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N.F.L. FAST FORWARD
Panthers’ Newton Exceeds Expectations With Fast Start
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Cam Newton, leaping after a touchdown, was able to study the playbook during the lockout. Carolina has scored 44 pointsbut is 0-2.
By JUDY BATTISTAPublished: September 19, 2011
Just a few weeks ago, Carolina Panthers Coach Ron Rivera wasdespairing over all the preparation time his team — young andrebuilding — missed because of the lockout. The rookie camp, theminicamps, the hours of practices, the hundreds of repetitions.
“All those young guys could havegotten great development,” Riverasaid. “Especially in our situation, witha rookie quarterback.”
What would Cam Newton have donewith a normal off-season? We won’tknow until next year, but for now,Newton, the rookie quarterback fromAuburn who was supposed to needtime to transition from the spread offense he ran in collegeto a more N.F.L.-friendly pocket game, has stunned theleague with a record-setting first two weeks.
On Sunday, Newton passed for a single-game rookie recordof 432 yards against Green Bay, a blitz-heavy team. Thatwas 10 more yards than he passed for last week in his prodebut, and he is the first N.F.L. player to begin his careerwith consecutive 400-yard passing games. Yes, there werefour sacks and three interceptions Sunday, and two losses
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The Panthers' Cam Newton haspassed for 422 and 432 yards in hisfirst two N.F.L. starts despite thereduced preparation resulting from thelockout.
A version of this article appeared in print on September 20, 2011, on
over all. But Newton has surpassed any reasonableexpectations.
Gil Brandt, the former Dallas Cowboys executive whoanalyzes college players and the draft for NFL.com, startedmonitoring Newton intensively last fall and was impressedby his talent and leadership skills. But even Brandt isshocked that Newton has thrown for so many yards so fast.
“Am I surprised he threw for 400 yards both games? Yes,”Brandt said. “Am I surprised he’s doing well? No. I had noquestion in my mind he’s going to do well.”
The Panthers are a rebuilding team with few receivingthreats, but they did acquire tight ends Jeremy Shockeyand Greg Olsen in the off-season to provide Newton withreliable targets. Still, the questions about Newton revolvedaround whether he, like Tim Tebow in Denver, wouldstruggle to adapt to a pro-style game. The two, though, aresignificantly different. Newton is the far superior athletictalent, and he is not laden with an unorthodox throwingmotion, as Tebow is. Newton throws a better pass thatreaches its intended target more quickly than Tebow does,and Newton recognizes defenses more readily. The result:while Tebow took snaps as a backup wide receiver to getplaying time for the Broncos last week, Newton is single-handedly keeping the Panthers competitive.
“The ball explodes off his hands, and he can changespeeds,” the ESPN analyst and former quarterback Trent
Dilfer said of Newton. “Tebow can’t do that. It’s night and day between the two players.”
During the summer, Rivera lauded Newton’s work habits. “You meet him and all thedifferent things you can do with him — the book time, the film time, the walk-throughtime, the practice and postpractice — the kid has been terrific and very open to teaching,”he said. While the N.F.L. was at a standstill during the lockout, Newton trained at the IMGAcademy with the former N.F.L. quarterback Chris Weinke. Weinke is a former Carolinaquarterback, too, and his relationship with the franchise undoubtedly allowed him to gaininsight into the type of offense the Panthers planned to run this year.
Newton was able to get the Carolina playbook during the brief window when the lockoutended around the time of the draft. That allowed him to get a head start with Weinke.Dilfer is familiar with it, too, because he knows Norv Turner’s playbook and Turnerschooled Carolina’s offensive coordinator, Rob Chudzinski. Dilfer said it was awell-designed playbook that allowed a quarterback, even a new one, to develop pictures inhis head of the plays and to be able to call the plays in a short period of time. So eventhough there were no off-season workouts, when Newton finally got to training camp, hewas able to call the plays right away.
As for Newton’s flaws, Dilfer said Newton would most likely always miss high, because inhis initial training as a thrower in college he tilted his body at angles to throw, so that hisleft shoulder still tilts upward, and then he has to get everything level to get the ball in astraight plane. Dilfer said his technique had improved drastically, but that would mostlikely always be something he had to correct.
As for developing Newton, Dilfer said the Panthers were taking the correct approach, evenas they struggle to win games in a rebuilding year.
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