If Washington wants Cam Newton, keep Marty Hurney out of it

Cam Newton and Marty Hurney

This might appear nothing. But one of the ringleaders behind Cam Newton leaving the Carolina Panthers last summer the way he did was Marty Hurney, who was obviously general manager at the time.

In reality, Newton should have been packing his bags the moment Teddy Bridgewater signed a three-year, $63 million deal with a $15 million signing bonus and $33 million guaranteed. Instead, they prolonged the signal-caller’s agony, waited until he was medically cleared by doctors, and then threw him on the free-agent scrapheap without any semblance of compassion.

Not exactly the way to treat someone who meant so much.

And if you think Newton has forgotten about who was involved – think again.

Of course, it wasn’t all Hurney’s doing. Owner David Tepper also had a big say in the matter and it’s also evident that Matt Rhule wanted Bridgewater to come in and make sure that there was some familiarity with offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s system from the word go.

As we are all-too-aware, the Panthers are looking for an upgrade at quarterback following a campaign of inconsistency from Bridgewater, who still has two years and $37 million in base salary remaining on his contract, coming with a combined salary-cap hit of $48.95 million.

Things would’ve been easier had Newton stayed around on the final year of his deal than Carolina’s current situation. But with a new regime comes a fresh set of ideas and although they were well within the right not to rely on a player who had missed the best part of 18 months through injury, it will take a long time for the scars to heal from the player’s perspective.