Newton starter vs Bengals, Week 1 starter TBD

[Sword]

@carolinagrowl

Steve Reed

Breaking news: Coach Ron Rivera has named QB Cam Newton the starter for Thursday night but not the season opener yet.

Also Hardy is back at practice.

Cam will play 3 quarters.

[KillerKat]

So Rivera is going to wait 1 more preaseason game before announcing? That'll be cool since that's what I had been calling for.

[Reapuh]

billvoth Bill Voth

Cam will play around 3 quarters. Again, he hasn't been named regular season starter. But it's there for him.

Gonna have 3 quarters. Him playing that much makes it seem like they really want Cam to start.

[pantherfan81]

He's gonna play 3 quarters too? Wowzerz.

[mav1234]

wow rivera, wow

"so uh, guys... we really wanted Cam to look good, but damn, he just isn't stepping up like we hoped, so we're gonna give him three quarters this time and hope he does :)"

just name him the starter, jesus. it's obvious that is what you want to do.

[nosuchthingasapanther]

Gonna have 3 quarters. Him playing that much makes it seem like they really want Cam to start.

i'm convinced of that now.

...but if he doesn't lead a touchdown drive in 3 quarters, then what?

[KillerKat]

wow rivera, wow

"so uh, guys... we really wanted Cam to look good, but damn, he just isn't stepping up like we hoped, so we're gonna give him three quarters this time and hope he does :)"

just name him the starter, jesus. it's obvious that is what you want to do.

Maybe he decided to ditch the whole idea of having at least 1 preseason game treated as a regular season game and give Clausen 3 quarters in game 4 too and then make a decision?

[Tarheels23]

So he's our week 1 starter pretty much. Game 3 is the dress rehearsal, so I don't see it changing.

[Panthers128]

Well giving someone play time does not give them an advantage to start. If Newton comes out and throws 3 or 4 interceptions, it seemingly would almost force them not to start him.

[Oldschool Leroy]

It is setting up an awkward scenario if Cam plays lousy. It seems to me that Cam is going to be the guy no matter what.

[Kevin Greene]

Excellent news!

[YoungPanthers89]

Beason and otah still out fwiw

[AceMan]

:cam:

[mav1234]

Maybe he decided to ditch the whole idea of having at least 1 preseason game treated as a regular season game and give Clausen 3 quarters in game 4 too and then make a decision?

Perhaps, but that would massively lean things in Clausen's favor, because very few teams are going to play starters in game 4 for more than a quarter at most and if he takes out our starters, jimmy will be playing with our 2nd team which may make a difficult comparison. Still, you may be right.

I think he really wanted one of the guys to step up in these games and neither did so he's just going to go with the one with more upside.