The over-valuation of QB’s who don’t absolutely suck continues. Newton is another QB, like Cutler, Dalton, and Kaepernick before him, who are fine QB’s to win with, but are being paid as QB’s who you win because of. I’m more than happy to watch teams not named the Packers, throw their money away at average QB’s, because it means the Packers can be more competitive for longer. But one would think that GM’s would eventually learn.
As a Panthers fan, I have criticized Newton plenty. What are the options though? Their backup is Derek Andersen, who is a good backup, but not a starter. In his 4 years in the league, Newton has the 3rd most total touchdowns of all time, behind Marino and Peyton Manning. Offensive RoY, 2 Pro Bowls, 2 playoffs. Back to back division titles (yes, I know lats year was a joke…) Still… Not like he’s terrible… I don’t think the Panthers have a real option here, They have to pay him. It’s a QB league and they don’t grow on trees. He’s 26. Here’s who I would rather have as my QB right now: Rodgers, Brady, Luck, Rothliesberger, Wilson. That’s it. So… yeah, pay him.
I didn’t understand it when Bears fans said the same when they paid Cutler, nor when the Niners paid Kaepernick. The increase in production from Newton to some journeyman QB simply isn’t worth $20 million a year to me. Unless they plan to maximize Newton’s talents as a read/option QB and take the injury risk, he’ll just be yet another average NFL passer. Sure, it will be nice to be 8-8 (or even 10-6 if the defense and running game pick up like in 2013), rather than 5-11 or 6-10, but Newton isn’t a QB who can carry a team to the playoffs by himself like a Rodgers, a Luck, or a Rothlisberger, so I just don’t see the reason to pay him like he is. Especially with his 80 playoff QB rating, 5 td to 5 int playoff ration, and regression last year.
He has plenty of flaws, and his mechanics have never been great, but to be fair he did play all of last year injured. His foot injury kept him out of training camp and was never fully healed, and then he fractured his back in that car accident. So I do expect him to be better this year.
I too expect him to be better this year than last. But even if he plays up to his best season ever in 2013, I still wouldn’t pay him $20 million a year. He’s simply not that much an improvement over an average NFL QB.
Of course in the NFL it’s all about guaranteed money. I actually don’t hate this deal. Newton is a good to very good NFL QB right now. I’d take him over Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannehill, or Colin Kaepernick, no doubt. And if you use their recent deals as a benchmark, Newton’s doesn’t seem so crazy.
Don’t actually disagree with much of this.
I think the outbreak of domestic violence is overblown. That doesn’t mean the reported incidents are in any way less troubling but I think, like most of these athlete-involved crimes, the domestic violence stats for players are in line with society at large.
I also dislike the kneejerk reactions and think they are dangerous and that catering to the internet/media lynch mob is a very bad precedent in all scenarios.
That said, those complaints are a long ways from justifying victim blaming. Domestic issues are usually far more grey than pundits like to admit, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Guilty is guilty even if the other side did their own share of detestable acts.
Do you mean average or replacement level? The average is dragged up by all of the good quarterbacks. It’s not as though if you dumped your current QB and grabbed the best one available to you via whatever method you could, you’d have the 16th best QB in the league. Most likely you’d have the 28th to 40th or so.
There are simply not that many people alive capable of playing the position of quarterback at an average starter level, and so when you have one that’s probably above average, he’s quite a valuable commodity. Is 20 million overpaying? What’s it worth to not be the Browns or the Jags?
I meant average, not replacement level. But I don’t find a whole lot of difference between say the 8th best QB and the 24th. Carson Palmer had the 8th best passer rating before his injury. Ryan Fitzpatrick had the 9th. Alex Smith was 13th. Sanchez was 18th. Hell, Kyle Orton, Austin Davis, Shaun Hill, and Teddy Bridgewater had better passer ratings than Newton last year. What Newton, and Dalton and Kaepernick, and Cutler, and the rest have is that a) they start and 2) they don’t suck all the time.
I would say there are not many people capable of playing the QB position very well, and those kinds are more than worth the inflated salaries. But being slightly better than average doesn’t really impress me all that much, especially when I can get a replacement player who won’t be as good, but also won’t cost me $20 million a year.
I’ll pretend to believe the falsity that an average QB is all that separates those teams from an average NFL team. But, outside of not sucking, what is it worth to go 8-8 compared to 6-10? Sure you’re not embarrassed, but does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? You’re not going to win a championship, or even be consistently competitive, unless you have an elite QB (or a QB who can be elite for a short while when it counts) or your team is great in another facet, like the Seahawks D/running game, the 49ers D of a few years ago, or the Giants pass rush. So if you don’t have an elite QB, you’re much better off trying to build the rest of your team to be elite than you are just throwing money at a QB who isn’t elite.
And, lest we forget, the Jags are the Jags, in part, because they overdrafted Blaine Gabbert and now Blake Bortles. And the Browns are the Browns because they overdrafted Brandon Wheeden and Johnny Manziel. Other teams like those franchises, like the Titans and Jake Locker or the Bucs and Josh Freeman or the Jets and Geno Smith/Mark Sanchez, and the Bills and EJ Manuel, are in the lowly position they are now because they over-value non-elite QB’s.
Wow, the 9ers were ready to move on from Andy Lee after drafting a punter. They sent him to Cleveland for next to nothing, a 7th round pick in 2017.
And after Anthony Davis retired. I’m starting to wonder if they’re going to release Levi’s Stadium from its contract with the team.
Seeing how the while league knew Lee was not going to make the 49ers 53-man roster, getting anything at all in return is a boon. The real win for the Niners is freeing up about $3 million in cap space that was being used on a punter.