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The former Auburn QB has several glaring flaws similar to Tim Tebow
By KC Joyner
ESPN Insider
As valuable as size, speed and strength are, they do have limitations when evaluating players. Pro football history is full of imposing physical specimens who didn't pan out because they had some weaknesses that more than offset their elite physical attributes (e.g. Brian Bosworth, Mike Mamula, Lawrence Phillips).
Despite the clear historical warnings, in just about every draft there are teams that will select a player based on his physical attributes, ignoring his glaring football deficiencies.
The 2010 Denver Broncos offered a good example of this when they drafted last year's somewhat flawed quarterbacking phenom, Tim Tebow. The recent comments of John Elway, one of the Broncos' new head honchos and a man who knows a thing or two about quarterbacking, that Tebow is still "very raw," even after a year in the system, say their organization is probably going through a serious case of buyer's remorse.
This is something that teams should keep in mind when considering drafting former Auburn Tigers quarterback Cam Newton in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft. His physical characteristics are off the charts (6-foot-5, 248 pounds, 4.59 40-yard dash time), but a tape review of his 2010 season shows several significant weaknesses that make him more than a bit of a first-round risk.
There are a wide variety of areas that should concern NFL teams and were apparent when I went back and reviewed tape on Newton, but the three most significant are:
1. Footwork
To say Newton's footwork was inconsistent would be giving it credit it doesn't deserve; it was almost as if this part of his game was an afterthought.
One clear-cut example of this occurred on the opening play of the second quarter of the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Newton had Darvin Adams wide open in the end zone but badly overthrew the pass.
At first glance, the blame for the incompletion would seem to fall on the lineman who allowed an Arkansas defender to push him a couple of steps backward into the pocket.
Upon closer inspection, though, it became clear that Newton was actually at fault because his drop wasn't deep enough. He should have been nine yards away from the line of scrimmage but ended up only eight yards back.
Had he been at the proper nine-yard depth, he would have had room to step into the pass. Instead, he had to adjust his delivery to avoid the defender's arm, leading to the overthrow and a missed 26-yard touchdown pass.
This was one of many instances last season where Newton either got too much or too little depth in the pocket.
2. Lack of urgency in his backpedal
One of the recurring mantras of nearly every offensive coordinator in the NFL is that the quarterback get back in his drop as quickly as possible. Most passing plays require the ball to be in the air by the three-second mark. The faster the quarterback can get to the spot where the ball is to be delivered from, the more likely he is to get the ball off on time.
Getting back to his launch point quickly is something that Newton almost never did. A telling instance of this nature occurred late in the first quarter of the Kentucky game.
The play called for a play-action fake and a seven-step drop. Newton's first mistake was to turn his head to watch the runner for a very short time after the fake handoff. While that may have been in an effort to throw off the defense, it also delayed Newton from getting his head around to look at the coverage.
That was only one part of a very deliberate drop and it was a key reason it took Newton 2.1 seconds to get his head around to start looking downfield. The two extra steps Newton took in an effort to get his entire body into the pass compounded the delay and ended up allowing a Kentucky cornerback to leave one area of coverage on the field and get over to help force an incompletion. Had Newton been just a bit faster in any part of his drop or delivery, he would have been able to hit his receiver for a 34-yard touchdown pass.
3. Not stepping into passes to avoid contact
A third major issue that showed up in the tape review was Newton's propensity to let go of passes a step early to brace himself for a hit from a defender.
This occurred all season long, but it was potentially most costly in the BCS title game against the Oregon Ducks. Auburn was down 11-7 and had a fourth-and-goal at the Ducks 1-yard line late in the second quarter.
When errors of this nature are added to Newton's off-field issues and his inconsistent combine performance, both from a physical and mental perspective, it emphasizes just how much of a risk he is.
The play called for the running back to fake a block and then release on a short pass into the end zone. Everything worked fine on the route, except that an Oregon defender read the play and started to blitz.
The defender wasn't quite moving at full speed because he had initially stopped to bite on a run fake by Newton. This meant Newton had enough time to step into the pass and take what ended up being not much of a hit.
Instead of doing that, Newton decided to try to wing the pass with his arm. The resulting underthrow led to an incompletion and kept six points off of the board in the championship contest.
These three areas combined for dozens of Newton's mistakes during the season, and this is far from a comprehensive list. When errors of this nature are added to Newton's off-field issues and his inconsistent combine performance, from a physical and mental perspective, it emphasizes just how much of a risk he is.
The odds are quite good that some team will be saying the same thing about Newton a year from now that the Broncos are saying about Tebow today. Whether or not those comments come with a Tebow-like case of buyer's remorse will depend on if that team was foolish enough to invest a first-round pick on Newton's potential.
