Time to Drop the Hammer on Cam Newton

Thanks….and don’t be scared. I have to believe after the Spiller pick that CHIX put a high premium on character. If they take Newton, I will literally have no freaking clue what goes on in their head.

my goal was to wait until the Combine, but I couldn’t take it anymore

1. I would like to see a link to that story
2. Thousands of kids don’t keep driving on a suspended license….a are not about to become the face of an NFL team. We deserve better
3. So an anonymous source can’t be correct…cough cough deepthroat..cough cough
4. If you knowingly buy stolen property that makes you a thief and is illegal. Don’t want to touch why he threw it out the window or the intimidation of a witness?
5. Nice puff piece. Who did he beat out at Alburn? Is the guy any good? Because he couldn’t beat out Tebow. Cam is charismatic, works hard on the practice field, and in the weight room. I will give you that…..it’s not enough.
6. It is not wrong….just an obvious ploy. I will give him credit for throwing at the Combine when it happens
7. And Mel Kiper has never been wrong before
8. Did you even bother to read the CBS breakdown. They are one of the best IMO.
9. Why has he had only one sub par game if he was forced to lead so many comebacks? And how many of those were done with this legs vs his throwing ability? He may be a great college QB, but the NFL is not college.
10. What adversity? He has pretty much done whatever he wanted and is being protected. If there is one thing he has learned, it is how to get away with stuff. Do you think Alburn wants to end up like the Trojans?
11. Good for him. Doesn’t excuse all the other stuff
12. We are not drafting Kelly this year, so why does it matter now? If you want to take a shot at Kelly, go ahead and put it in a fanpost.

He’s made mistakes, he’s made stupid mistakes. He also seems to have turned it around and has worked hard at doing so.

I think he just needed to grow up, which leaving Florida seems to have allowed. Is his character clean enough now? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else on here. I like what I’ve seen of Newton the past few months and think he’s doing everything right to prove he’s the face of an NFL franchise.

good answer to a good fanpost.

6. Media day? The NFL restricts scouts to NFL or college sponsored events. No one said anything when Tebow did it, why is it so wrong now?

When did Tebow have a media day like Cam?

Tebow showed off his reworked throwing motion at the Senior Bowl and his Pro Day.

 I tried to site me sources. So if you feel they are not accurate, please let me know. Part of the concerns about Newton have to do with his mental abilities and his character. You reap what you sow. It does feel like an attack of sorts, but that is the life of a icon.

Why can’t we just debate Cam’s attributes relating to playing football?

Here you go. This is a post of mine from a little ways back, slightly edited.

What some are saying, is that because of the offense he played in college, the spread option, his stats and what he did will not translate to the NFL when comparing to other prospects that played outside of the Spread Option.
 
The Spread Option takes advantage of skill sets that won’t translate to the NFL and requires a less cerebral qb to run (one look, not there then take off and run). No one is saying the qb is unintelligent because offense he’s in, they’re saying the offense can mask unintelligent QBs, so you can’t just look at production and say that QB is going to be good in the NFL. Ergo, the QB prospect isn’t able demonstrate his ability to read complicated defenses (not through his own fault, but merely the system he’s in).

There’s a reason the option isn’t ran in the NFL. What Spread Option QBs get away with in NCAA they will not in NFL. Even Vick’s running was starting to get shut down near the end of the season and he was in a legit NFL offense. Newton is an exceptional athlete who is much more athletic than the players around him. In the NFL, that gap will decrease considerably. He’ll still be able to run with a degree of success, but it likely won’t be anywhere as dominant.

Next, accuracy comes into question. Newton demonstrated exceptional accuracy in college, throwing for 66%. However, what happens when he gets to the NFL, and teams wont have to defend his running ability first (as college teams had to) and start defending the pass with more priority. Will he continue to do well? Will he crumble because of increased coverage pressures? Will he continue to lock on to and stare down receivers (appears to do this fairly often even in highlight vids)?

