Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Troy Aikman is the best color analyst in football, and the reason is that he's a tenacious mix of smarts and fearlessness. He'll say what's on his mind and doesn't care if he offends. It's what you want in an expert.

We spent 30 minutes talking football recently, and I could have listened to Aikman for five hours. It was a football-rich conversation, the kind football geeks love.

It was what he said about the Panthers and Cam Newton that really caught my attention.

"Cam is really changing how we view the quarterback position," said Aikman, a Hall of Famer who won three Super Bowls. "We've seen great running quarterbacks before, and he's as good, if not better, than any of them. We've never really seen before a guy that's his size, who can run that fast and throw the football like he can.

"What I love about what the Panthers are doing with Cam is they have built their offense around him. They trust him, and he trusts them. [That's] why I love [coach Ron] Rivera so much. Some coaches don't want their players to be the stars. They want their systems to the be the stars."

(Cough, cough, Chip Kelly, cough.)

Aikman continued: "You can tell he's really matured and grown. And that is what happens by your fifth year. Usually, in your fifth year, you start to see the quarterback figure it all out, and he really becomes the leader. When you're a rookie, you may be the starter, but you're still figuring it all out.

"Cam is a great example of what happens when an organization is patient with a player and knows it can trust a player and let him grow into the position."

Michael Ainsworth/Associated Press

Aikman knows of which he speaks. His rookie year, 1989, the Cowboys went 1-15, and he at times looked like a rookie. I covered some of that season. Then Aikman's learning curve was as steep as a rocket launch. In my time covering the sport, I've never seen a quarterback catch on faster than Aikman did. He set a land-speed record for quarterback learning that has only been matched, to me, by Aaron Rodgers (though Jameis Winston may pass them both).

"I know people say his passing numbers aren't great, but who cares?" said Aikman of Newton. "People are too obsessed with numbers. I retired 15 years ago, and people are still putting my numbers under a microscope. That's the world we're in. If you don't understand he's playing at a high level, you don't understand football."

Is Newton the MVP?

"He's in the conversation," Aikman said. "I would say Cam, Tom Brady and J.J. Watt."

Sounds right to me.

Aikman, one of the greatest postseason quarterbacks of all time, did have one word of caution for the Panthers.

"As great as this team has been, they haven't done anything yet," he said. "I think Ron would agree with that statement. They're a very good team, but where you really prove yourself is in the playoffs."

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Aikman a sort of unusual question: What are the biggest threats to the sport? He didn't hesitate.

"I think the big thing is we will continue to see safety concerns," he said. "I keep being told the numbers in youth football are declining. I'm asked by parents all the time, 'Is my son old enough to play?'

"The other thing: The quality of football is poor. It hasn't affected ratings yet, but will it? That's the question."

(Aikman also had an interesting aside, this one on the length of college games. "People can barely keep their attention on something for an hour," he said, "let alone how long these college games last, sometimes four hours.")

I finished our talk with the most important question of all. How much do people now approach him and say: Aikman, touchdown, unbelievable?

"Every day," said Aikman. "That or they say, 'I dwell in the past.'

"I had no idea the campaign would last this long or become so popular. But it's been fun."

Well, he is unbelievable. Unbelievably good at his job.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.