CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After spending nearly a decade as the face of the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton returned briefly in 2021 as Matt Rhule found himself unable to settle on a quarterback.
The second go-around with Carolina didn't last long, but Newton says that isn't because he wasn't willing to play for the Panthers and Rhule. On a recent episode of his "4th & 1" podcast, Newton explained that initial discussions with the Panthers went downhill when the team didn't view him as a starting quarterback.
"It was small talk," Newton told Dan Patrick. "It was the Panthers trying to get me back and they didn't know. At that specific time, Sam Darnold was there."
Newton said the team asked him to be Darnold's backup going into 2022, which was fine, as long as the team met one condition.
"My rebuttal to that was I don't have a problem being being a backup if I have an opportunity to prove that I'm still willing and able to be a starter," Newton explained.
Newton played in eight games for the Panthers in 2021, including a dominant 34-10 win over the Arizona Cardinals in his first game back. Unfortunately for Newton and Panthers fans, that game was the high point of his return. The situation quickly deteriorated and offensive coordinator Joe Brady was fired. It was the second time Newton was in an awkward position after being felt like he was pushed aside in New England for then-rookie Mac Jones.
"Every situation I've been in, even with New England and going back to Carolina, I never had an offseason," Newton said. "That kind of capped my mental to understand the offense as a whole and the philosophical approach to why the offensive coordinator is calling certain kinds of plays."
Considering Newton didn't re-sign with Carolina — or any other team for that matter — it sounds like the Panthers didn't think Newton was capable of being QB1. Instead, they made a late trade for Baker Mayfield, Darnold missed the opening month of the season with a high ankle sprain and Rhule, who never got the quarterback position right in Carolina, was fired just a few weeks into the year.
When pressed by Patrick about how many teams Newton could start for, Cam said he believes he could compete with just about anyone, short of established franchise quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, whose teams are heavily invested in their futures.
After sitting out the 2022 season, Newton revealed a list of teams he'd be willing to sign with as a backup. Among them was Washington, where former Panthers coach Ron Rivera was bringing along rookie Sam Howell. Newton told Patrick he was hoping to get a call from his old coach, looking to serve as a mentor to Howell, who appeared at several of Newton's QB camps as a teenager in the Charlotte area.
"Even Washington didn't reach out, after everything I went through with Ron Rivera," Newton said. "More than 80% of the teams, when I look at a team like Atlanta, or even with C.J. Stroud, not to start, but I see a guy with that skillset, does he need my help? Would I be a starter? Hell nah, but to be part of that growth process, I would have been able to be some type of service to that guy."