By KC Joyner
ESPN Insider
As valuable as size, speed and strength are, they do have limitations when evaluating players. Pro football history is full of imposing physical specimens who didn't pan out because they had some weaknesses that more than offset their elite physical attributes (e.g. Brian Bosworth, Mike Mamula, Lawrence Phillips).
Despite the clear historical warnings, in just about every draft there are teams that will select a player based on his physical attributes, ignoring his glaring football deficiencies.
The 2010 Denver Broncos offered a good example of this when they drafted last year's somewhat flawed quarterbacking phenom, Tim Tebow. The recent comments of John Elway, one of the Broncos' new head honchos and a man who knows a thing or two about quarterbacking, that Tebow is still "very raw," even after a year in the system, say their organization is probably going through a serious case of buyer's remorse.
This is something that teams should keep in mind when considering drafting former Auburn Tigers quarterback Cam Newton in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft. His physical characteristics are off the charts (6-foot-5, 248 pounds, 4.59 40-yard dash time), but a tape review of his 2010 season shows several significant weaknesses that make him more than a bit of a first-round risk.
There are a wide variety of areas that should concern NFL teams and were apparent when I went back and reviewed tape on Newton, but the three most significant are:
1. Footwork
To say Newton's footwork was inconsistent would be giving it credit it doesn't deserve; it was almost as if this part of his game was an afterthought.
One clear-cut example of this occurred on the opening play of the second quarter of the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Newton had Darvin Adams wide open in the end zone but badly overthrew the pass.
At first glance, the blame for the incompletion would seem to fall on the lineman who allowed an Arkansas defender to push him a couple of steps backward into the pocket.
Upon closer inspection, though, it became clear that Newton was actually at fault because his drop wasn't deep enough. He should have been nine yards away from the line of scrimmage but ended up only eight yards back.
Had he been at the proper nine-yard depth, he would have had room to step into the pass. Instead, he had to adjust his delivery to avoid the defender's arm, leading to the overthrow and a missed 26-yard touchdown pass.
This was one of many instances last season where Newton either got too much or too little depth in the pocket.
2. Lack of urgency in his backpedal
One of the recurring mantras of nearly every offensive coordinator in the NFL is that the quarterback get back in his drop as quickly as possible. Most passing plays require the ball to be in the air by the three-second mark. The faster the quarterback can get to the spot where the ball is to be delivered from, the more likely he is to get the ball off on time.
Getting back to his launch point quickly is something that Newton almost never did. A telling instance of this nature occurred late in the first quarter of the Kentucky game.
The play called for a play-action fake and a seven-step drop. Newton's first mistake was to turn his head to watch the runner for a very short time after the fake handoff. While that may have been in an effort to throw off the defense, it also delayed Newton from getting his head around to look at the coverage.
That was only one part of a very deliberate drop and it was a key reason it took Newton 2.1 seconds to get his head around to start looking downfield. The two extra steps Newton took in an effort to get his entire body into the pass compounded the delay and ended up allowing a Kentucky cornerback to leave one area of coverage on the field and get over to help force an incompletion. Had Newton been just a bit faster in any part of his drop or delivery, he would have been able to hit his receiver for a 34-yard touchdown pass.
3. Not stepping into passes to avoid contact
A third major issue that showed up in the tape review was Newton's propensity to let go of passes a step early to brace himself for a hit from a defender.
This occurred all season long, but it was potentially most costly in the BCS title game against the Oregon Ducks. Auburn was down 11-7 and had a fourth-and-goal at the Ducks 1-yard line late in the second quarter.
When errors of this nature are added to Newton's off-field issues and his inconsistent combine performance, both from a physical and mental perspective, it emphasizes just how much of a risk he is.
The play called for the running back to fake a block and then release on a short pass into the end zone. Everything worked fine on the route, except that an Oregon defender read the play and started to blitz.
The defender wasn't quite moving at full speed because he had initially stopped to bite on a run fake by Newton. This meant Newton had enough time to step into the pass and take what ended up being not much of a hit.
Instead of doing that, Newton decided to try to wing the pass with his arm. The resulting underthrow led to an incompletion and kept six points off of the board in the championship contest.
These three areas combined for dozens of Newton's mistakes during the season, and this is far from a comprehensive list. When errors of this nature are added to Newton's off-field issues and his inconsistent combine performance, from a physical and mental perspective, it emphasizes just how much of a risk he is.
The odds are quite good that some team will be saying the same thing about Newton a year from now that the Broncos are saying about Tebow today. Whether or not those comments come with a Tebow-like case of buyer's remorse will depend on if that team was foolish enough to invest a first-round pick on Newton's potential.
...yeah right