The Conspiracy Theory Featuring the Carolina Panthers and Cam Newton

The Carolina Panthers front office seemed as if they had a master plan before the season, and it is paying dividends. With Cam Newton coming off of a MVP type of season  it was expected that he was going to break the bank with his new contract. We all know that the NFL and other sports are in a what have you done for me lately frenzy, and at the present time Cam Newton hasn’t done much. Newton is on pace to have his worst statistical season in his four year career. If you have any common sense, Newton’s decline in play was destined to happen. With a big day looming this summer, the Panthers let all of Newton’s weapons go and in return he didn’t get much help. When looking at last season, Newton had the luxury to spread the ball around to a lot of different targets. From Steve Smith Sr., Brandon Lafell, and Ted Ginn Jr, Newton lost 1,928 yards, 14 touchdowns, and irreplaceable passion and leadership from Steve Smith Sr.

In Newton’s biggest season as a pro, Carolina threw him a loop by surrounding him with subpar talent. No disrespect to rookie WR Kelvin Benjamin, but it is hard to walk in to replace a legend in Steve Smith Sr. With Colin Kaepernick, Andy Dalton, Tony Romo, and Jay Cutler all breaking the bank over the past few seasons with their contracts the Panthers new that market value was going to drive up Newton’s price, and if he had a productive season going into contract negotiations a la Joe Flacco they knew that he had all of the leverage to get a massive contract. As of now Cam is no-mans land, and the Panthers are clearly winning the battle, and there have been discussions that it is not a guarantee that they will re-sign him. I am guessing that Newton could lose up to $20 million dollars if his season continues to go the way that it is going.  The Panthers are currently 4-6, and they are just a few good plays away from being first in the abysmal NFC South. I can see the Panthers winning the division, because they have the best defense in the division, but they will have to get better play out of Cam Newton, but that is hard to happen when he doesn’t have a strong supporting cast.

If the Panthers miss the playoffs it’ll be easy to point the finger at Newton even though he was set up for failure before the season began. Quarterbacks always receive the brunt of the criticism for losing, but with Cam’s past history of being somewhat immature about losing it can make things even harder for him. It’ll be a little different negotiating a contract off of a losing season rather than doing it off of a good statistical season and a playoff run. The Panthers front office are ahead by 20 points in the fourth quarter with the Cam Newton situation, and they are just a point of way from making Newton and his agent to pass the sticks. i It’s a shame to see the Panthers front office set Newton up to fail in the wake of receiving a new contract.  Carolina Panthers GM Dave Gettleman knows he has a pretty damn good quarterback, but he wants to take the cheap way out by not giving Newton the money he deserves. We all know the NFL is the most cut throat business, and the conspiracy theory between the Carolina Panthers is Cam Newton fully supports my logic.