Carolina Panthers: Making a case for Cam Newton to stay in Carolina
By Alex Duran
The depth behind Allen is questionable…
Kyle Allen has already shown that he is a starter in this league and I’m as excited as the next guy to see what he can do in the playoffs, but what if Kyle gets injured? Should we leave it up to Will Grier to make that run despite the fact that he hasn’t played a single down in a regular season game? Until he makes his first pass, his first scramble, or even his first handoff against a starting defense in this league we can’t be confident in his ability to succeed. How can we be sure that he’ll keep his composure after getting his clock cleaned on consecutive plays by the likes of Aaron Donald or Nick Bosa until we see it for ourselves? It’s a 2016 Connor Cook story just waiting to unfold.
In 2017 Newton led a group of receivers headlined by Devin Funchess into the playoffs and fell just short of a victory against the Saints. Not a single one of those receivers is a Panther anymore and, oh yeah, Matt Khalil was his left tackle for that game. Then, in 2018, Newton was on pace to put the team back in the playoffs with an entirely revamped receiving corps and different sets of starting tackles before the shoulder injury. This year he was only given two chances to make his case after an offseason of shoulder surgery and rehabilitation and only lost both games by one score while still injured. In other words, it has been over a year since Cam Newton has played a regular season game while completely healthy, he was doing it with new receivers, different sets of tackles in front of him, and he still managed to win.
The last time Newton was fully healthy we saw him taking down defenders and winning games with relative ease. There are other teams who will pay for that kind of talent even if they have to wait for him to complete his rehabilitation process (which will probably be done by September 2020). At the same time, there are teams that would appreciate having Kyle Allen as their starting quarterback. For right now we still have them both, and having the luxury of knowing that there are two starting-caliber quarterbacks on your roster, offensive playmakers, and relative stability with your offensive line is as good as it gets in the NFL.