Can you smell that? No, not the smell of fall, the coming Thanksgiving holiday, or the pumpkin spice latte that the person next to you is loudly sipping on...it is the pungent aroma of fear surrounding Cam Newton, and by proxy, the Carolina Panthers franchise. Over the past few weeks we have seen the Panthers lose the division lead in devastating fashion, a once-dominant defense look lifeless and exposed, and a SuperCam look more like...well...Cam Newton, questionable QB prospect. There has been a lot of talk in Panther Nation about that last point...there have been articles written on CSR by our very own James Dator telling the fans to essentially R-E-L-A-X. We've had other prominent users claim that Cam Newton is not a franchise QB.. Through all of the madness, hand-wringing, yelling and screaming, and crushing depression I've asked myself the same question several times over the last month:

"How many QBs in the league are currently being asked to win with a weaker supporting cast on offense than Cam Newton?"

In my opinion, not many.

For weeks I've brought this up without even attempting to try to verify the soundness of my answer beyond watching other games. I've watched a lot of non-Panther football this year to try and verify by the famous JKizzle eye-test (patent pending) and to me, it has verified my opinion. However, I've decided to do some loose number-crunching to see if it backs up my opinion. By loose, I mean "Don't expect this to be an award-winning statistical model that flawlessly backs up reality." If that is what you want then I'd advise you to stop reading now. So, what am I trying to do with this article and what am I NOT trying to do?

What am I trying to do?

Trying to see if the advanced metrics of Football Outsiders, one of the more respected football metric sites, more or less lines up with my preconceived notions about the 2014 Carolina Panther supporting offensive cast. That is it...plain and simple, simple and plain.

What am I NOT trying to do?

Divert all blame from Cam Newton. In fact, I'm going to devote a portion of this article that outlines all of the issues that Cam Newton has been struggling with lately.

Try to persuade you that Cam Newton is/isn't the answer for the Panthers. Frankly, I don't really care about that. Your opinions are your own.

Claim that Football Outsider's metrics are objective gospel that aren't open to debate. I actually disagree with some of their rankings/numbers, but overall I think they are generally reasonable. No football metric is going to get everything right, all the time.

With all of that being said, lets jump right in. All rankings will be ordered by Football Outsider's DYAR metric. Why? Because I said so, that's why. I've included most QBs (29 total, hopefully I didn't accidentally leave anyone out that qualifies) in the league for this, the qualification standards are a minimum of 200 pass attempts on the season though I've included a few that have a bit less than that due to bye weeks, late starts, etc. You can read about DYAR to your heart's content here.

Too Long; Didn't Read: I've decided to put a TL;DR here in case you don't feel like slogging through the rest of this. After averaging together a bunch of rankings for the top 2 WRs/top TE/top RB/OLine ranking for both rush and pass blocking for each qualifying team only three QBs have a weaker supporting offensive cast than Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Carson Palmer, and Mike Glennon. Basically, Cam is tied with AD/CP/MG and three QBs came out below this group of guys.

Anyway, blahblahblah, lets get this going.

Wide Receivers

For most teams in the league the top-2 WRs on your team are going to get the bulk of the work. Because of this, I took the DYAR ranking for each QBs top-2 WRs and charted them out. You'd get:

Random Observations:

On paper Cincy has a top-10 combo with Green and Sanu, but Green's injuries have caused him to plummet to 77th overall.

Again, on paper Chicago has a top-10 combo with Marshall and Jeffery. Jeffery is ranked right about where he was last year (13th overall) but Marshall has struggled this year and is currently ranked 61st.

For the most part, this list lines up with commonly held opinions. Teams like DEN, GB,and DAL are at the top while teams like TB and NYG are at the bottom. We can nitpick exact rankings but overall I think this is a decent order.

Tight Ends

I decided to only use the top TE for each team. A handful of teams have two highly ranked TEs but for most teams have one primary target and some guy that catches a tiny amount of balls. I did a very basic weight for this list (and all subsequent lists) because the list of WRs was much longer than any other. If a TE is ranked 50th he is well below average while a rank of 50th for a WR would be average, maybe even slightly above average. I used a weight of "2" because it is simple, it worked, and I'm not a mathematician. This is the same weight that I used for all subsequent lists.

