QB Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers)
2018 Stats: 3,395 passing yards, 24 TD, 13 INT; 488 rushing yards, 4 TD
By most accounts, Cam Newton had a down year in 2018. He played through a shoulder injury, was shut down for the final two games once the Panthers were out of the playoff race and had another offseason surgery on said shoulder.
That shoulder issue yielded a league-low 7.2 percent of his pass attempts traveling more than 20 yards and a 7.3 yards average depth of target was only above Blake Bortles among 33 qualified quarterbacks (h/t to Rotowire). Newton still offered nice production as a runner, but it was a drop off from his previous level even considering two missed games (488 yards, four touchdowns)
But Newton was good in some areas in 2018. He set a clear career-high in completion percentage (67.9 percent) with the second-best passer rating (94.2) and yards per game of his career (242.5) in his first year running Norv Turner’s offense. Oh, and he finished as QB12 in fantasy scoring. But with five top-five finishes as a fantasy quarterback in his career, that goes in the books as a down year.
Newton has progressed nicely from his shoulder surgery this offseason, and he’s in line to a full-go for training camp. Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore and Curtis Samuel remain as nice weapons, with Ian Thomas and Greg Olsen filling out the tight end depth chart.
In a “down” year, with two missed games (only one that meant anything to most fantasy owners) Newton was still a QB1. Take away Week 17, and he was QB10 for the season.
I’ve long been an advocate of waiting to draft a quarterback, unless an opportunity presents itself that can’t be turned away from. Based on his current ADP (QB13, pick 9.08), Newton is looking like one of the signal callers we can wait to take.
Even at 30 years old now, with inherent durability and injury concerns attached to being a runner, Newton still has legit top-five fantasy quarterback upside this year. And it’s coming at a substantial discount, barring a drastic uptick in his ADP.
2019 Projection: 3,775 passing yards, 26 TD, 13 INT; 590 rushing yards, 5 TD
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