The NFL is definitely a "what have you done for me lately" league. If we are being honest, every major sports league is, even down to the college level. We may celebrate past Stanley Cups, or World Series trophies, or amazing back to back NBA Championships, but at the end of the day, it has all happened already. Maybe it happened a year ago, perhaps it was 10 years ago, or maybe 30. Everything revolves around winning now, and that means finding the perfect balance of talent and coaching to make a team go from a dud to a Super Bowl winning stud. As of now, the Panthers have very little coaching and not enough talent. But why? Why such a sudden decline?
Isn't this relatively the same team that won 12 games and a playoff berth last year? It obviously isn't, and it has become painfully obvious that last year was a fluke, and that we were nothing more than pretenders who got lucky, and that luck ran out when we hit the big stage with the big boys. The loss to the San Francisco 49ers in last year's Divisional Round seems like an age ago, but that was the last time this Carolina Panthers franchise fielded a team we could be proud of. A team that was doing something for us lately. Fast forward to now and we are currently a 3-6-1 team. The only reason we are still even relevant is because the NFC South is a wasteland, which is a first for this division since it's inception. I still haven't answered my initial question yet, though. Why are we this bad?
A friend of mine here at NC State always rags on me about Cam Newton. You see, he is an Indianapolis Colts fan, so he has Andrew Luck and a good Colts team to poke fun at me with. It sucks to never have a comeback better than "well, at least our QB doesn't look like he belongs on a Geico caveman commercial." It also sucks having to use the same excuses to back up Newton and his play this season, or the fact he hasn't won a playoff game yet. The fact is, the excuses I bring up to my Colts fan friend could actually be valid points...
The main idea behind all of this is: Cam Newton is not the problem with the Carolina Panthers. Many of you savvy CSR readers probably already know this, so I might be preaching to the proverbial choir. But I am writing this, a mere hour after the disastrous loss to the Philadelphia Eagles to perhaps help you defend Cam Newton as well. Is he flawed? Yes. Does he make mistakes? Yes. Is he on par with the Peyton Manning's and Tom Brady's of the NFL? Absolutely not. But is he a dynamic QB? You bet your ass he is. And if we want him to stay that way and become and even better QB, we need to change a lot of things here in Carolina.
I want to share a list of those things with you here (I will say this: again, I am writing this in the hopes that if you are looking for ways to educate "fans" hell bent on calling for Cam's head, then I hope this article will give you some ammo in the fight to convince them otherwise, or at least bring some valid points to the forefront. If I missed anything you deem relevant or want to add, please do so in the comments). So for better or for worse, here we go with a top down approach starting with the front office!
Panthers Front Office
GM Dave Gettleman
I was a firm believer in the man from up north. I'll say that he charmed me with his smile, and his quirky clothes and his funny pronunciations like "Stah" in reference to Star Lotulelei, and all that jazz. The bloom is off the rose for me now though. Many will take the point I'm about to make and say that he was cash strapped by former GM Marty Hurney, and that bad contracts by Hurney have painted him in a corner and blah blah blah. I'm not sloughing those points off as not being valid, rather I'm saying that while true, Gettleman has had opportunities to bring in help on offense for Cam Newton to succeed, and he failed to do so.
He has hid behind the now infamous line, that: "the answer is on the roster". Well, if the answer leaves you in a pile of crap up to your eyeballs, it probably isn't a good answer to your roster question. I have said in the threads that leaving Newton with such horrific "protection" is utterly unconscionable. Four UDFA's and one Pro Bowl center, an offensive line does not make. Granted injuries have taken a toll, but who in their right mind, and be honest here, really thought that self-proclaimed nice guy Byron Bell and Nate Chandler were starting tackles in the NFL. When the crickets stop chirping, I'll continue.
I can hear you now though, "but Ivan, he had no money to get any help". I have two words for you: Greg Hardy. Putting his legal issues aside because they happened after the fact, Gettleman decided to slap the franchise tag on the Pro Bowl DE for a whopping $13.1 million for one year. Now, let's look at three OT's that hit the market that we could have gotten help for Cam with:
- Brandon Albert (29), who signed a 10 mil per season contract with the Miami Dolphins (pricey but we could have perhaps entered a bidding war with the money saved from Hardy's FT... perhaps) [side note: out for the year with an ACL/MCL injury]
- Jared Veldheer (27), signed a 5 year back loaded deal with the Arizona Cardinals, and has been extremely good so far
- Anthony Collins (28), signed a 5 year, back loaded deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and has been a bit meh
Then that basically leaves the only answer as the conspiracy theory
Gettleman deliberately created fatal flaws on this team to tank the season?
Part man, Part machine......Part Marty Hurney
To which I replied:
I honestly don’t know. As Sherlock Holmes once said "when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".
It might not be a conspiracy, but there is something deeply wrong with this organization right now. Very wrong.
It may not be a "conspiracy" as he jokingly says, but it all makes me think of the infamous pregnant pause he had when asked about Cam being "the guy" for him in Carolina. Perhaps it is all crazy talk, but the fact remains that instead of getting genuine help on the OL for one of the most explosive QB's in the NFL, we got crap on a stick, and that is more than just a lack of oversight. Gettleman must answer for this in some way. Don't forget, this guy also had a big hand in driving Jordan Gross into retirement and Steve Smith out of Carolina. If it looks like a duck, quakes like a duck, it likely isn't a raccoon.
Panthers Coaching Staff
HC Ron Rivera
I have been convinced fully as of late that Riverboat(less) Ron is not the man who will deliver the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl. I think this is something I have thought for quite a while now, but it lay dormant after the wake of last year's surprise 12-4 season. Now I am starting to realize the truth as to why he was passed up so many times for other HC jobs.
