It’s just a part of the business.

Garcia: No. There’s a lot that comes with Cam as the package. He has a big personality and when you’re trying to establish leadership and identity and roles, you can’t have one guy bucking the system. I think that was a big factor, as well as potential reinjury with him. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty with him.

Walls: No. I thought it was handled as professionally as it could be. It’s a tough deal. Cam had a lot of success. And unfortunately, the injuries — which it does to every player out there — at some point your body fails you. And that sort of happened to Cam. But he’s probably got some more playing days ahead of him. I hope so, because he was fun to watch.

Gross: I think so. It would have been better for Cam to have more time in free agency before it began. And now especially — nobody knew we were all gonna be in lockdown. Anybody that’s coming off an injured season needs to have hands-on by teams for them to feel good about you. And Cam’s that by 10 times more because of his injury history. So teams are going to be cautious about doing any kind of signing because their ability to see him in person is limited. You can have a doctor’s note saying you’re limited. But every team in the world is gonna want to have their own guys check him out.

Muhammad: I don’t think COVID-19 did him any favors. I’ll just leave it at that.

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nosuchthingasapanther Explorer

nosuchthingasapanther

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But you wait 'til December for him to beg you to have surgery.

i thought newton was always against surgery, and any delays were a result of him exhausting every option before going under the knife?

and since when does an athlete, or anyone for that matter, have to beg for surgery? don't they have the final say so as to what happens when they get injured?

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jfra78 Veteran

jfra78

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2 minutes ago, nosuchthingasapanther said:

i thought newton was always against surgery, and any delays were a result of him exhausting every option before going under the knife?

and since when does an athlete, or anyone for that matter, have to beg for surgery? don't they have the final say so as to what happens when they get injured?

I thought so as well, but maybe not.  I would think ex players would know how it works better than us tho

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saX man Mentor

saX man

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I guess the small positive is that we got rid of a lot of the people who made the poor decisions around him the past 2-3 years.  Though, the new regime did flub the release. 

Harper makes a very interesting point.  We were a team with a QB that the offense should have been curated around (done poorly with Shula) and now we're heading to promising system with a QB that works within it.  Question is, how good can the offense Brady brings in turn it up?

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