Some people pick very strange hills to die on.
This is a pivotal season for Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, who is coming off a 5-11 season after going 12-4 and 9-7 in his first two seasons. Lynn is in desperate need of a quarterback to stabilize the team and rally the troops. The Los Angeles Chargers drafted Justin Herbert in the first round of the 2020 Draft, but most experts consider the 6-foot-6, 236-pound quarterback out of Oregon a project.
Now the Chargers are stuck with respectable journeyman Tyrod Taylor and the mean green rookie Herbert. No superstar potential there.
This is exactly when Tyrod Taylor will make a big play.
He’s a survivor.
Never bad enough to bench. Never good enough to not consider it.
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) September 21, 2018
Common sense would tell you that Newton is the perfect stop-gap for the Chargers until Herbert develops. The last thing Lynn needs is to try to develop a rookie QB coming off a losing season, with a team that still needs to acquire some more talent before they can be competitive again.
When asked, Lynn says he considered signing Cam Newton, but for some odd reason didn’t.
“Cam’s a tremendous quarterback,” Lynn told CBS Radio. “He’s an MVP of the league. He’s led his team to the Super Bowl and he’s healthy now from what I hear so Cam is going to be on somebody’s roster and he’s going to help somebody win a few games, but you know…we did take a look at that for sure.”
The Chargers were supposedly all in with trying to lure 43-year-old Brady to the franchise but he supposedly wanted to play on the East Coast (and for a team with a snow ball’s chance in hell of making the playoffs). When that fell through, Cam was the next best option, but the Chargers fronted on him.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky says he believes the Chargers should have signed Cam.
Duh.
“I said that for a couple of months now,” Orlovsky said on ESPN’s Get Up On Tuesday. “This is one that I’m really struggling with and obviously there are some variables at play that we don’t really know about like what is Cam’s expectations money wise and role wise. But let’s throw those out of the window because I don’t know those…Are the Chargers a better football team with Cam Newton or Tyrod Taylor ?… and for me, the easy answer is Cam Newton.
Tyrod Taylor’s best season was in 2017 when he was 8-6 for the Buffalo Bills and he threw for 14 TDs and 2800 yards. You mean to tell me that you don’t think a healthy Cam Newton can’t give you that, plus a lot more. I’m struggling with this one. To sit there and say we feel better with Tyrod than a healthy Cam Newton. Well, that makes no sense to me.”
Cam is still looking for a suitor. He’s not going to be anybody’s backup. The guy who is a three-time Pro Bowler, MVP and took Carolina to the Super Bowl in 2015, is being treated like a scrub by the NFL. In addition to his many accolades, Cam is the only player in NFL history to lead a franchise in passing TDs (182) and rushing TDs (58).
Despite losing his last eight games with the Panthers, it’s common knowledge that injuries contributed to his lack of success. Those injuries just compounded the fact that the team is mediocre. A shoulder injury sidelined him for the last two games of 2018 and a Lisfranc injury limited him to just two games last year.
Cam had every intention of returning healthy and resuming his place as one of the best QBs in the sport. But in March, the Panthers released him unceremoniously, and as ESPN’s Mike Greenberg put it “at an awkward time.”
The Panthers replaced Cam with Teddy Bridgewater who hasn’t started more than 5 games since his career-threatening knee implosion in 2015. The backups are Will Grier and XFL MVP Phillip Walker.
I mean, you got to be kidding me.
no With golden arm to replace him with, the Panthers decided to just dump him like an ugly girlfriend with a full beard. If Carolina was basing this decision on durability, then I’d go with a healthy Killah Cam over brittle Bridgewater who is one big hit to the legs away from never playing again. If those other two guys have to lead the show, HC Matt Rule can expect a tough rookie season.
Business is business, but some saw the move as a major slap in the face to a guy that gave his body, mind, and soul to the franchise for 9 seasons and definitely deserved a proper send-off and show of appreciation from the franchise and fans.
At least, Cam definitely saw it that way.
The Chargers parted ways with their franchise quarterback Phillip Rivers as well, but Rivers got 16 years to prove himself and he couldn’t even get them to the Super Bowl once. Then the 38-year-old Rivers got signed by the Colts who see him as some kind of upgrade over Jacoby Brissett who had a solid year for a bad team and is still developing.
You saw the video. He said, “They gave up on me.”
With veteran QBs playing musical chairs (Tom Brady takes over in Tampa Bay for a 26-year-old QB in Jameis Winston who led the league in passing and was second in TDs) you’d think some team would love to have a proven gamer like Newton, who by all accounts is healthier than he has been the last few years when he and his team has struggled.
On top of that, you have a guy who is as motivated as any quarterback in the league to show that he still has that magic. With everyone running to sign QBs in rocking chairs, I would definitely bring in a 31-year-old former MVP with a boulder on his shoulder.
Orlovsky doesn’t understand the hesitation to sign Cam. It doesn’t make much sense to anyone else with a football brain either. Lynn will end up paying for this decision. Say what you want about Cam, but he’s a veteran, a leader, and a winner. And if Rivers can get a starting job after the miserable season the Chargers had in 2019, then Cam shouldn’t be looking for work.
Something just smells disgustingly fishy about he way NFL teams are treating the former Daab Master, crowd captivator and MVP.
