Black and Blue Review
A day after he practiced for the first time since his car accident, Cam Newton moved a day closer to starting against the Browns.
The Panthers quarterback followed up his limited practice Wednesday with a full workload Thursday. Barring a setback, it’s safe to assume he’ll play Sunday.
“I would say he’s on target. He had a good day today. He looked good out there,” coach Ron Rivera said. “He threw a 65-yard bomb that was a thing of beauty. But again, we’re going through the process. As I told you guys, we were going to increase everything.”
As expected, Rivera stopped short of locking in Newton for the start. Friday is another big day in the ‘process.’ If Newton comes in to work feeling good, he’ll take his full reps again. Then the Panthers will check him again on Saturday.
For what it’s worth, Newton said he wasn’t feeling any pain from the two broken bones he suffered in his back during the wreck. He also tried to downplay questions about his status, and whether backup Derek Anderson may be needed to come in from the bullpen again.
“I’m fine either way it goes. I don’t want this to be a distraction,” Newton claimed. “We aren’t worried about who will start at quarterback. I think we’re both ready.”
Before he sat out against the Bucs in Week 1, Newton declared he was ‘on pace’ to start. But this time, he stayed away from making a similar proclamation.
“Knowing him, he probably didn’t want to put any pressure on me, so he answered it the way he did, and I appreciate that,” Rivera said.
Of course, Newton wants to play. He always wants to play. And at the end of his media availability, he finally admitted it.
“We all know I want to play,” Newton said. “But at the end of the day, I won’t jeopardize what we have the opportunity to do just because of my selfishness to say, ‘Oooh. I’m a tough man.'”
That’s a noble thing to say, but the Panthers want to start their most important player in what is now their most vital game of the year. And judging by how he’s progressed this week, he will.
MORE FROM RIVERA:
“I’ve always told you guys everything is about the next day. How he feels the next day. You put a tremendous amount of work on somebody, and the next day he comes up sore and lame, now all of a sudden everything you’ve said and done is a contradiction. So I’m trying to make sure we go through the process the right way.”
“This has been a strange year for him. He’s never been bumped up, nicked up or injured the way he’s gone through this year. He’s a tough individual. He’s a tough-minded young man. He wants to play every time, get on the field every opportunity he can. He’s had to take a couple steps back. The first Tampa Bay game was probably a little bit of a, ‘Wow, I really wasn’t ready to play.’ I think that’s kind of what he’s gone through. And I think I agree with him, there are some things that have helped him mature and grow as a person and as a football player.”
“He has learned to slide, so that’s a huge plus. So he’s learning to pick and choose and make good decisions. That’s part of growing up. It’s like the whole thing with Michael Jordan. I was in Chicago, and Michael used to go to the basket and dunk. And then he started to become a mid-range shooter, then a long-range shooter. He grew and understood that he couldn’t always go to the basket because people were looking to hammer him. Well, that’s kind of like Cam. Cam’s beginning to realize that, ‘Hey, I can’t run all the time because people are looking to hammer me.’ So I think he’s growing and maturing as a football player as well.”
“Probably one of the most impressive things yesterday was Greg Olsen threw a ball back toward him. He went up one-handed, jumped, turned around and caught the ball and came down and jogged off. And I was thinking, ‘Oh, wait a minute.’ I was watching him really closely yesterday and from afar today. I stayed off on the other field and kind of watched him from a different angle. He looked pretty good, but again, we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
“As each day has gone by, he has felt less and less. I think it was Saturday, Ryan Vermillion came back and said, ‘Coach, I’m really excited to see him on Monday.’ And I said,’ Really?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, he took a big jump today in how he felt.’ It’s one of those things when you turn the corner, you start to get better, and I think that’s what’s happened. Some of the indications I’ve got is he’s further ahead now that he was when he had done the rib. So that was kind of an impressive thing to hear.”
MORE FROM NEWTON:
“I don’t need anybody doubting me wanting to play. When I go into that locker room, I can go up and down each and every row and ask every person whether they want to play, and they do want to play. I can see it in their eyes, and that is what is getting us over this hump the last couple of weeks. The thing you have to understand is do the things you can control which is get in for treatment and stay in as late as I can.”
“This has been a year in my whole career of playing — I’m talking from Pee Wee, 7 years old all the way up until this day — I’ve never went through this many injuries. I kind of prided myself on being a tough guy. I kind of prided myself on being the guy who doesn’t get hurt. And yet every week it’s kind of been something different.”