Welcome back Mr. Newton, now let’s talk football

We didn’t know what we had until it was gone, now Cam Newton is back and at least for now everything is rainbows and unicorns in the feels department. I honestly am in shock that it happened, because it represents a line of thinking that I quite frankly didn’t think could happen in the NFL... a team admitting they were wrong, and having the guts to extend the olive branch to someone scorned. Now the real QB1 is back, and it will be up to us to figure out exactly where he is at from a football perspective.

In terms of football, what we have is a strong core of pass catchers and an all-world running back which is something that Cam Newton has never had in totality. We also have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, which is also something Cam Newton is used to. Cam has made plenty out of nothing in that department his whole career, but even in the scheme of lines he’s had... this might truly be the worst. Mentally, he is in a better place to face it than Sam Darnold (clearly) and probably anyone else currently on the roster. He’s now a grizzly veteran and has seen a thing or two in his time.

That space between the ears is everything at the moment. This isn’t the type of team that a developing signal caller can win with. It would be a tall task for P.J. Walker or Matt Barkley to overcome it, at least Cam Newton has familiarity with guys like Christian McCaffrey and D.J. Moore. Does he know “the offense”? No, he doesn’t. But even if we go vanilla while we figure out where and when to install things, he’s probably still the best we can do.

This is a marriage of grand convenience. There’s some familiarity here amongst the team. It is sure to reinvigorate the locker room in a significant way, and even guys who never played with Cam are going to enjoy being in “the glow” so to speak. How far and how long that glow will take us... is yet to be seen. Cam Newton is not as fast as he used to be, and he’s had a lot of shoulder work done, but in my measure... he looked pretty good for the New England Patriots when he was out there. I understand why they moved on, and I understand why we tried, but for now, this is what we need.

So, welcome home SuperCAM. Enjoy it today, but get to work tomorrow, you have a lot to catch up on and we have a lot to find out.