There have been whispers that Cam Newton could sit out the 2019 campaign as he recovers from a sore right shoulder. While Panthers owner David Tepper didn’t explicitly say that the Panthers franchise quarterback could miss the upcoming campaign, he did explain how that scenario could end up being a positive. Tepper specifically compared the situation to Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, who missed the entire 2017 campaign before coming back for a productive 2018 season.
“If you told me he took a year off and could recover and be fully recovered and everything else, and that’s what it took, an extra year, why wouldn’t you do [that]?” Tepper told ESPN’s David Newton. “Now we would have to do other things, right? We’d have to go out and get another quarterback. If you could find me some more cap space I’d appreciate that.”
Through 14 games in 2018, Newton completed a career-high 67.9-percent of his passes for 3,395 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He also ran for another 488 yards and four scores. With strength in his shoulder fading, the Panthers decided to shut down Newton for the final two games of the season.
Tepper, who purchase the franchise for more than $2B back in May, recognizes that it would ultimately be in the organization’s best interest if Newton is at full health.
“When you make a decision, this gets into business, or here … you want to keep your options open as much as possible,” Tepper said. “And you want to put yourself in a position to win. Not a position to lose, but a position to win…That means keep your options open and try to have as much [cap] space as you possibly can.
“Hopefully, Cam’s shoulder is fantastic, right? And we’re hunky dory, all fantastic. If it’s not, you may need more cap space. You may need to go out and find somebody. If you don’t, you guys are going to be writing what a dope we are here. Why did we make these other moves? So think about that. You want to keep your options open, put yourself in best position as you can to win, and I’m talking again for the long term.”
Newton detailed several ways the Panthers could open up cap space this winter, noting that they could clear $7.2MM by releasing offensive lineman Matt Kalil and another $3.5MM by releasing cornerback Captain Munnerlyn.
After reading these comments by Tepper, I’m even more convinced that the Panthers should have let P-Diddy be the owner. The “keeping our options open” strategy is for total losers who can’t find the cajones to make tough decisions. You will never find anyone in life who has succeeded by being risk adverse.
Total loser, huh? And your net worth is……….?
Billionaire NFL owner? Yeah what a chump lol
Your question indicates that the concept under discussion completely escaped your comprehension. To commit oneself to any level of net worth would violate Tepper’s policy of always keeping options open. What Tepper fails to understand is that making no decision is in fact a decision itself.
If a year off gets him right it’s a no brainer. Your talking about one of the most gifted athletes in the world. He was a shell of himself last year. Their number one priority should be to get Cam at 100% again. I would find the best doctors for him and go with whatever they say to get him back to full health.
Really? After 8 seasons in the NFL he was pretty much on average with the rest of his career (with the exception of 2 seasons he had that were better).
Talk about releasing two players that were unceremoniously dumped by the Vikings and signed to big buck contracts by the Panthers. How shrewd!!
The Vikings got full value from Captain who was originally a 7th round pick. He was allowed to become a free agent for financial reasons not because of poor performance.
Torn labrum are brutal for throwing athletes. The older they are the more difficult they are to return from. Surgery on them very rarely gets them back to normal playing condition.
People naturally look at the physical aspect of recovering from injuries but I believe the psychological impact of injuries can in some cases be even more difficult to deal with.