A spurned wide receiver saying inflammatory things about his former quarterback can be extremely salacious, especially when the quarterback is one of the most divisive players in the NFL. Even more so when the wide receiver took social media barbs after showing up overweight for two consecutive mini-camps before being traded in a shocking trade deadline move and the quarterback said that the team “could never replace” him. Add to that the fact that the teams will be facing off on Thursday in the first preseason game of the year and the head coach of the wideout’s team used to be on the coaching staff with both the wide receiver and the quarterback, and you’ve got a full-blown controversy on a team that is trying desperately to move past the controversies of the past year.
But as the Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills try to tamp down the flames of a Cam Newton-Kelvin Benjamin rivalry, the feud seems a bit one-sided after Benjamin took shots at Newton’s accuracy and the entire Panthers organization in an interview with Tim Graham of The Athletic that was published Saturday.
“I mean, I felt like I would’ve been even more successful if…I don’t know, man…If I would’ve…Looking back on it, I should’ve just been drafted by somebody else. I should’ve never went to Carolina,” Benjamin said about the team that drafted him 28th overall in 2014. “Truly, I just think Carolina was bad for me. It was a bad fit from the get-go. If you would’ve put me with any other quarterback, let’s be real, you know what I’m saying? Any other accurate quarterback like Rodgers or Eli Manning or Big Ben — anybody! — quarterbacks with knowledge, that know-how to place a ball and give you a better chance to catch the ball. It just felt like I wasn’t in that position.”
Forget the fact that Benjamin broke the team’s rookie receiving record with 73 catches for 1,008 yards when it was “a bad fit from the get-go”. Forget the fact that Newton’s completion percentage in his career is actually better than Eli Manning’s was his first seven seasons. Forget the fact that the team went 21-3 in the regular season without Benjamin and 18-21-1 with him on the field.
Forget all that, because that’s what everyone, including both Benjamin and Newton, are trying to do just 24 hours after the incendiary quote dropped.
“I’m not going to address it, just because he’s not one of our players,” Ron Rivera said after practice. “I’m not worried about that, because I’m just worried about what we’re trying to do and the direction we’re trying to go as far as the football team’s concerned.”
“I just think it’s time to move on.”
Cam Newton seems to have the same sentiment – saying via Instagram that he wasn’t going to go back and forth with Benjamin – he would just go to work. “No excuses, just work,” has been the quarterback’s motto this offseason as he posts social media videos of himself working out early in the morning, sometimes alone and sometimes surrounded by teammates.
Benjamin said after practice Sunday that he was “angry at the time” of the quote and he’s going to learn from the words that came out in the heat of the moment, according to the mercurial wide receiver who missed the final three games of the season; Benjamin gained 217 yards in six games after being traded to the Bills for a third and seventh-round pick.
“There’s a time and a place — I’m not saying specific to what comments were made — there’s a time and place for things like that,” Bills Head Coach and former Panthers Defensive Coordinator Sean McDermott said Sunday. “This was not one of them. We have a lot of respect for our opponents, number one; and everyone in the league. I’ve spoken with Kelvin and that’s not how I want us to handle things like that. So we’ll move forward as a team and I’m hoping we’ve already done that.”
So everyone seems ready to move on, including Newton, who took to Instagram to poke fun at the situation, commenting in his signature font on a video of Greg Olsen posted by the Panthers, “jūšt wørkiñg øñ mÿÅ€€ÜRÅ€¥❗️😜 #tøŠØØÑ❓”
Olsen was quick to defend his quarterback after practice Sunday, saying that he felt the comments from Benjamin seemed weird and he didn’t know where the comments came from.
“Things didn’t work out here for him. I get it,” said the tight end who had three consecutive 1,000 yard seasons with Newton at the helm before missing over half the season with a broken foot in 2017. “I know what that’s like, but you’d like to see him kind of move forward to his new team and embrace him new opportunity rather than kind of go personal on it. Again, I’ve been shipped off from another team too, so I get it. At the same point, I always knew there was more I probably could have done at that point in my career, and I tried to make those improvements over the past eight years to do what I thought I was capable of.”
“The reality is there hasn’t been a more productive duo than the two of us at our positions. [Cam Newton] is a big reason for that, and I am not afraid to admit that; I understand that I’ve been fortunate to play with him. I’m going to try to take advantage of it as long as I can – as long as they’ll have me, I guess.”