Team QB TE Name TE Rank TE Rank Weighted NE Tom Brady R.Gronkowski 1 2 DEN Peyton Manning J.Thomas 2 4 SD Phillip Rivers A.Gates 3 6 NO Drew Brees J.Graham 4 8 KC Alex Smith T.Kelce 5 10 INDY Andrew Luck D.Allen 6 12 WAS Kirk Cousins N.Paul 7 14 CHI Jay Cutler M.Bennett 8 16 CAR Cam Newton G.Olsen 9 18 PHI Nick Foles Z.Ertz 10 20 PITT Ben Roethlisberger H.Miller 11 22 BAL Joe Flacco O.Daniels 13 26 DAL Tony Romo J.Witten 14 28 STL Austin Davis J.Cook 16 32 JAC Blake Bortles C.Harbor 21 42 BUF Kyle Orton S.Chandler 23 46 GB Aaron Rodgers A.Quarless 24 48 NYG Eli Manning L.Donnell 25 50 SF Colin Kaepernick V.Davis 26 52 TB Mike Glennon B.Myers 27 54 HOU Ryan Fitzpatrick G.Graham 29 58 DET Matthew Stafford E.Ebron 32 64 CLE Bryan Hoyer J.Cameron 33 66 MIA Ryan Tannehill C.Clay 35 70 ARI Carson Palmer J.Carlson 36 72 ATL Matt Ryan L.Toilolo 37 74 OAK Derick Carr M.Rivera 38 76 CIN Andy Dalton J.Gresham 39 78 SEA Russell Wilson L.Willson 50 100

Random Observations:

This backs up what most Panther fans have been saying for the past few years...on the Carolina Panthers Greg Olsen has finally seen his full potential and is a top-10 TE.

Running Backs

Team QB RB Name RB Rank RB Rank Weighted DAL Tony Romo D.Murray 1 2 SEA Russell Wilson M.Lynch 2 4 HOU Ryan Fitzpatrick A.Foster 3 6 NYG Eli Manning R.Jennings 5 10 NO Drew Brees M.Ingram 6 12 KC Alex Smith J.Charles 7 14 MIA Ryan Tannehill L.Miller 8 16 CHI Jay Cutler M.Forte 10 20 PITT Ben Roethlisberger L.Bell 12 24 JAC Blake Bortles D.Robinson 13 26 ATL Matt Ryan S.Jackson 14 28 BAL Joe Flacco J.Forsett 15 30 SD Phillip Rivers B.Oliver 17 34 SF Colin Kaepernick F.Gore 18 36 TB Mike Glennon B.Rainey 20 40 DEN Peyton Manning R.Hillman 21 42 WAS Kirk Cousins A.Morris 22 44 GB Aaron Rodgers E.Lacy 23 46 CLE Bryan Hoyer T.West 24 48 PHI Nick Foles L.McCoy 28 56 CIN Andy Dalton G.Bernard 29 58 ARI Carson Palmer A.Ellington 30 60 OAK Derick Carr D.McFadden 31 62 NE Tom Brady S.Ridley 32 64 INDY Andrew Luck T.Richardson 33 66 DET Matthew Stafford J.Bell 36 72 STL Austin Davis T.Mason 41 82 CAR Cam Newton J.Stewart 42 84 BUF Kyle Orton F.Jackson 54 108

Random Observations:

Injuries are the name of the game for the Panthers. On paper we have one of the best backfields in the league. In reality both haven't been able to stay healthy this year and the backups that we've used haven't been able to get much going behind a poor offensive line.

As you can see, our rank is ugly. Lost in the uproar over Cam Newton/Mike Shula/Offensive Line/any other person that the fans want to throw crap at is the fact that we've basically had no run game this year to help out our passing game; aka Cam Newton. Injuries/misuse/abandoning the run game/OLine/etc...there are plenty of valid reasons for the struggles, but in the end the run game has been virtually non-existent and that is that. A good passing game helps out your running game and a good running game helps out your passing game. They go hand in hand.

Weapons Overall

This is just the average of the WR , TE, and RB rank. Not a perfect gauge, but decent enough.

