Carolina Panthers all-time leading passer Cam Newton is cool in many senses of the word—from his playing style to his leadership style and to his fashion style. But he’s also cool, apparently, right after disaster strikes.
In charting quarterback performance directly following an interception, Pro Football Focus’ Tej Seth found Newton has the third-highest EPA (expected points added) per pass amongst all quarterbacks over the past 11 years. His 130 throws in those particular situations only trail the work of Matthew Stafford’s 144 and Alex Smith’s 58.
loved @minakimes mentioning on her podcast that matthew stafford is the best quarterback in the NFL on plays directly following an interception – nothing fazes him pic.twitter.com/JPG71snMAy
— Tej Seth (@tejfbanalytics) February 9, 2022
A bit more popularized by Stafford’s Los Angeles Rams over the past year, P.A.C.E.—performance after a critical error—can be interpreted as a measure of how mentally resilient and wise a quarterback is under pressure. And based off the way Newton’s been largely portrayed over his entire NFL career, you’d never know he’s one of the game’s very best in this category.
On the other side of the spectrum is Carolina’s other passer in Sam Darnold. The only surprising nugget here, perhaps, is that he isn’t dead-last in this stat given his high volume of turnovers and often volatile play.
