In terms of size and athletic ability Newton reminds me of Bucs' QB Josh Freeman. How Newton compares in terms of football smarts, dedication and leadership ability remains to be seen. Freeman is off the charts in terms of intangibles (can intangibles be charted?) while Young doesn't seem to have anything going in those categories. Even if Newton isn't up to Freeman's level, he could still be a good NFL quarterback.
where do you come to think he only played one year in college? played under florida as backup, didn't start but played. Won a Junior college National championship, and now a D1 National championship
He played in one game at Florida (he didn't start), he was injured, took a medical redshirt for the year, and then lost his scholarship for stealing a laptop from another student. Yes, he played at Blinn college. That is in the NJCAA, which is basically community college. I'm sorry, nobody in the sports business thinks that counts. It isn't even division III football. For all intents and purposes, he has 1 year of college football under his belt.
According to some people, playing at a D1 is the only college experience that counts. Many people doubted Joe Flacco was NFL material for no other reason that he played at 1AA Delaware. Many of the "smart people" said "If Flacco was so good, why didn't he play for a D1 school?"
You are missing the point. It's about experience at a high level, not about capability. Any football work is a plus, but one where the level of competition and more importantly, the level of coaching is high is a very big deal. Cam's got all the physical capability, what he doesn't have is a lot of experience in dealing with guys that are as capable as he is. That's what happens in the next level - an open receiver is a matter of inches, not feet. His game likely will transfer over. But the big things now are going to be work ethic and the ability to learn the offense and read defenses. There's lots of phenomenal athletes who never cut it at QB because of those things. And because he has less time in at doing that at a high level, it's logical that it will take him longer to develop even if he is successful. Very few guys come in at QB and make a difference right away. Since the merger, I don't think any rookie QBs have made a pro bowl.
Bob Griese (Dolphins, 1967) Joe Namath (Jets, 1965) (though he was on the ALL STAR AFL team so some might not consider it the Pro-Bowl) Dan Marino (Dolphins, 1983) first rookie QB to start in the Pro Bowl. And Marino didn't start playing as a starter until the sixth game of the season.
OK, so that's one - Greise and Namath were before the merger in the AFL, which I stipulated. And of course Marino was perhaps the best pure passer ever in the game. Oh, and Greg Cook did it too before the merger for the Bengals. So in the 40 years since, a grand total of one.
I thought Greise was after the merger..... I'm not going to go through each Pro Bowl game. You do it.
After the first Super Bowl, yes, but that was the NFL-AFL Super Bowl. It was two years later before the leagues actually merged.
Another point is that he's also not the size of an 18 year old. He's almost 22, that adds a lot to the picture. Saying he's only one year into college is misleading.
The leagues actually merged before the Super Bowl with the common draft starting in 1967. They operated as separate leagues (like baseball) until 1970 IIRC... At any rate, I think we all agree Newton has all the tangibles to be an NFL QB, but whether he has the intangibles remains to be seen. One thing that could work against him big time is a work stoppage. If there's a prolonged lockout all the offseason mini camps could be washed out and training camps could be cut short as well. One of the reasons the Bucs did so well this year is that Josh Freeman practically lived in the team's video room and worked practically every day with his receivers. A lot of rookies, especially rookie quarterbacks, could be looking at a wasted 2011 if there is a long stoppage.
That picture makes a nice bumper sticker slogan, but it's totally untrue. You read a few times a year about brainiac kids who ace the SAT or ACT. Those kids get a free ride to any school of their choosing. They're not working 3 jobs to afford tuition. The school is paying them to join their astrophysics dept. to do research and work on grant proposals.
My point is there is a LOT of pro-D1 snobbery among the football talking heads. I rejoice whenever a player (any position) who didn't go to a D1 makes it in the NFL. Or someone who wasn't drafted at all.
It burned me up when I saw kids getting free rides because they could dribble a ball. They couldn't read, and certainly never went to class, but they brough the university money so it was all good. I had a class that required some group work and we had a football player who was dumber than a box of hair. Me and the other two people in our group had to carry this guy because he couldn't even read the instructions, much less do the work. And, of course, our grade was tied to his so we couldn't just let him take the F, not that he; have gotten an F since the school would just pressure the professor anyways.
I didn't like that either when I was in college, but on the other hand, no one was paying money to see us grind our way through freshman English or bonehead math. I agree that anyone in college ought to be able to speak in complete sentences and be able to spell "shit" without getting it all over them, but college sports is about money. You want to argue right and wrong about it and I'm right there with you. Want to argue reality? We're gonna lose.