What this leaves us with, is that outside of his athleticism, much of what he’s shown in college wont compare to other prospects. Other than his athleticism, he’s a more significant question mark at QB than other prospects this year (and this is disregarding his questionable ethics (not work, but off the playing field). Tebow had what could arguably be considered the most immaculate sure-fire work/off-the-field ethic out of any prospect in any draft, and he only went 25th overall with very similar college production (and MUCH more experience).

This just summed up my feelings exactly. Rec’d.

That makes it okay?

Players like MaGahee, Peters, and Lynch should have taught Bills fans the importance of having high character players on our team. Interesting that many of the same people who hate Rex Ryan and the Jets want Newton.

I am just putting it all in one place. Kind of like when you pile up the dirty laundry laying all over your kids bedroom floor. Gives it a little different perspective. You think he belongs at #3…I don’t. Don’t be sorry….make an argument. I think that Newton’s physical skill is over shadowing his deficiencies as a passer. You are free to disagree. I think I have done a pretty good job of stating many of the facts that lead people to question Newton. Sure, I have added my own thoughts. Take the facts and give us an objective article. That means no excuses for his behavior or lack of experience either. Just the facts sir. I would love to hear an objective article on Newton.

I was shocked to see Mayock has Locker above Newton. Yet Lockers stock has tanked and Newton is riding the hype train to the top of most mock drafts. Makes you think.

Did you actually watch that game?

Not sure I understand the climate/city thing. Not in that I don’t think you make a good point, because you do, but because I fail to see why any other NFL city would be different.

but it didn’t seem to stop Lynch along with a few others. Big cities tend to be more liberal and more tolerant of a$$clown behavior. Plus, in a big city like New York or LA, you don’t have to wait long before Charlie Sheen goes on another bender or Lindsay Lohan gets strung out and tries to steal something. You’re not the only or even the biggest a$$clown in town.

If it were MY dad, I would stay by his side too, even good people make mistakes!

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The fact he can’t distance himself from his dad even when the NCAA is beating down his door is troubling

I don’t know about you, but I was raised to stand by family, when the chips are down. It doesn’t mean condoning their behavior but it does mean they can count on you NOT to kick them when their down. No one here knows what was said between the two men in private. There is an old axiom: “Praise in public, criticize in private”.

How many people on this blog would “distance themselves from their father”? Does your dad know you feel that way?

But there has been a bit of revisionism by some posters suggesting that Cam has been wrongly accused and all of this stuff just makes him stronger.

The fact is some bloggers have made incorrect assertions based on loose interpretations of facts bearing on Newtons situation in Florida.

1. Cops went to his room because they had reasonable cause to believe he was in posession of stolen property.
2. When they knocked on his door, the laptop was thrown out a window and landed in or near a garbage can.

3. Because they did not see Newton with the laptop in his posession all they could do was recover the stolen item. The most they could possibly charge him with is obstruction of justice or an accessory to a crime. They could have charged him with criminal possession of stolen property, but they probably decided it wasn’t worth it.

4. Is he a Thief: The evidence is inconclusive.
5. Did he lie to the campus security? Probably, but difficult to prove in court.. Does that make him a liar for life? No, but some bloggers want to brand him as a menace to society and that is very extreme for the given situation.

Before folks start howling about being truthful to the police answer this question:
Have you ever been pulled over for speeding and if you were, did you tell the truth when asked "can you tell me how fast you were going?

Oh by the way: My son is a NY State trooper, cousin a Buffalo Police Officer and several very close friends are either Federal Prosecutors, Public Defenders or assistant DAs. so I’m not shooting from the lip.

This dialogue about Newton has swung wildly from his play on the field, to off field issues to backhanded jokes claiming Brown will have to read the playbook to him. At this point a case can be made that there is a character issue, but it’s not with Newton.

I think we agree for the most part. I have not see much of Gabbert, but a lot of knowledgeable people here and elsewhere seem to think he is going to be real good. If he is the pick at #3, I will not question it. Locker really disappointed me at the Sr Bowl. I was hoping he would show us much more. I am afraid he has been ruined already. I like Mallet, but his lack of mobility makes me think that he is not the kind of QB Gailey likes. Dalton seems like a gamer to me, but I am not sure he has the arm to play at RWS. The guy who really blew my doors off at the Sr Bowl was Kaepernick. He is almost as physically talented as Newton, but with much more experience, top notch intangibles, and no character issues. He is technically raw and will most likely have to sit for a year or two. At times he ran the no huddle, so I have more faith in his ability to read a defense and think fast on the fly. Check this out

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1130583

…which make me think he;s just gonna get clocked over and over again…..

