Panthers quarterback Cam Newton said a lot of the same things after his latest loss.
But it’s the question he didn’t answer that may speak the loudest.
After losing to the Browns to drop to 6-7 — their fifth straight loss — Newton was asked if it would benefit his obviously ailing right shoulder to sit the last three weeks. He brushed it off with a simple “Next question,” which left it clear that he had no interest in any such rest.
“It’s extremely frustrating coming up short each and every week with similar settings and not pushing through. I wish I had the words to say, but I don’t,” Newton said, via Joe Person of The Athletic. “In this league, that’s what it always comes down to — finding ways to keep the game close, to win late in the game. We just haven’t found that way to win in those situations.”
The Panthers still have some mathematical chance to make the playoffs, so they’re likely to keep trotting Newton out there as long as they do. In 2016, he played three meaningless games late in the year, before having surgery on his right shoulder the following March. Recent results suggest he needs more work this offseason, but he’s tried to avoid that talk (since that will clearly make it go away).
For the second time in as many weeks, they brought in backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke to throw a Hail Mary. Newton’s completion percentage is a career-best 68.8 percent, but whether by design or necessity, he’s throwing more short passes to achieve that efficiency. The vertical element (long one of his strengths) is practically gone from the playbook, leaving him to get their yards in shorter bursts, and relying on the yards after catch skills of Christian McCaffrey and D.J. Moore and Curtis Samuel.