Panthers, Cam Newton Agree To Terms

Added on Jul 30, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The jury is still out on Cam Newton’s viability as a NFL level quarterback but the Carolina Panthers have made a significant investment in the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner. On Friday, the announcement was made that Newton had signed a 4 year, $22 million contract and had reported to training camp. All of the money in Newton’s deal is guaranteed. Newton was seen arriving at the Panthers’ training facility at South Carolina’s Wofford College on Friday night.

Newton obviously isn’t hurting for money, but his payday pales significantly in comparison to his 2010 counterpart Sam Bradford. Bradford signed a 6 year $78 million contract with the St. Louis Rams. The difference this season is that the recently completed collective bargaining agreement mandated a wage scale for NFL rookies. For that reason, Newton was forced to agree to significantly less than 2010 first round draft choice Bradford.

Now the difficult process of learning the ropes in the NFL begins for Newton. His first order of business will be learning to play in the Panthers’ offensive set. At Auburn, Newton worked in a spread offense to maximize his running ability. He’ll work in a more traditional pro set in Carolina though he says he’s not anticipating any problem:

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for me. I think it’s just timing more than anything. Just repetition as far as me knowing what I have to do, knowing the assignment, the alignment and what everybody’s doing on that particular play.”

The good news is that Newton has had the playbook of Carolina’s offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski since April when a judge temporary lifted the lockout. One criticism of Newton relative to his potential as a NFL quarterback is that he has ‘happy feet’ and wouldn’t fare well in an offense where he has to work under center. That will quickly be proven or disproven once exhibition games begin.

Las Vegas sportsbooks aren’t expecting any first year miracles from Newton. In the recently released Over/Under win totals the Panthers had the lowest expected wins of any NFL team at 4.5. Even with that modest goal, most of the early money has come in on the ‘Under’ meaning that bettors expect Carolina to win four games or less.