Cam Newton is ready to win.
Speaking to the media for the first time during Carolina Panthers training camp at Wofford College, the 28-year-old quarterback stressed one thing many times: He wants to win football games. Newton didn’t want to harp on the past, but he made clear that he didn’t like the feeling he had at the end of the regular season last year. “I just couldn’t come to grips with knowing that, were we going to the playoffs? No.”
He changed his offseason regimen to keep that from happening again, coming in at 246 pounds, the lightest he’s been in a long time. “I had a realization with myself this offseason. I took last year personally. I took it extremely personally. I knew that something had to change, and it started with myself,” Newton said “I feel as if my impact to that locker room, I wanted people to see, ‘This is not no other year.’ I didn’t want to speak it, I wanted to action it. Football is a sport, that people don’t realize, it’s a twelve month sport.”
“I did it differently. Starting from February down, I’d keep the pedal down.
Newton spoke highly of the new additions to his team, saying about the rookies, “I’m excited about the whole gambit of this rookie class….I got a good vibe from them. These guys are coming in and not being conformed to their draft picks.” He also understands that the veterans brought in, including Julius Peppers (Newton joked that he was the biggest human he’s ever seen on a football field) and Captain Munnerlyn (Newton’s thoughts about Munnerlyn’s stature: probably the smallest) “They bring an aspect to this team that we’ve had in the past, but right now is when we need it the most. Panthers that are core guys, that gets the whole gist of what this organization is all about.”
His attitude during training camp towards leadership reflects his new (old) attitude, “I want my energy to be vibrant, I want people to see it, I want it to be contagious, offensively and defensively. Gone are the days of ‘That’s not quarterback-like.’ I’ve got a lot of words to say to that. I’m trying to get my swag back, get our swag back, just have fun.” Newton said about transitioning that “twelve month” attitude to the rest of his teammates, “My job is getting my guys going. And before I get those guys going, I’ve got to get myself going. You can best believe that I will be pumping everything up. Benji (Kelvin Benjamin) said it best, for the whole offense, it’s just time for us to be consistent. Everybody’s excited to go to practice in front of all those fans, but what about after the first week? What about the practice before, the practice after. It’s up to the veteran leadership on this team to keep everybody steadfast and held to that standard.”
“Our mentality is to get back to having that edge.”
Newton spoke intently about being a leader during this season, saying “Not only do you have to be the best player for yourself, you have to be the best player for this team and this organization…I just know what the plan is, the blueprint, and I’m sticking to it.” and “I want them (his teammates) to know, if anybody’s going to leave it all out there on the field, it’s gonna be me.”
There has been a lot of talk this offseason about the “evolving” Carolina Panthers offense and how it will affect Cam Newton going forward, with many outlets saying that Newton should run less in the upcoming season. But Cam has other plans. “That’s my edge, you don’t expect a lion not to roar. In my career, over the whole body of work, the thing that has put me at an advantage most times is having that ability to run. I’m just going to take what the defense gives me. Yeah, do I have weapons? Absolutely,” the quarterback said, outfitted in tight gingham shorts, a white t-shirt, his signature glasses and straw hat, “But it’s still going to be on me to focus on getting those different outlets the ball at the right time. As far as design and called runs? I could care less. I want to win in the worst way. Straight up. We owe it to our fans, we owe it to ourselves.”
There was one sentence that Newton stressed. In fact, he said it no less than three times in the fifteen-minute media session:
“I just want to win football games.”