Have you listened to one of his press conferences after a game, especially one after a loss? The man sounds like a broken record each week, saying the same garbage about how we need to prepare better, and that we need to practice harder. You know, the kind of crap dialogue you expect from a cheesy Sci-Fy original movie of some sort. He just doesn't seem to have what it takes to not only prepare a team week in and out, but also what it takes to command a game from the sidelines. For instance, the man had four extra days to prepare for this game. Glad he seemed to have used the time wisely. What really brought him my fury though was what happened in the most recent game against the Eagles.
To start, let me use this:
Is the coaching staff trying to get Newton injured so badly his absence will be their scapegoat? I'm questioning my own mind at this point
— James Dator (@James_Dator) November 11, 2014
Considering the out-of-handness the game was already in, James brings up a damned fair point. Why keep your franchise QB out there, in a game where the OL line looks as porous as a sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea to continually get battered and potentially maimed? Rivera explained afterwards, saying:
#Panthers Rivera said no consideration to replace Cam Newton.
— David Newton (@DNewtonespn) November 11, 2014
and
Rivera on leaving Cam in: he's got to learn and develop. Had to get a rhythm going. Said he gave no thought to sitting him
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) November 11, 2014
Learn and develop what exactly? The merits of PTSD on the football field? None of this makes any sense at all, and is quite frankly stunning to me. Was he punishing Newton for playing so poorly behind an offensive line he ostensibly OK'd? We don't need a HC toying with the future of this franchise so liberally. Newton has already been placed in danger of serious injury behind this OL, not to mention the fact he is constantly grimacing each time he comes to the sidelines. Add to that, he is forced to stay out there and get sacked and hit by Eagles LB Connor Barwin 15 more times to learn some stupid folksy wisdom?
No, time for the Riverboat to run out steam and not make it back to shore folks.
OC Mike Shula
This one I'm expecting resistance on. I'm a tad on the fence with Shula for a couple of reasons. One, he helped Cam to a pretty decent season last year, if not explosive at all. Two, he hasn't had much to work with considering the current state of the offense. That being said though, he is not the right man to coach and call plays for the likes of Cam Newton. Here is why.
Shula seems to be the perfect play-caller for a specific type of QB, and that is a game manager. You know, the likes of Alex Smith, Ryan Tannehill, Kyle Orton, etc. Plays that really don't require much raw skill and athleticism to create an explosive type of offense. In short, he is the perfect guy for a QB that requires careful play-calling so that he doesn't totally suck out loud. Now, does that sound like Cam Newton to you?
I'm not advocating for the "mad scientists" return here by any means, but Rob Chudzinski had the right idea about what type of offense needed to be created around Cam Newton. I don't pretend to be a master at analyzing offensive systems like our own CanadianPanther and Crawford Rundlett are, but I do know that Cam needs an offense better suited to his talents than he has right now. He is an explosive and dynamic player, and needs to have plays that suit that style of play. Shula isn't that guy.
In his time as the Buccaneers OC, the team never finished higher than 22nd in total offense. His starting QB for the three years he was there: Trent Dilfer. Be honest, nobody in the NFL screams more of being a game manager than Trent friggin Dilfer right? Now, how could Dilfer and the way Shula runs an offense even come close to how Cam and his offense should be run? We had last year, despite the offensive success, the least amount of explosive plays on offense in the league. That is unacceptable when you have Cam Newton at QB. Shula isn't the main reason Cam has been so bad of late, and he can't necessarily be blamed for all the issues on offense right now. But I firmly believe that, much like Rivera, he is not the answer in the long run to help Cam Newton reach his potential. We need someone who can tap into his play-making abilities, not lock them in a prison to get sacked every 10 plays.
Panthers Players
QB Cam Newton
Ok, so now you are asking, did I just read a 2200 word cat box post? Is it April 1st? Nope. Cam is as much to blame for his own struggles as anyone else. The same issues that have plagued him since he first got here are still plaguing him for the most part right now. Throwing off his back foot, throwing high over his WR's, not seeing the check-down guy, running backwards and getting sacked for a 40 yard loss, not sliding on running plays. You could probably add a few more to the list. Question is, why is he still making these mistakes?
I think the answer is that some of these are things he is simply prone to do. Much like how Eli Manning is prone to look like a confused and frightened child nearly anytime his face on camera while he is on the field. Cam I believe will always have a propensity to throw high, for whatever reason. Good thing we have WR Kelvin Benjamin right? His propensity to run backwards is created, I believe, from his undying belief that he can make something out of nothing on nearly any play. I'm not sure I'd want him to really ever lose that though. Because it seems like for every play he does that silly running backwards business, he counters it with an amazing escape that usually ends in a first down or better for the offense. The not sliding on running plays also seems to be a strange, but nonetheless personal decision for the QB.
The good thing is that he doesn't seem to sulk or get really upset after losses like the one this past Monday... at least I think that is a good thing. Perhaps it would be better to see some disappointed emotion out of the guy. He sounded in the post game presser for the MNF game like a guy that was a little to accepting of the way things are right now (which could easily be a reflection of the coach and how he approaches such things with the players).
Now, this section isn't meant to bash Cam Newton. It is simply meant to be an honest, layman's view of the 4th year pro. You can't defend the guy without at least admitting to some of his failures and how he might be able to correct them himself.
So, what does it all mean?
Essentially, Cam Newton is being held back by an oddly indifferent GM, a semi-bumbling HC, a dull OC, and a brain that wants him to do too much at one time. I hope that this handy little post might help better prepare you to defend the QB of the Carolinas or at least ignore the inane comments of the nation sports media pundits. Someone has to defend him, because it is certainly doesn't seem like anyone else on this team wants to.