The Washington Redskins made a big trade for a Carolina Panther’s quarterback on Monday, setting up what should be a fun and interesting QB competition this season in fall camp.
No, it wasn’t Cam Newton, but rather Kyle Allen, a second-year player who started 12 games for the Panthers in 2019 while Newton was injured, going 5-7 in that time and throwing for 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
Some thought this was an interesting move for Washington to make, seeing as they gave up a fifth-round pick in order to get Allen, a projected QB2 that will have a great chance to push Dwayne Haskins for the QB1 spot. It was most peculiar because many believed that if Washington were to add a QB to their roster that Rivera had some familiarity with, it would have been Newton. On Tuesday, Rivera spoke with WFNZ’s The Clubhouse with Kyle Bailey to nix the rumors that the Redskins had any interest in Cam.
Any football fan that knows that building a team takes a whole lot more than just fantasy football acumen and a player like Cam Newton would have disrupted the groundwork that Rivera is trying to lay. That’s not to say that Newton would have been a cancer to the locker room or a bad teammate, but he definitely would have taken over as the most famous player in Washington, which is a role that’s being fought hard for by a number of younger players.
Acquiring Newton would also go a long way to tell Haskins that the staff has little confidence in him. They already have promised to throw some competition at him and make sure he’s up to the test, but a player of Cam’s stature — NFL MVP in 2015 — would immediately put him at No. 2 on the pecking order, right from the start. By making this statement on Tuesday, Rivera assures us that they have always believed that Haskins can eventually be a great QB for them, and they’re willing to let him grow into that franchise roll.
Ever since Rivera took the Washington job last December, he’s been dropping little hints about what this team will look like in the future. It may have been brushed off as ‘coach speak’ at the time, but his string of moves since being in charge have lived up to the billing. Young and hungry players that have something to prove, and veteran leaders who are familiar with what Washington is trying to build. If you ever believed that Rivera would bring in Newton while trying to keep this same mentality, you’re extremely mistaken.
