The Carolina Panthers have themselves a new head coach. Today, Matt Rhule was introduced as the fifth person to earn that title in team history.
Rhule faces a lot of questions in the first of a seven-year, $60 million contract. Near the top of the list has to be who he wants to be his franchise quarterback. As general manager Marty Hurney reminded the media today, there’s already an MVP QB on the roster.
Speaking of Cam Newton, Rhule says he spoke with him on Tuesday to introduce himself. Here’s what he told Adam Schefter on his podcast about that conversation.
“He was awesome to talk to. Passionate. . . Great guy. A tremendous competitor. . . Again, it was a conversation just to introduce myself and say how much I look forward to getting to know him in the future.”
That sounds good. However, whether or not Newton stays may not be entirely up to Rhule, who admitted he’s not fully up to speed on his personnel just yet. He says he told Newton as much.
“As I told him and told all the players, I really don’t know anything right now. I was kind of just dropped here today but I’ll get caught up to speed really quick on where everything’s at and we can get this thing moving in the right direction.”
Newton (30) is entering the last year of his contract. Some analysts have suggested cutting or trading him, which would save the team some $19.1 million in cap space and cost only $2 million in dead money.
Cap savings don’t win games, though. If that’s a proposition that interests Rhule, then Newton is going to be his best chance to do so in 2020.
