Cam Newton wants huge guaranteed money
Carolina Panthers star quarterback Cam Newton took his game to the next level last season, as he started to play more controlled, efficient football, and it seemed like he turned things around after bottoming out in a stinker of a performance early in the year against the Arizona Cardinals. Since then, Newton has been excellent, and he’s been even better this season despite subpar statistics that are the result of a mediocre group of weapons and one of the NFL’s worst offensive lines (Byron Bell and Nate Chandler probably give Panthers fans repeated nightmares of the durable Newton getting mauled).
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Extensions for quarterbacks are always a hot, financial topic in this league, and it’s obvious that true franchise QBs of inestimable value to their teams (the Panthers also have no running game, even when DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart make a rare, healthy appearance) deserve to get paid. But how much are teams willing to shell out for them? The San Francisco 49ers managed to get away with a pay-as-you-go deal for star QB Colin Kaepernick, while in-limbo franchise QB Andy Dalton got the same kind of prove-it deal from the Cincinnati Bengals (some thought that might have even been on the generous side, but Dalton has done well to quell those concerns this year).
Per a source close to CBS Sports’s excellent Jason La Canfora, Cam Newton isn’t interested in taking some BS “pay-as-you-go” contract from the Panthers; he wants the real deal, and he wants the guarantees that the top QBs get. He predictably isn’t cool with simply allowing the Panthers to control his rights through the prime of his career without giving him sufficient security, and that simply isn’t fair (pretty much every NFL player has to deal with this drawback, but a franchise QB like Cam has huge leverage against this).
La Canfora reports that Newton won’t want to move talks forward until he sees what the more touted Russell Wilson earns from the Seattle Seahawks, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Wilson takes less money to remain with the NFL’s best organization. All I can say are two things we’re going to get to see if Dave Gettleman truly is a “cheap” GM and Cam deserves the cash.