Cam Newton took a few minutes to talk with the media about a myriad of things on Wednesday at BOA stadium.
Forgive the author for not having a complete transcript, but some of the topics covered were the new offense under OC Mike Shula, the difficulty in competing with the defense in practice--specifically the beastly starting LB group, some of the new weapons at his disposal, his weight-loss, a league-wide QB foot-race and of course--just Cam being Cam.
Cam said that the 'new' offense would much like the 'old' offense, with the most notable change being the verbiage. He intimated that the actual play-call would be shortened--for the sake of brevity--so the players could move on faster and focus on their individual job for that play. The reporters (Person) were trying to get him to say that it would be a more traditional offense emphasizing the running game and play-action passing, but Newton gave nothing away.
Cam addressed the fierce competition in OTAs--and mentioned the linebackers specifically, citing Beason's fast recovery [author cringes] and what he means to the defense from a leadership perspective.
Joe Person asked Cam about some of the new offensive weapons at his disposal. He seemed genuinely excited about Tedd Ginn and Dominic Hixon and the speed and explosiveness they add to his group of receivers. Person asked if those two characteristics were lacking last year, before Ginn's and Hixon's arrival, but Cam sort of scoffed at that notion, implying that Smith and Murphy were also capable of blowing the top off the defense.
When asked about his offseason weight-loss, Cam said that he's lost 12lbs since last season, and that puts him (before a big dinner last night) at 243. He said that you couldn't really tell by looking at him (as that's maybe 5% of his body weight) but that he set that as a goal in January. He didn't say why that was his goal, but he might have gave it away later when asked about other QBs and who is the fastest guy in the league...
You might remember that Michael Vick proclaimed that he was still the fastest QB in the league a week or two ago. When asked his take on this, Jordan Gross decided to drop this epic video bomb, and it totally derailed Newton, to the delight of the crowd. When Newton got serious again he said that Vick is still very fast (faster than he) and that he'd leave that 'title' between RGIII, Colin and Mike.
Jumping back in to the weight-loss thing, he did say that he doesn't want to be the fastest guy, he just doesn't want to be the guy getting caught from behind. I wouldn't say that he got caught from behind last season, but there were a couple of long runs he broke off where the safety sort of had an angle on him and cut him off well enough to prevent a TD. Maybe that's what prompted him to set his weight-loss goal?...Just trying to read between the lines here.
Lastly, here are some tweets for your enjoyment...
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>I learned Cam ate hot wings yesterday</p>— James Dator (@James_Dator) <a href="https://twitter.com/James_Dator/status/339788957686583298">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Cam on being leader and team captain - captain not just patch on the jersey, going about it everyday to make it happen</p>— Bobby Rosinski (@BobbyRosinski) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyRosinski/status/339787723256762368">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>"I don't want to be the fastest quarterback, I want to be the guy who can't be caught" -- Newton</p>— James Dator (@James_Dator) <a href="https://twitter.com/James_Dator/status/339789087617728512">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Cam - feeling of a loss has a greater impact then that of a win</p>— Bobby Rosinski (@BobbyRosinski) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyRosinski/status/339789303444017153">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>YES! The first Newton malaprop of 2013 "rubbing batter on the cake". I was worried he was getting too trained for these</p>— James Dator (@James_Dator) <a href="https://twitter.com/James_Dator/status/339790100542156800">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>As polished as Cam Newton can appear, every now and then he just simple-and-plain stomps all over the American idiom. I find it refreshing.</p>— Darin Gantt (@daringantt) <a href="https://twitter.com/daringantt/status/339790919672926209">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Jordan Gross photobombed Cam's press conference today, and it was awesome. <a href="http://t.co/hEZFTxLlML" title="http://sbn.to/146TxSG">sbn.to/146TxSG</a></p>— Cat Scratch Reader (@CatScratchReadr) <a href="https://twitter.com/CatScratchReadr/status/339792204786720768">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote>
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