Bill Barnwell on the Panthers[and Cam]

[Gucci Mane]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9806344/bill-barnwell-carolina-panthers-offense

 

 

To them and those worried about Newton's development: chill. This is probably going to work out, because Newton is playing pretty well right now, just as he has over the course of his pro career. And even if Newton doesn't end up being the long-term answer in Carolina, consider that the guy who would be picking up the starting duties for the Panthers would be one Derek Anderson. You know, the guy who is last in completion percentage and passer rating and third-to-last in yards per attempt among passers with 1,000 attempts or more since he joined the league in 2006. The guy who lost jobs to Brady Quinn, John Skelton, and Max Hall the last time he got NFL reps.

 

 

 

Good and long article and he uses gifs to prove some points.

[the butch]

Grantland smacks ESPN out of the park.  One of the best sports/entertainment sites out there.

[tondi]

Good insight into whats been going on with our offense this season

[UNCrules2187]

Grantland is owned by ESPN...but they definitely employ much better writers.

[the butch]

Barnwell's closing statement:

 

 

 

Panthers fans would be well advised to wait on Newton; he's the guy holding up a middling offense, not the other way around.

 

[Happy Panther]

Barnwell's closing statement:

 

Was just going to post that.

 

Sounds about right. To hard to tell if Cam is going to develop

[rayzor]

 

That's where the faulty supporting cast around Newton starts: those receivers. For three years now, we've known the Panthers have needed to upgrade the receiving corps. Smith is tough as nails, but he's 34 and likely stretched as a starting wideout. He wasn't supposed to be the no. 1 guy by a significant margin at this point. The receivers around him have been players who didn't make it off special teams elsewhere in the league, guys like Legedu Naanee, Louis Murphy, and Ted Ginn. LaFell has settled in as the starter next to Ginn, but he's a raw player who has failed to exhibit many signs of refinement, even after starting 24 games as a pro. Tight end Greg Olsen is a competent starter, but everyone here is stretched into a role they're not good enough to handle. Smith would be a great second wideout, but he's a below-average top wideout. Olsen would be an excellent safety valve and occasional seam-splitter, but here he has to do his bad impression of Owen Daniels. LaFell would be a fifth wideout on some teams. Ginn wouldn't take offensive snaps for half the league. That's not the case in Charlotte.

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It's also fair to say Newton isn't currently in the best coaching situation available. While Colin Kaepernick gets to study under Jim Harbaugh and Andrew Luck works with his former Stanford offensive coordinator, Pep Hamilton, Newton is stuck fighting with coaches who appear insistent upon playing against his strengths. Some of Newton's success during his rookie season is unquestionably owed to then–offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who implemented the read-option as part of the Carolina playbook to ease Newton's transition into the NFL. A year later, it swept the league by storm with its success in Washington and San Francisco, but the Panthers spent the second half transitioning to a more conventional offense, a path they further traveled after Chudzinski left for the head coaching job in Cleveland and quarterbacks coach Mike Shula took over. The traditional scheme Shula set out to run was so boring and blasé that they've had to implement read-option plays just to give the offense a boost.

 

Shula's boss might be the biggest reason why Newton is struggling to win over the fans. I've written many times about how Rivera's conservative nature has cost the Panthers late in games, most recently in the Week 2 loss to the Bills. The Panthers are a whopping 2-14 in games decided by a touchdown or less with Newton and Rivera in town, and while Newton isn't immune to the occasional bad pass late in games, there are several contests amid these 16 that simply aren't Newton's fault. There's the loss to the Bills this year, when Rivera spurned a game-sealing fourth-and-1 at the end of the fourth quarter to punt and let his defense hold up. They gave up a game-winning touchdown with six seconds left. That wasn't much different from the Falcons game in Atlanta from the previous year, when the Panthers held the lead deep in the fourth quarter with a chance to seal things, only for the Panthers to punt and promptly give up a game-winning touchdown less than two minutes later. If Rivera were making optimal decisions deep into the game, they wouldn't be this bad in close contests. And if they weren't this bad in close games, the fans wouldn't be anywhere near as hard on Newton as they might be right now. They might have had a 9-7 team last year and a 2-2 team right now. They would have seen a team with a steadily improving record and projected that onto Newton instead.

 

i'm not going to be able to disagree with much of any of this.

[jtnc]

Trade Cam, right guiz?

[teeray]

Good points

[KJ89]

Grantland smacks ESPN out of the park. One of the best sports/entertainment sites out there.

They just won themselves a subscribtion or whatever.

[The_Mango55]

Yeah I read grantland daily and Barnwell knows his stuff.

[SgtJoo]

Really good article.

 

Inb4 Sammy Watkins?

[Kurb]

 

 

It's also fair to say Newton isn't currently in the best coaching situation available. While Colin Kaepernick gets to study under Jim Harbaugh and Andrew Luck works with his former Stanford offensive coordinator, Pep Hamilton, Newton is stuck fighting with coaches who appear insistent upon playing against his strengths. Some of Newton's success during his rookie season is unquestionably owed to then–offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who implemented the read-option as part of the Carolina playbook to ease Newton's transition into the NFL. A year later, it swept the league by storm with its success in Washington and San Francisco, but the Panthers spent the second half transitioning to a more conventional offense, a path they further traveled after Chudzinski left for the head coaching job in Cleveland and quarterbacks coach Mike Shula took over. The traditional scheme Shula set out to run was so boring and blasé that they've had to implement read-option plays just to give the offense a boost.

 

 

Read that over and over and over and over until you fuging mouth breathers understand at least one fuging thing about football.

[ctrcat]

Bada Bing Bada Boom, like I said I wouldn't trade Cam for anyone. 

 

Someone NEEEEEEEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  to send this to Marc with a C James, since he LOVED the Hurney article they did last year (as did I).