Panthers offensive coordinator Norv Turner has no plans to restrict Cam Newton’s ability to make plays with his feet. As for the quarterback’s throwing motion Jake Muzzin Jersey , well that might need a little tweaking.
The 65-year-old Turner said he returned to coaching because of an opportunity to work again with Panthers coach Ron Rivera – who was on his coaching staff for four seasons in San Diego – and to coach the talented group of offensive players led by Newton.
”He’s an amazing player for his position,” Turner said Tuesday on a conference call.
The versatile 6-foot-5, 245-pound Newton has carried the ball 828 times over the past seven seasons – by far the most in the league by a quarterback during that span. By comparison, Seattle’s Russell Wilson has run the ball 578 times during his six seasons in the league.
While it’s logical to question how much pounding Newton’s body can take – he turns 29 in May – it’s also hard to argue with his success.
He’s averaged 5.2 yards per carry and has scored 54 touchdowns rushing, which is the most by a QB in NFL history. And Newton tends to play better when he’s more involved in the running game.
”He’s a real threat to defenses,” Tuner said. ”So he will always have that threat to run.”
That should be music to Newton’s ears.
After Newton carried the ball a career-high 139 times last season and led the Panthers in rushing with 754 yards, he said ”that’s my edge.”
”I wouldn’t expect you or anybody else to take it away,” Newton said following Carolina’s season-ending playoff loss at New Orleans. ”And when I say you, I mean the media as a whole. I’m comfortable running the football, I feel like I help the team when I’m running the football, and as long as I’m playing this game Authentic Saquon Barkley Jersey , I’m going to run the football.”
Turner suggested that he and his son Scott Turner, the team’s new quarterbacks coach, will look to improve Newton’s throwing mechanics.
Because he’s so big Newton has a tendency to rely on his strong arm and throw off his back foot, often resulting in high throws that lead to incompletions or interceptions. Turner said that while sometimes those types of throws are necessary under pressure, the staff ”is going to work hard to get his weight transferred and have good technique when he is throwing.”
Turner said the Panthers overall system won’t change much, although he wants to be able to stretch the field vertically to force defenses to cover the entire field.
He believes Newton has the arm strength to do that.
Turner said he had a brief conversation with Newton after being hired.
”We didn’t get into a lot of football,” Turner said. ”As he expressed to me – and I feel the same way – there is excitement and nervousness. When you have change there is nervousness. Sometimes that nervousness is good and it gets your attention. It’s not status quo and you use that as a time to improve.”
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays might be the surprise hottest team in baseball, and if anything can slow them down, it might be Washington Nationals starter Max Scherzer, who takes the mound against them Tuesday.
The Rays have been dominant of late Jeff Carter Jersey , with seven wins holding opponents to one or zero runs in the last 13 games, and four wins in a row after a 11-0 drubbing of the Nationals on Monday. Tampa Bay didn’t hold an opponent under two runs once in its first 19 games and just once in its first 38, but their patchwork pitching has been a major impetus to their recent surge.
Then there’s Scherzer, who is 10-3 with a 2.09 ERA, this despite a near-mortal stretch where he has no wins in his last three outings, having allowed all of six earned runs in 20 innings during that stretch. The Rays remember him well from June 5, when he struck out 13 batters — matching his second-highest total of 2018 — while allowing two earned runs in eight innings. He’s had 16 starts this season, and he’s only allowed more than two runs once, and only four in that blemish.
For his career against the Rays, he’s 5-2 with a 2.82 ERA, and even that is notable in that he went 0-2 as a rookie in 2010 and hasn’t lost since. For the season Nate Thompson Jersey , just slightly less than half his outs have come by strikeout, with 161 strikeouts in 107 2/3 innings.
The Rays will counter with Nathan Eovaldi (1-3, 4.91 ERA), who has made five starts since returning from Tommy John surgery, with one dominant debut and then four starts since where he’s averaged four earned runs in less than six innings. More of a concern is the home runs he’s allowed — eight in 29 1/3 innings, including four in his last start, a 5-1 loss to Houston.
He’s faced the Nationals once this year, giving up four runs on four hits in five innings in the game against Scherzer on June 5. Eovaldi got his start in the National League, so he’s had 10 starts against Washington, going 2-5 with a 5.30 ERA.
An 11-run outburst like Monday’s win shows the Rays might be finding their bats as well, with Kevin Kiermaier Authentic Oscar Fantenberg Jersey , struggling at the plate since returning from the disabled list, getting a key grand slam as part of a six-run second inning.
“Baseball is hard. It’s really hard,” Kiermaier said of his slow start. “Adjusting back to big-league pitching is not an easy thing. Trying to get acclimated up there at the plate again. I felt really good and it was a good momentum swing for our team to put us up early.”
The Nationals will at least be better rested on Tuesday — after a long rain delay that pushed back their Sunday night game against Philadelphia, they didn’t get to their hotel in St. Petersburg until 4:40 a.m. on game day.
“We’re a little tired, but we had all day to rest,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez said.