Andrew Luck won the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award after sitting out all of 2017. Luck had been getting pummeled behind a bad offensive line for years and his body needed time to recover. When he returned to the lineup, the Colts had finally gotten him some appropriate pass protection, and he quickly returned to being one of the league’s elite quarterbacks.
The Panthers may be hoping a similar dynamic plays out for Cam Newton soon, albeit without the lost season. Pro Football Focus has listed 10 potential Comeback Player of the Year candidates for 2019 and Newton was the first name they mentioned. Here’s PFF on his career arc.
“The spectacular, MVP-winning 2015 season is still the high point of Cam Newton’s career, and we’ve not really seen him come close to replicating it in any of the three years since, but now that he’s “feeling great” after surgery on his shoulder and armed with an arsenal of young and talented receiving weapons, Newton should be at his best in 2019.”
Should is the operative word, but there’s a lot of variables that Newton has no control over.
That being said, if Newton’s shoulder holds up and if Curtis Samuel and D.J. Moore take big steps forward and if Greg Little and Matt Paradis can finally solidify the offensive line and if Norv Turner finds a way to to make it all work, then Newton will have as good a chance as anybody to be the Comeback Player of the Year. If.