Team QB Wrs Rank Average TE Rank Weighted RB Rank Weighted Weapons Rank Average PITT Ben Roethlisberger 23 22 24 17 DAL Tony Romo 16 28 2 18 DEN Peyton Manning 5 4 42 19 WAS Kirk Cousins 25 14 44 19 SD Phillip Rivers 18 6 34 20 NE Tom Brady 27 2 64 20 INDY Andrew Luck 19 12 66 21 BAL Joe Flacco 16 26 30 21 GB Aaron Rodgers 5 48 46 23 NO Drew Brees 32 8 12 24 HOU Ryan Fitzpatrick 36 58 6 26 ATL Matt Ryan 28 74 28 27 SF Colin Kaepernick 12 52 36 27 STL Austin Davis 32 32 82 28 PHI Nick Foles 33 20 56 29 CHI Jay Cutler 37 16 20 31 JAC Blake Bortles 40 42 26 32 CLE Bryan Hoyer 36 66 48 34 TB Mike Glennon 48 54 40 35 MIA Ryan Tannehill 41 70 16 35 DET Matthew Stafford 26 64 72 35 KC Alex Smith 73 10 14 36 NYG Eli Manning 60 50 10 38 CAR Cam Newton 43 18 84 39 OAK Derick Carr 38 76 62 40 ARI Carson Palmer 39 72 60 41 SEA Russell Wilson 53 100 4 41 BUF Kyle Orton 46 46 108 42 CIN Andy Dalton 52 78 58 43

Offensive Line

I ran the average of their pass blocking and run blocking ranks. Again, not perfect, but decent enough.

Team QB Run Blocking Rank Pass Blocking Rank Oline Rank Average Oline Rank Weighted NO Drew Brees 1 6 4 7 INDY Andrew Luck 8 5 7 13 CIN Andy Dalton 11 2 7 13 BAL Joe Flacco 3 11 7 14 MIA Ryan Tannehill 5 12 9 17 CHI Jay Cutler 4 14 9 18 NE Tom Brady 14 7 11 21 DEN Peyton Manning 21 1 11 22 ATL Matt Ryan 9 13 11 22 KC Alex Smith 10 16 13 26 DAL Tony Romo 2 26 14 28 SEA Russell Wilson 12 17 15 29 OAK Derick Carr 27 3 15 30 PITT Ben Roethlisberger 13 18 16 31 NYG Eli Manning 16 15 16 31 ARI Carson Palmer 23 8 16 31 PHI Nick Foles 30 4 17 34 STL Austin Davis 6 29 18 35 CLE Bryan Hoyer 26 10 18 36 GB Aaron Rodgers 18 21 20 39 HOU Ryan Fitzpatrick 19 20 20 39 SD Phillip Rivers 32 9 21 41 WAS Kirk Cousins 15 27 21 42 DET Matthew Stafford 25 23 24 48 JAC Blake Bortles 20 32 26 52 SF Colin Kaepernick 22 31 27 53 CAR Cam Newton 31 22 27 53 BUF Kyle Orton 29 25 27 54 TB Mike Glennon 28 28 28 56

Random Observations:

Wait, do I even need to say anything else about this? If you weren't expecting this low of a ranking then you are blind. This OLine is really, REALLY bad.

Total Offense

Everything averaged together, using the weight rank columns for the applicable positions. blahblahnotperfectblah

Team QB Wrs Rank Average TE Rank Weighted RB Rank Weighted Oline Rank Weighted Offense Average NO Drew Brees 32 8 12 7 15 DEN Peyton Manning 5 4 42 22 18 DAL Tony Romo 16 28 2 28 18 BAL Joe Flacco 16 26 30 14 22 CHI Jay Cutler 37 16 20 18 23 SD Phillip Rivers 18 6 34 41 25 PITT Ben Roethlisberger 23 22 24 31 25 INDY Andrew Luck 19 12 66 13 28 NE Tom Brady 27 2 64 21 28 KC Alex Smith 73 10 14 26 31 WAS Kirk Cousins 25 14 44 42 31 GB Aaron Rodgers 5 48 46 39 35 HOU Ryan Fitzpatrick 36 58 6 39 35 PHI Nick Foles 33 20 56 34 36 MIA Ryan Tannehill 41 70 16 17 36 NYG Eli Manning 60 50 10 31 38 ATL Matt Ryan 28 74 28 22 38 SF Colin Kaepernick 12 52 36 53 38 JAC Blake Bortles 40 42 26 52 40 STL Austin Davis 32 32 82 35 45 CLE Bryan Hoyer 36 66 48 36 46 SEA Russell Wilson 53 100 4 29 46 TB Mike Glennon 48 54 40 56 50 CAR Cam Newton 43 18 84 53 50 CIN Andy Dalton 52 78 58 13 50 ARI Carson Palmer 39 72 60 31 50 OAK Derick Carr 38 76 62 30 52 DET Matthew Stafford 26 64 72 48 52 BUF Kyle Orton 46 46 108 54 64

Random Observations

Well there you go. After all of that, this is what the results look like. Few QBs are at/below Cam Newton when it comes to the talent that is around them.

