Cam blames himself for bad situations with Panthers, Patriots

Free-agent quarterback Cam Newton believes he doesn't have anyone to blame but himself for his struggles with the Carolina Panthers last season.

"I signed on Thursday. I played on Sunday," Newton said recently on "The Pivot Podcast," according to ESPN's David Newton. "At what point did you think you was going to be successful? The next week, I started. That's still under 10 days of you being on the team. And you're still trying to learn the offense.

"So before I sit up here and allow the narrative to be made that Cam ain't got it no more, Cam is taking full responsibility and saying Cam put himself in a f---ed-up situation."

Newton reunited with the Panthers - the team that drafted him first overall in 2011 - midway through last season after Sam Darnold was placed on injured reserve. Newton came off the bench in his first game back with Carolina, rushing for a touchdown and tossing a TD in his first two plays.

The 2015 NFL MVP then started five games, going 0-5 while passing for four touchdowns against five interceptions. He put up five scores on the ground.

Before rejoining the Panthers last year, Newton also failed to meet the expectations while with the New England Patriots in 2020.

"The New England experience was a f---ed-up situation," he said. "I was still learning the offense seven-to-eight weeks into the season."

The 33-year-old won seven of his 15 starts for the Pats. He scored 12 rushing touchdowns - the second-best single-season mark of his career - but threw for only eight touchdowns to 10 picks.

The Patriots, who re-signed him after that campaign, eventually decided to roll with Mac Jones under center and released Newton before the regular season began.

"It was just brain overload," Newton said. "It was times I was going to the line and I'm still thinking. ... Did I know it? Yes. To the degree that I needed to know it to show the world that I'm still Cam Newton? No. But I put myself in that situation."

But Newton thinks he still has something left in the tank.

"If you think I couldn't be on somebody's team right now, you're a damn fool," he said. "There's not 32 guys better than me."

Panthers head coach Matt Rhule said in March that he was still open to bringing Newton back this year, though Carolina drafted quarterback Matt Corral in the third round a month later.

Newton emerged as one of the NFL's most exciting players soon after entering the league. The Auburn product, who spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Panthers, won the MVP award in 2015 after totaling 45 touchdowns.

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