Sports Time Radio

The Carolina Panthers placed quarterback Cam Newton on Injured Reserve ending his 2019 season after playing in just 2 games. Now the question is; has Newton played his last game for the Panthers?

Newton is suffering from a Lisfranc injury and at first he was expected back this season, but with the move to IR yesterday it’s apparent the injury is going to take longer to heal then first thought. This is the largest amount of games that Newton has missed in a season ad this is a quarterback that has taken a lot of hits in his career.

Newton was the #1 overall pick in the 2011 draft and has been Carolina’s starting quarterback ever since. In his nine seasons as the Panthers starting quarterback he has a record of 68-55-1. Newton has taken the Panthers to four playoff appearances and made the Super Bowl in 2015. Newton was also voted league MVP in 2015.

Now Newton missed the final two games of the 2018 season with a shoulder injury that required off season surgery. In the two games he played this season the Panthers went 0-2 and Newton completed 56.2% of his passes. He threw interception, but no touchdowns before going down with his current injury.

Now you have to wonder if the Panthers could actually let Newton go this off season. It would save them about $20 million dollars against the salary cap. What may make this move a little easier for Carolina to make is the fact that Kyle Allen has went 5-1 in his six starts since taking over as the starting quarterback.

Luckily for the Panthers they have the final eight games of the season while Newton is out to look at Allen and make that decision. Now Allen has had his struggles his last couple of games. In his only loss so far as a starting quarterback Allen completed just 19 of his 37 attempts for 158 yards while throwing 3 interceptions in a 51-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 8. Now the Panthers bounced back with a 30-20 win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 9, but Allen’s numbers weren’t that good. Aleen went 17 of 32 for 232 yards. He did throw 2 touchdowns to just 1 interception, but his completion percentage has been way down these last two weeks.

The Panthers currently trail the New Orleans Saints by two games in the NFC South; so it might be difficult for the Panthers to win their division, but they are just on game behind in the in column for a wild card spot. The schedule will begin to even out with all the teams having their bye weeks, but the Panthers have a tough schedule these final 8 weeks. This week they face the Green Bay Packers. They have two games left against the Atlanta Falcons one in Week 11 and then they’ll play them again in Week 14. They also have two games against the division leading New Orleans Saints. The first game is Week 12 and then they wrap up the season at home against the Saints in Week 17. Week 13 has the Panthers hosting the Washington Redskins, Week 15 has them hosting the Seattle Seahawks, but for Week 16 they’re on the road against the Indianapolis Colts.

Five of Carolina’s final eight games will be against teams that will also be playing for a spot in the playoffs. There division might come down to how they do in those two games against New Orleans, but Seattle will also be one of the teams it looks like the Panthers would have to beat out if they end up as a wild card team. The Packers appear to be the best team in the NFC North while the Colts are battling it out with the Houston Texans in the AFC South.

If Kyle Allen makes it through this schedule and gets the Panthers into the playoffs would that make it easier for Carolina to allow Newton to walk away?

If Newton happens to be released by Carolina after this season; how many teams would be interested in him?

No team in the NBA has played more than 8 games this season; so I find it kind of odd that players are already taking games off for “load management”. This seems kind of ridiculous to me that players need games off this early in the season unless they actually injured.

Now one of the marquee games on the schedule tonight has the Los Angeles Clippers hosting the Milwaukee Bucks. It’s already been announced that for the second time already this season Kawhi Leonard will be sitting out for “load management” purposes. This is the first game of a back to back for the Clippers; so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Leonard is going to take one of these games off, but why is he skipping a match up against the Bucks and MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and playing tomorrow night against the against the Portland Trailblazers.

What makes this a little more interesting is the fact that both of these games will be on national television. Tonight’s Bucks/Clippers game is the second game on ESPN tonight. While Thursday’s Trailblazers/Clippers game is the second game that TNT will show tomorrow night.

Now NBA ratings where way down last season and ESPN paid quite a bit of money to air these games. It’ to bad that there’s no way we could ever find out how they feel about this, but you’ve got to think that it’s going to become an issue. I’m not sure how may more years the NBA has on that big contract with ESPN, but with the drop in the ratings and the fact that you just never know if you’re going to see a top player when you turn a game on I doubt there will be a network that will be willing to pay what ESPN did on this last contract.

Do you feel that the “load management” of players has hurt the NBA? Has your NBA viewership changed because of it?

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