With free agent quarterback and former Carolina Panthers star Cam Newton now fully vaccinated, it looks as if teams are showing some interest in bringing the 2015 NFL MVP on board. One team that has reached out to Newton is the Seattle Seahawks.
Pete Carroll confirmed with reporters on Monday that the team has been in contact with Cam, but didn’t reveal a whole lot more beyond that.
“We’re doing everything we can with everybody that’s available, always,” Carroll said (via Seahawks.com). “So I talked to him a couple times, just trying to see what was going on his world and all that, and we’re wide open and continuing to compete with. There was nothing to be done then, and we’re really counting on Geno to do the job, and that’s how the conversation went with him too, we were counting on Geno to do the job and all that. So we’ll see, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero filed his own report and says that at the moment, nothing is in the works.
You know the Seahawks like to be involved in everything and keep tabs on everyone, so this isn’t surprising to hear. Newton was cut by the New England Patriots before the start of this regular season, having been the team’s starter last year. Obviously Mac Jones is the guy in New England but Newton has remained unsigned, and his vaccination status may have had an impact on him remaining a free agent. There’s also the matter of his play, which was pretty awful across multiple metrics, and that’s even acknowledging how talent poor the Patriots were in 2020.
If the Seahawks are really optimistic that Russell Wilson will be available immediately after the bye week, then they might as well keep Geno Smith as the starter over the next two weeks. I personally don’t see what benefits there are to bringing in Cam beyond him still being a very reliable short-yardage rusher. At their respective peaks we know who’s the better quarterback, but I don’t think you can confidently say at this point that Newton would be an upgrade over Smith as a backup. And he’s certainly not going to be a backup to a backup, either.
