Humble pie tastes horrible.
It is never easy to admit fault. Never easy to accept defeat or to concede anything to a rival or adversary.
But at 4-5 and sliding, the Carolina Panthers didn’t have much of a choice but to grab a slice and eat it as they reached out to and resigned Cam Newton on Thursday.
Nothing warmed the cockles of my heart than to see the Panthers’ front office desperately reach out to the quarterback that they tried so hard to forget – begging him to help them.
Personal gloating aside, I’m curious as to what Newton would look like with half of the season over already. I can imagine there would be rust, regardless of what shape he’s in, that will take some time to shake. However, regardless of the degree of rust, Newton, at this point is a better option under center than Darnold and PJ Walker.
What will be interesting to see for the rest of the season is how Joe Brady will mesh with Newton’s attributes. Will having Newton as quarterback force him to change his approach, or will he insist that Newton throw a bunch of check-down passes to CMC? What would a compromise look like?
Newton has Robby Anderson and DJ Moore as his receivers instead of Curtis Samuel and Ted Ginn Jr. I would like to see how Newton will utilize them. Newton is at least somewhat familiar with Moore, but DJ as made a leap since Newton left. Seeing that chemistry develop will be something to watch in the remaining weeks.