More ‘Influential’ Than Patrick Mahomes, Cam Newton’s Impact on NFL Helped Lamar Jackson’s Game

Cam Newton may have left the NFL in 2021, but his impact continues to be felt. He was on the news lately. At a 7-on-7 youth football tournament in Atlanta, Newton found himself in the heart of a storm. He openly expressed his disappointment, admitting he let his emotions get the better of him. This moment of heated passion led to a short-lived scuffle, drawing in a few from the rival squads.

But now analysts are speaking about him for an entirely different reason. One analyst thinks that he may have influenced the NFL and football more than 3x Super Bowl winner, Patrick Mahomes. That’s saying something!

Cam Newton’s influence trumps that of Mahomes?

During the latest episode of the SPEAK podcast, the analysts were discussing which player had more impact on their sport. Patrick Mahomes on football or Steph Curry on basketball. But the conversation took a different turn. It seems Mahomes isn’t even the most influential player in football! According to Ric Bucher, it’s Cam Newton. When Joy Taylor asked him, “So you’re saying Cam Newton has been more influential than Patrick Mahomes?” “That’s what I’m saying,” he said.

He basically set the trend of the “dual threat QB,” per Bucher. Bucher further added “He was the first one that you looked at and said, ‘You know what? Our quarterback doesn’t just have to stay in the pocket to be a threat. We can we can put the ball in his hands’.”

Before Newton, most QBs would just stay in the pocket and fire the ball from there. But Newton changed all that. And that helped the rise of last season’s NFL MVP.

Newton set the course for the rise of Jackson

No one can argue that there’s only one player who personifies the title, “dual-threat QB”. And that’s Lamar Jackson. In the 2023 season, alongside shattering personal records with a staggering 3,678 yards thrown and a remarkable 67.2% rate of successful completions, he emerged as the linchpin for the Ravens. He also registered 821 rushing yards.

But that could only have been possible because of Newton. As Bucher very aptly put it, “Cam ran, so that Lamar Jackson could run more.” Newton himself had recorded 5,628 rushing yards and an impressive 75 rushing touchdowns over his career. He changed how football was played as a QB. As Bucher aptly said, “He made it acceptable that we’re going to run our quarterback, and we’re going to have plays that run our quarterback. And we can win playing that way.”

Lamar has already found his place in the list of the greatest dual-threat quarterbacks in NFL history. Cam Newton also features on that list. However, can he soon rise to the top?

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