A player who joined the NFL more than ten years later is still available at a time when quarterback Tom Brady, who is 45, is playing as good as ever.
The 2011 first-round pick and 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton has received no attention during training camp or the preseason.
Nobody needs to be surprised by it. He believes he is good enough to start for one of the 32 NFL clubs, but none of the organizations in the league concur. The issue might be as simple as that he sustained enough injuries during his first ten years in the NFL to no longer be interested in any of the league's teams.
Then there is the fact that Newton does indeed have a strong personality. For Newton to be listed on a depth chart as anything other than the starter would be challenging and delicate. Many of the men in the NFL today supported Newton when they were young. With him, they'd want to play. He would therefore need to join a team that had a proven starter.
Newton doesn't want to do that. He's itching to play. Teams are aware of this, which has decreased their likelihood of thinking about making him the No. 2 quarterback.
There is no reason to believe that he desires that. He's itching to play. He desires to begin. But that's not taking place.
Is he still good enough to play? The 32 NFL teams have made their decisions. No team in the league has been offended by Newton's actions. If he would ever want to play the backup role, he simply has a persona that is too huge to allow him to do so. His conviction that he is qualified to begin shows that he does not.
So it appears that Newton's story is over. Unless Panthers starter Baker Mayfield suffers an injury and the decision is made to send Newton back to Charlotte if only to sell tickets and stir up hype, as he did in 2021, rather than to win games.
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