Yes I do.
I agree with Slimm that what he does from an intangibles standpoint will be very important, but I think sometimes too much importance can be placed on that. When you have a guy that is as physically talented as Cam Newton, and I firmly believe that the only players in the league in recent memory that had his pure level of physical talent are Ben Rapistberger, Mike Vick and Daunte Culpepper, perhaps Jay Cutler, then the intangibles and the "want it" matter, but they don't matter as much for those guys as they do for, let's say, an Aaron Rodgers.
In this Super Bowl today we have the model of two DIFFERENT QBs. You have Rodgers, who has physical skills and talent, but his cup does not overflow with it. Then you have the Rapist, whose cup absolutely overflows with physical skills and talent. The Rapist does NOT have good intangibles. I think he's more committed than ever to the art of playing quarterback well, but that's in very large part a response to his beating a rape charge and being suspended, his name being mud with a nation of fans...he's motivated to "show them". Similarly, Vick has never been more motivated, and part of that is his getting out of prison and wanting to show everyone what they've been missing.
Commitment to learning is important, but these guys don't have the track record of being committed that other guys do. Before Vick went to prison, he didn't even study game tapes. He went to an NFC Championship Game, had a winning record as a QB, went to Pro Bowls and was considered one of the very best, and the guy would take game tapes from his coaches and leave them in the car all week never watching them before he played his next game. That's an admitted fact. Meanwhile, Ben Rapistberger has NEVER been regarded by his teammates as a hard worker, or a leader, and in fact I have a friend in the Draft space that spoke with a guy that helped coach him in Pittsburgh, and that coach literally used the word "uncoachable" to describe Ben Rapistberger. And he won two Super Bowls, went to Pro Bowls, had high QB ratings, etc.
My point is, we don't even know if Cam Newton is committed to working hard at the next level. We know he was committed to working hard at Auburn and at Blinn. We have evidence and testimonials to that extent. We know, ON THE FILM, that his learning curve this year as a passer was visually concrete and upward-sloped. You can't possibly look at his passing at the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year and say that he wasn't in the midst of actively learning and actively improving his passing skills. If you do say that, you're lying. But will he work that hard at the next level or was he doing it so that he could get good draft position? That's a good question, and I don't know the answer. Nobody does.
But what I'm saying is...he's got more margin for error on that front than a Blaine Gabbert, or even a Ryan Mallett. You could ask an HONEST teammate if he's a Chad Pennington in the locker room or film room, etc...and the answer could be "Hell no!"...and Cam Newton could still win Super Bowls (plural).
That's just a fact. A sad one, but a fact all the same.
