Is This It For Cam Newton?

- Dawson Haywood

Being a Charlotte native it is heartbreaking to see one of the greatest athletes to come through the city struggling to find a team to play for a few years after having one of the most impressive MVP seasons the NFL has seen for a long time. At 32 years old if Cam Newton cannot find a team to sign with by the middle of this upcoming season it is likely that we will see him retire. 

The last two seasons that he has played more than 13 games in have been underwhelming to say the least. Cam has not had a winning record since 2017 when he led the Carolina Panthers to a 11-5 season and a trip to the Wildcard round falling short to division rivals, the New Orleans Saints. The following year, Newton's Panthers finished the season 7-9 after starting hot with a 6-2 record. Not to bring up the ugly past but most Panthers fans will remember the Pittsburgh game that started the downfall of Carolina, and arguably Cam Newton, that season.

Newton would go on to suffer injuries late into that 2018 season which translated into the 2019 season where we saw Cam play his last game as a Panther on September 12, 2019 losing to Jamis Winston and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. From there, Kyle Allen took over for the rest of the season and the Carolina Panthers have yet to find a steady quarterback since.

Since then, Newton had been released from Carolina, signed to New England, played one season, and as of this week released from them to make space for Rookie, Mac Jones. So now the question remains. Does Cam Newton still belong in the NFL? 

It's hard to make a case for him, especially after last year's performance under future Hall of Fame Coach, Bill Belichick. Newton threw 8 touchdowns and 10 interceptions with 368 passing attempts. The only positive thing about this stat is that 10 interceptions is the least amount of interceptions he has thrown when he has played 14+ games but he also had the least amount of attempts in his career this past season. 

For now, Newton is a backup at best. It sucks because it what Carolina did to him was screwed up. Had he been given more time to talk with other teams when they released him we may be having an entirely different opinion on Newton. Going through the list of starting quarterbacks this season there are not that many teams that have a demand for a starting quarterback. The only teams that would show interest would be Washington, Denver, and maybe Carolina again. Other than that, Newton will not find himself starting anywhere else. it seems that this could be the end of Carolina's MVP Cam Newton. Only time will tell.