A Closer Look at the Bottom Nine QBs

Team QB Offense Average Record Current Defensive Rank QB Rating CLE Bryan Hoyer 46 (5-3) 21 90.3 SEA Russell Wilson 46 (5-3) 5 93.1 TB Mike Glennon 50 (1-7) 28 83.3 CAR Cam Newton 50 (3-5-1) 24 81.4 CIN Andy Dalton 50 (5-2-1) 14 88.3 ARI Carson Palmer 50 (7-1) 6 99.3 OAK Derick Carr 52 (0-8) 25 79.8 DET Matthew Stafford 52 (6-2) 1 86.5 BUF Kyle Orton 64 (5-3) 4 104

Random Observations

Of the 8 QBs that are around Cam Newton, 6 of them have winning records while 2 of them have losing records. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, that 4 of the 6 QBs with winning records are playing on teams with top-10 defenses (defensive rank according to Football Outsiders).

5 of the 6 are playing on teams with top-15 defenses. All of the teams with losing records, including Carolina, and playing with bottom-20 defenses. Carolina has a better record than the other two losing teams, combined, for what it's worth.

Here is the issue...If you are going strictly by QB Rating, Cam Newton is playing worse than all of those other QBs save for rookie Derek Carr. There are reasons for that outside of Cam Newton, but this leads me to ask....

Who the Heck Do We Throw Off of a Cliff Blame for the Offensive Struggles?

Ultimately, this is where we are at as a fanbase; Who do we blame? Mike Shula? The Offensive Line? Ron Rivera? The Offensive Weapons? David Gettleman? Cam Newton? I'll have to quote another prominent CSR user, Stevie Mercury, who summed up the situation a few days ago:

"QB play, O-line play, playcalling, WRs getting open, RBs and TEs helping out, all of these things work in symbiosis to create a well-executed offensive play in the NFL, and right now, MANY of these factors are out of whack.

In the end, these rankings reflect the mistakes made by A LOT of people over multiple regimes. Looking to blame just one person/group is missing the overall picture, at least in my opinion. Some of these have been debated and discussed ad naseam, for many years:

Draft Misses: We've already talked about the numerous draft whiffs in the 09-11 drafts. The thing is, those players (assuming we came away with better players, especially in the earlier rounds) would just now be reaching/would be in their prime. Those guys would be in the 25-28 year old range. Just because those drafts were 4-6 years ago doesn't mean we aren't still feeling the effects of them.

Injuries: Injuries are a part of the game, so I'm not going to harp on this too much. We've had several key players battle injuries over the past few years, and we've been hit extremely hard this year. Oh well, everyone deals with injuries....next man up or shut up.

Retirements/The Steve Smith Situation: I'm not trying to delve into this debate again, but losing Gross to retirement without a backup plan has dealt a huge blow to this team, and the WR group is still trying to find its place without Sir Poutsalot. Kelvin Benjamin has been a good pick, and has a bright future, but is still quite inconsistent. The rest of the WR group....meh. I'm of the opinion that most of our WRs would be at the back-end of the vast majority of WR rosters in the league.

Coaching/Front Office Leadership: This is another can of worms that I'm not trying to re-open, but when a team is succeeding/failing it is almost always a reflection on the coaching/suits in the front office. Consistent inconsistency has been the name of the game for the Panthers for pretty much forever, and a lot of that falls back on coaching.

Am I forgetting anything here.....?

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What about anyone......?

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hmmmmmmmmmm

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Oh, that is right!

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Drumroll please!

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CAM NEWTON NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS OWN FLAWS AND SHARE OF THE BLAME.

There is really no other way to put this. There is no need to sugar coat this, or apologize for bringing it up. Cam Newton, over the past month or so, has been REALLY bad and has shown signs of major regression....even when factoring in his lackluster supporting cast of both sides of the ball.

Yes, Cam Newton was playing well for the first month and a half of the season. Yes, his QB Rating was in the 90s prior to the Bengals tie. No, that doesn't mean that all of the blame falls on everyone else not named Cam Newton. He needs to at least attempt to do certain things (which I'll get to in a second) that will help out his supporting cast...these things are what currently separate him from not only the "Elite Four" QBs....Brady/Manning/Rodgers/Brees...but other young QBs that I'd argue are better than him.

