Carolina quarterback Cam Newton sprained his left foot in the Panthers’ third preseason game but hid just how much it bothered him.
Newton did not play well in Weeks 1 and 2, and after over a month and a half of hoping and waiting, he is unlikely to play again this season. The Panthers placed him on injured reserve Tuesday, a move that allows him to continue rehabilitating at his own pace, but could also spell the beginning of the end to his marvelous tenure in Carolina.
By going on injured reserve, he cannot practice for at least six weeks, and must miss at least eight games. The Panthers (5-3) have eight left.
“For the past seven weeks, Cam has diligently followed a program of rest and rehab and still is experiencing pain in his foot,” General Manager Marty Hurney said in a statement. “He saw two foot specialists last week who agreed that he should continue that path prescribed by the team’s medical staff, and that it likely will take significant time for the injury to fully heal. We have said all along that it is impossible to put a timetable on this injury. Nobody is more frustrated with that fact than Cam.”
Newton started in Week 1 against the Rams but, with his mobility compromised, played almost exclusively from the pocket. He started the next week, against Tampa Bay, but was unable to run or anchor his foot to throw with confidence and precision.
Since then, Coach Ron Rivera had grown weary of answering questions about Newton’s availability, even stopping a September news conference after repeated queries. Newton has not commented publicly about his status since releasing a YouTube video on Sept. 27, about two weeks after he aggravated his injury against Tampa Bay. In that video, he acknowledged that he was dealing with a “mild Lisfranc” injury; the Lisfranc ligament is a band of tissue that connects the front of his foot to the midfoot and is critical in preserving the alignment of the foot.
“If I were to go out there and play four quarters of football in the state that I’m in right now with my foot, it would be a No. 1 out there but it won’t be Cam Newton, what everybody’s accustomed to seeing, and I refuse for that to happen,” Newton said in the video. “Because I’ve been doing that for two games. And I said, that’s not acceptable. It’s hard for me to watch film, it’s hard for me to go about my everyday life knowing that I’m being held back by an ailment that all I have to do is just do right by.”
Newton, the winner of the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2015, is, when healthy, among the league’s most dynamic players, a fearsome runner and a lethal passer who holds franchise marks in yardage and touchdowns. But persistent shoulder problems caused him to miss the final two games last season, necessitating off-season surgery, and his foot discomfort sapped his potency.
Against the Rams, he rushed for minus-2 yards, the fewest of his career. Against Tampa Bay, he completed 49 percent of his passes and, in the ultimate indication of his running limitations, was used as a decoy on fourth-and-1 from the Buccaneers’ 2-yard line late in the fourth quarter. Across those two games, both losses, Newton completed 56.2 percent of his passes and averaged the fewest yards per attempt, 6.4, of his career.
Newton has one more year left on the contract extension he signed in June 2015, but Carolina will have to determine how to assess his recent injury issues as they plan for next season. The Panthers could save $19 million by releasing him, according to OvertheCap.com, and incur only $2 million in dead money.
In Newton’s absence, the backup Kyle Allen has steadied the Panthers, leading them to five wins in their last six games. They are tied with the Rams for seventh in the N.F.C., a half-game out of a playoff spot.
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November 05, 2019 at 01:26PM
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Cam Newton to Miss Rest of Regular Season - The New York Times
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