Mike McCarn/Associated Press

Cam Newton reportedly may not get his starting spot back once he returns from injury if the Carolina Panthers continue to win with Kyle Allen under center.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, a team source said it's "hard to imagine the team making a quarterback change in the midst of a winning streak" regarding Newton's starting status once he's healthy:

Newton, 30, has missed the team's past three games with a midfoot sprain. With Allen under center, the team has promptly gone 3-0 after a disappointing 0-2 start.

Newton struggled in his early-season action, throwing for 572 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception while completing just 56.2 percent of his passes. Allen, meanwhile, has thrown for 674 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, completing 66.7 percent of his passes.

It may be a small sample size, but this season alone, Allen has been the better quarterback.

But Newton does have the pedigree of being a former MVP and the player who led the Panthers to a Super Bowl berth in the 2015 season. And as Rapoport noted, "if the Panthers lose, it's probably pretty simple: Get Newton back from his midfoot sprain—whenever he gets back, possibly even during the bye week—and he likely resumes his starting job and it goes forward from there."

But if Allen leads the team into the bye week on a four-game winning streak, it becomes a much tougher decision. Do the Panthers ride the hot hand and trust in the second-year Allen, at the risk of irking Newton? Or do they trust in Newton to return to the high level of play he's displayed throughout his career?

Newton showed glimpses of being that player last season, though his shoulder issues cost him two games and severely limited his ability to make throws down the field. In turn, he threw for 3,395 yards, 24 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while completing 67.9 percent of his passes. He also rushed for 488 yards and four scores.

Solid enough numbers, but not the elite production that had become expected of one of the preeminent two-way threats in the NFL. And since his epic 2015 season that saw him throw for 35 touchdowns to just 10 interceptions, he's thrown for 65 touchdowns to 44 picks in 47 games, a pretty ho-hum ratio.

In the past, Newton has made up for any deficiencies throwing the ball by being an elite option in the running game. In 2017, he rushed for 754 yards and six touchdowns. But given his ongoing injury concerns, it would be justifiable if the Panthers preferred he ran less going forward and scripted less running plays for him. That also steals some value from his arsenal.

So it isn't hard to see why the team might be mulling over its options at quarterback, especially if Allen leads them to a fourth straight win this week when they face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It no longer seems infeasible that Newton could lose the starting gig, and at the very least, the Panthers have very little incentive to rush him back into game action.