{"id":124364,"date":"2021-11-08T10:30:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T15:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=124364"},"modified":"2021-11-08T06:45:03","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T11:45:03","slug":"cam-newton-carolina-panthers-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/11\/08\/cam-newton-carolina-panthers-reunion\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time For A Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boy, that was ugly. Facing off against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_self\">New England Patriots<\/a>, Sam Darnold and the Carolina Panthers lost in embarrassing fashion to drop down to 4-5 on the season. It\u2019s obvious now that Darnold is not the quarterback of the future, yet Carolina remains in the playoff race. The Panthers need an upgrade at quarterback, and Cam Newton is easily the best option available.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;10903&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Carolina Panthers Need to Bring Back Cam Newton<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Sam Darnold Isn\u2019t It<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a promising start to the season, Sam Darnold has been nothing short of disastrous over the past month. After nine weeks of action, the <a href=\"https:\/\/rbsdm.com\/stats\/stats\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quarterback ranks<\/a> 31st in EPA+CPOE, 28th in EPA\/play, 31st in CPOE, and 29th in QBR. Basically, he\u2019s been playing at the same level as Jared Goff and all of the non-Mac Jones rookies. Darnold is a veteran and Goff has nothing to work with, so there is a very strong case to be made that the Panthers have the worst quarterback situation in football.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">J.C. JACKSON WILL TAKE THAT 88 YARDS TO THE HOUSE! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ForeverNE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ForeverNE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NEvsCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NEvsCAR<\/a>\u00a0on CBS<br \/>\ud83d\udcf1: NFL app <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jpx2XlRZ0D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jpx2XlRZ0D<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1457437144729862146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 7, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, these underwhelming numbers are par for the course with Darnold. From 2018 to 2020, there were 27 quarterbacks with 1,000 or more plays. Of those 27, Darnold ranked dead last in EPA+CPOE, EPA\/play, and 25th in CPOE. Granted, he was in a poor situation, but it\u2019s hard to be that inefficient without being pretty bad yourself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Jets didn\u2019t give Darnold much to work with, but he has no excuse in Carolina. While the offensive line is subpar, a good quarterback would find a way to succeed in this situation. D.J. Moore is one of the better young receivers in the game, Robby Anderson proved last year that he can be an effective part of this offense, and Terrace Marshall had <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/03\/07\/2021-nfl-draft-profile-terrace-marshall-jr\/\" target=\"_self\">a great collegiate profile<\/a>. Darnold\u2019s shortcomings fall on nobody but himself, and the Panthers need to look for a better option to keep their season alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Cam Newton Can Bring Carolina to the Playoffs<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite Darnold\u2019s lackluster play, the Panthers are still right in the thick of the playoff race. While they don\u2019t stand a shot at the NFC South crown, they could still push a Wild Card spot. The NFC is a mess beyond the top five teams, and the Panthers have some talent. The defense, offensive weapons, and scheme are above-average, all this team needs is the right quarterback to lead the charge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the trade deadline gone, the clear best option available is Cam Newton. Anyone reading this article obviously knows that Newton and the Panthers had something of a messy breakup, so I won\u2019t rehash that here. However, after two years, both sides should be able to put aside their differences and work towards the future. Newton wants the opportunity to prove that he\u2019s still a starting quarterback, while the Panthers need an upgrade at the game\u2019s most important position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can Cam Newton come back and do what he did in 2015? Absolutely not. However, he doesn\u2019t need to be an MVP-caliber player to improve this team\u2019s odds of making the playoffs. Newton wasn\u2019t great during his lone season with the New England Patriots, but his efficiency numbers then were actually better than Darnold\u2019s now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Damiere Byrd is having a DAY!<\/p>\n<p>Cam Newton\u2019s first touchdown pass to a wide receiver this season&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OWsB9LOOlh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/OWsB9LOOlh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Guy Boston Sports (@GuyBostonSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GuyBostonSports\/status\/1330603283275280384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 22, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep in mind that Newton was working in a completely different offense in a shortened offseason with arguably the worst supporting cast in football. It stands to reason that he can still be a top-20 quarterback, and that\u2019s all the Panthers need to make a playoff push.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"KIBzuHEzS09SLUzWWywZrw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1175132561\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'KIBzuHEzS09SLUzWWywZrw',sig:'Y_8XpeU6_FdrzUHg93hw96VeAiit11loa4uk8kcpuBk=',w:'594px',h:'434px',items:'1175132561',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Sam Darnold playing like one of the worst quarterbacks in the league, the Carolina Panthers need to bring back Cam Newton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":124365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[367,7661,1535],"class_list":["post-124364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-panthers","tag-cam-newton","tag-panthers-featured","tag-sam-darnold"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}