Written by: Tyler Deakin
What’s that sound? That’s the sound of the internet breaking after Cam Newton re-signed with the Carolina Panthers on this random Thursday afternoon in November. The timeline of events is astonishing, as NFL.com reported at 10:30 A.M. ET that Panthers owner David Tepper & head coach Matt Rhule were meeting with Newton this afternoon. By noon, both sides had agreed to terms on a 1-year $10M contract and even made it Instagram official. I’m going to explain the sequence of events that made this signing happen, and why this was a great deal for both parties. We’ll start by looking into the factors that made this an easy decision for Cam.
Great opportunity for Cam
Cam Newton’s signing with the Panthers happened so quickly because he recently decided to become vaccinated against COVID-19. I’m not going to get into the political debate here, but the fact is that unvaccinated free agent players have almost zero shot of making an NFL roster this year. That’s because per NFL rules, “unvaccinated free agents must also test negative for five consecutive days before being allowed to enter a team facility.” Teams just aren’t going to wait that long for any player to become available to them. That said, it’s not like NFL teams were blowing up Newton’s phone either. I thought at the time of his release that teams such as the Texans, Jets, & Jaguars would show interest & they didn’t. Months later, Russell Wilson broke his finger & I thought surely the Seahawks would sign Cam. They passed, which is why filling in for an injured Sam Darnold presented a great opportunity for Cam’s career resurgence.
Sam Darnold experiment goes wrong
The Panthers took a huge gamble in trading for former Jets QB Sam Darnold this offseason. They gave up a 2021 6th round pick, a 2022 2nd round pick, and a 2022 4th round pick to acquire Darnold, but the bigger issue is the opportunity cost they lost by acquiring him. His status as the team’s new franchise QB meant that the team passed on other talented QBs in this year’s draft such as Alabama’s Mac Jones. Panthers head coach Matt Rhule recently told reporters regarding Mac Jones, “I knew he was going to be a longtime pro, because he just has all the right qualities and all the right things that are essential to being a great player.” There’s irony here in the fact that the Panthers had the opportunity to draft Jones & instead stuck with Sam Darnold, who was recently benched & now out several weeks with an injured shoulder.
Missing out on Deshaun Watson
Again, this is an issue of opportunity cost from the failed Sam Darnold trade as the Panthers could’ve been more aggressive in signing Deshaun Watson if Darnold wasn’t already on their roster. Now, maybe that ended up being a good thing for them given the many allegations against the player right now. That said, it’s hard to deny that the Panthers have shown some interest in Watson & will likely continue to do so in the coming months. It will be interesting to see what the Panthers decide to do at QB this offseason, whether that means re-signing Sam Darnold, re-signing Cam Newton, trading for Deshaun Watson, or drafting a rookie.
Smart move for the Panthers
This was a brilliant move for the Panthers short-term prospects in that the team is 4-5 & Cam gives them the best opportunity at relevance in the NFC playoff picture. Newton won’t be prepared enough to take the field this Sunday against the Cardinals, but he should be ready to play in next week’s game against Washington. Ironically, he’ll be facing off against his former coach Ron Rivera, who is now the head coach of the Football Team. There will be plenty of storylines to follow in that contest. Both the team & player should be happy with this signing.