Namely, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. Mainly Andrew Luck, who is quickly becoming one of the best QBs in the league. This season there is little doubt in my mind that Andrew Luck is surrounded by much better players than Cam Newton, however, it is the little things that Andrew Luck does that separates him regardless of surrounding talent.

1. Cam Newton needs to learn how to step up into the pocket with consistency.

This is one of main flaws that Cam Newton has. There have been several times this year where Cam has dropped so far back into the pocket that he has allowed his OTs to get beat on the outside and create pressure/get a sack. A quick step up into the pocket would give Cam more time to scan the field, set his feet properly, and deliver a good throw. The maddening thing is that Cam often times RUNS BACKWARDS even more, causing him to lose even more yardage. If the coaches aren't sitting down with him every week and reviewing this with him, they need to be slapped. If the coaches are sitting down with Cam yet he just won't do it then Cam needs to be slapped. In fact, just slap everyone across the face a few times, maybe it will wake them up.

2. Cam Newton needs to stop locking onto WRs when they aren't frickin' open/are struggling.

Unfortunately this is a flaw that will likely never been fixed, Cam has done this since his days at Auburn. Some wanted to argue that Steve Smith's personality was forcing Cam to throw to him and only him, but Cam has continued this trend with Kelvin Benjamin. Time and time again over the past few weeks Cam has stared down and forced the ball to KB without even looking to see if anyone else was open. Seeing that our WRs are slow and old, they probably weren't open anyway (half-joking here), but it is the little things that I'd want to see from Cam with some consistency...for the first part of the season it looked as if he had grown. Over the past few weeks he has played as poorly as he ever has as a pro and the regression is clear.

3. Cam Newton needs to learn how to give up on a play and throw the frickin' ball away instead of running backwards/making a stupid throw while on the move.

This is another flaw that will likely never go away because it is tied to who Cam Newton is as a person....he is uber-competitive and will never accept that a play is dead and that he needs to just chuck the ball away. This competitiveness is both good and bad. It has led to some of the most awe-inspiring scrambles in recent NFL history, some of those scrambles key to keeping drives alive in winning games. But this has also helped lead to countless sacks, turnovers, and bad throws because he just won't accept defeat. It is something that we will likely have to live with for his entire career. The awe-inspiring and the bafflingly stupid.

Oh My God Can You PLEASE Stop Rambling and Finish This Novel Up?!

In the end, in my opinion Cam Newton is FAR from the main issue on this team. I could easily list 15-20 things before I even think about Cam Newton. But he has his hand in this losing record as well, and I think that we as a fanbase need to stop blaming everything on Shula/OLine/Everyone else not named Cameron Jerrell Newton. I think that the first step in getting the most out of Cam is to realize that he is not Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers...you can't put a bunch of scrubs around him and ask him to go win you 13 games.

It just isn't going to happen, though I'd further argue that most of the QBs in the league would struggle to win games with the current 2014 Panther offense. You need to put legit players around him, and we've failed to do that this year. I think the scariest thing is that the strongest unit that we've fielded around Newton was in his rookie season....I'm of the opinion that it has steadily gotten worse every year, and we are seeing the results of that failure right now....A bottom-5 OLine, aging/injured RBs, and lackluster WRs led by an inconsistent rookie that would likely be a #2-3 WR on most teams in the league, depending on how stacked their current roster is (Please don't jump down my throat on this, I think KB is a #2 on most teams and a #3 on MAYBE three to four teams. Not trying to hate on him here, he just has a lot of room to grow).

Right now, we are seeing Cam Newton fail with arguably one of the worst supporting casts in the league. Until I see Cam Newton fail consistently with a supporting cast that is average to above average I'm of the opinion that there is no other QB that is available....either through free agency or the upcoming draft(s)....that is a better choice than Cam Newton. As flawed as he is, he has still made 2 Pro Bowls and has helped lead us to our first winning season/playoff birth in several years.

He has shown that he can compete against NFL-level talent, which is more than you can say about ANY QB prospect. His QB Rating steadily improved each of his first three years, and was on track to improve for the 4th straight year until this recent patch of rough games. Does this mean that we are guaranteed a Super Bowl appearance/win with Cam Newton? Absolutely not. But if you can show me a better, realistic alternative with lower risk than Cam Newton then I'm all ears...and please, for the love of all things holy, don't say Derek Anderson (/cue people saying "Derek Anderson" in comment section).