Baker Mayfield trade to Panthers hurts Cam Newton’s chances of finding team in 2022

BOSTON — After getting cut in a somewhat shocking move last summer, Cam Newton once again found himself without an NFL job. With seemingly nobody interested in acquiring the veteran quarterback, it was his old team — the Carolina Panthers — who swooped in to help him out with a job in early November.

With Newton now lacking an NFL home for the third time in three years, it doesn’t appear as though the Panthers will be the one to hire him this time around.

That has to be the case after the Panthers swung a trade for Baker Mayfield. In doing so, the Panthers added a starting-caliber QB to compete with Sam Darnold for the QB1 job. And that’s after drafting Matt Corral out of Ole Miss in the third round of the draft.

Given his star status and natural magnetism, Newton doesn’t really work as a backup quarterback. He has said so himself.

“The reason why [the Patriots] released me is because indirectly I was going to be a distraction without being the starter. Just my aura,” Newton said last September. “Just my aura. … That’s my gift and my curse. When you bring a Cam Newton to your facility, when you bring a Cam Newton to your franchise, people are interested by mere fact of, ‘Who is he? Why does he wear his hair? Why does he talk? Why does he act? Why does he perform?’ All these questions.” 

As recently as last month, Newton insisted that he’s one of the best 32 quarterbacks in the world and thus is worthy of a starting job in the NFL.

“At the end of the day, comparing apples to apples, oranges to oranges, certain situations for certain situations, and if you think that I couldn’t be on somebody’s team right now, you’re a damn fool,” Newton said on The Pivot podcast.

Newton, as usual, isn’t lacking confidence. But he is still lacking interested teams, and he just likely lost a big one in the Panthers.