The Other Options
If Cam chooses to avoid surgery this offseason, the main treatment paths are likely to be sports specific rehab or specialist physiotherapy, which can both still be effective even two years after the injury and surgery. While Cam clearly wasn’t 100% when he returned to start the 2017 season, given that this was six months after the surgery, his return was still in the vague time frame for return associated with injuries of this type, though this will, again, vary with the exact nature of the surgery. What could have been the problem is the nature of the rehab process – if it hasn’t been treated effectively, it will continue to be sore and fatigue easily.
Given that Cam has reported continued soreness and has appeared to fatigue over both the course of the season and individual games, it does seem as if the post-surgery treatment plan hasn’t been as effective as those involved would have liked, although this is far from a sure thing – don’t forget Newton takes hits on a weekly basis, sometimes directly to the shoulder. While this is something the Panthers could continue to work on over the offseason in order to try and correct for this, Newton’s throwing mechanics could also be at issue.
Now, people around the NFL talk about throwing mechanics far too much – at least in my opinion – while it is obviously important that the ball gets there accurately and on time, it doesn’t matter a huge amount how the player threw the ball. However, with shoulder injuries, the mechanics of a quarterback’s throwing motion could have a significant impact on how likely re-injury will be. Or, to put it bluntly:
“If he is mechanically poor, but strong, he will continue to aggravate (it),” said a current member of an NFL team’s training staff who spoke confidentially.
By mechanics, this doesn’t mean his foot movement or how he loads weight on to his front foot – the things people tend to talk about with Cam – but rather the actual act of how power is put through the shoulder. Cam does have a habit of throwing around rather than through his shoulder and by not correcting this, he could actually be making it much harder to heal. If he continues to throw this way, he is going to always be at risk of tendinitis – essentially repetitive inflammation – which would lead to similar issues to those that Panthers fans have been seeing for the best part of two seasons.
Changing a player’s throwing mechanics isn’t easy, and is not something that I would recommend trying unless absolutely necessary, but if Cam is able to avoid surgery this offseason – a VERY big if – part of the treatment process may involve looking to adjust how he actually throws the ball, not to help his accuracy or to stop the odd pass from sailing high – but rather to reduce the burden on his shoulder; Newton is 29 years old – there is no reason he shouldn’t be able to play at a high level for at least another five seasons if not longer.
This is a process that could take some time, and the Panthers would likely be advised to have some options besides Cam in training camp in order to allow for him to take as much time as he needs to get fully healthy – especially. This shouldn’t be an injury that ends a career or means he can’t play at his previous level, but if not treated effectively then it is one that could linger for many seasons, which it clearly already has – if the Panthers plan to resign Newton to what will, in all likelihood, be one of the largest contracts for a quarterback in NFL history in the next two years, they need to get this right.
