Panthers quarterback Cam Newton has played four years in the NFL. He has one year left on his rookie contract. He deserves a new one. To his credit, Cam has resisted publicly clamoring for long-term security.
Cam’s current patience reportedly comes from a desire to see what happens with Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson, who have completed their third NFL seasons and are eligible for new contracts. But it’s much more about Wilson than Luck, for reasons that have nothing to do with the players themselves.
First, there’s no reason to believe Luck will be getting a new contract this offseason. After Adam Schefter of ESPN reported in January that the team was planning a mega-deal, the Colts shot it down, immediately. (Luck did too, eventually.) Given their history with Peyton Manning, who was twice required to play every game of a current contract before getting a new one, there’s no reason to currently believe the Colts will do anything other than wait until after the 2016 season to sign Luck.
Second, the Wilson-Newton dynamic necessarily will be influenced by the fact that Newton’s agent, Bus Cook, previously was Wilson’s agent. But Wilson fired Cook (without actually firing him), hiring baseball agent Mark Rodgers to handle the contract. In the high-stakes, cutthroat NFL agent industry, both Cook and Rodgers will want to be able to declare victory.
Each guy will want the other to go first -- and then will try to beat the deal. Complicating matters is the possibility (as we pegged the moment the Seahawks suggested an outside-the-box approach to Wilson’s deal) that Wilson’s contract will be fully guaranteed. If Newton does a traditional contract, the winner and loser likely will be in the eye of the beholder.
Regardless, Wilson’s camp and Newton’s camp will desperately want to declare victory, and that dynamic will loom over both negotiations.