Exactly. The NFL is a different animal. He’s not as fast as Vick, and even as the faster QB, Vick will always have the increased risk of injury.

I’m constantly asking this question here. Is the increased injury risk worth gambling on a running/mobile/athletic QB? What NFL QB in the modern era has proven the risk viable? Where’s the hardware to prove it? Maybe Steve Young, but he had a dynasty around him, and even then, that’s only one guy. Doug Williams? Maybe.

People think that’s changing, (as Brian wrote about last week,) but I’m not ready to risk such huge stakes that Cam is going to be the first running QB to turn around an NFL team.

So in your opinion, was Cam shielded from the pressure surrounding the investigation?

if he didn’t know, then fine. But if Cam did know, isn’t he partly to blame. As far as others go….bust them all or change the rules. No point in having rules if you don’t enforce them.

Is it possible that Cam has turned his entire life around since those mistakes? Yes, it’s possible. Not sure I’m willing to use such a valuable resource as the #3 overall draft pick and pay the guy millions of dollars to find out.

Perfectly said. And you bring up some good points about teams game planning for Newton. The Ducks came real close.

I also forgot to make a certain point about something. We’ve talked about the cheating and you made a great point about the fact that he chose to run from the situation instead of facing sanctions. What seems incredibly relevant to me is that someone who does this is someone who is willing to cut corners and someone that doesn’t feel the need to sacrifice his own time to study, instead choosing the easy & quick way out – Steal & Cheat to get by without having to put in the effort. How can people expect a guy like that to suddenly become a film monster, someone that will study his opponents and spend all the time that is necessary to perfect his skills? The guy would be the absolute worse thing to happen to buffalo in their entire history. If they choose him and he becomes a huge BUST like many of us think he will, I personally do not think that Buffalo would be able to recover from that. It would be the end of our franchise. It would take 2-4 years to finally pull the plug which would fit dead on with the L.A. project. The fan base would be split and venomous and support for the team would drop. Perfect Storm for a move to LA

IMO we cannot afford to take a chance on such a high risk candidate as Cam Newton. The next few years are critical for our future as a franchise, Mr Wilson is not getting any younger and the sale of the team is right around the corner. We need to draft solid prospects that won’t send us back 5 squares, we need to positively move forward with every step and we can’t afford to bet on the high risk/reward ponies

I think that when you are picking a guy in the lower rounds you can gamble on character a bit, but NOT at #3.

So true. It’s even more important at the team’s most important position.

Any chance we will see a patented sireric darkhorse mock draft?

to draft a guy like that at #3, commit 12 freakin million a year to him for the next 6 years with approx 7 million a year of that guaranteed.

And on top of that, it would be for a guy who wouldn’t be able to play for 1-2 years. I am with you…Peterson, Bowers, Dareus, Miller, or Quinn….just pick one, Buddy.

While I admire the fact that you bring up TMNT in any fashion – no, not at all. Cam Newton won’t be “going out of style” any time soon.

but I still have my Michelangelo action figure and never got sick of it :)

A real action figure is the 10" GI Joe with fuzzy hair & beard with the Kung-Fu grip!!

Chan – Buddy….Why did you order all these cigars?
Buddy – For the smokescreen.

Who the hell is Jay Crawford? (Serious question.)

the Cowpokes would be willing to trade???

LOL

This has been entertaining! But now I am more confused than ever in the Cam Newton debate.

I actually have a fair bit of faith in Nix and Gailey to pick a player of character. The just seem like solid, no drama guys. If they pick him then I guess he checks out (enough) character wise.

Either way, the Bills picking QBs makes me nervous…..

along with all of their cronies pitching in.

I have cronies!!!! Suddenly I feel like a mob boss……Brian, can I change my screen same to “The Godfather” :-)