Greg Olsen: Cam Newton getting cut after lockdown limited his options

[Blitz]

Getty Images

The Panthers released Cam Newton on March 24. Since then, the Chargers have filled their quarterback vacancy by drafting Justin Herbert, and the Patriots have made it fairly clear by standing pat that they are ready to see what Jarrett Stidham can do.

So where does that leave Newton?

For now, he’s still a free agent. Until interested teams (whoever that may be) can have their own doctors examine Newton’s foot and shoulder, Newton likely remains without a team.

Seahawks tight end Greg Olsen, Newton’s teammate in Carolina for nine seasons, was asked about Newton during a conference call with the team’s beat reporters Tuesday.

“I’ve been on the record a million times about what Cam has meant for my career and the relationship and the things that we’ve been able to accomplish together over the last nine years,” Olsen said. “So it’s hard for us who care about him and who have been through so much and know him so well to see him not signed yet. I think the timing of everything going on in the world and specifically as it pertains to our country and the NFL, with him coming off the injuries, was just really not an ideal situation. If he would have been released a little earlier, kind of like me, I was able to get out in front, come visit Seattle. Maybe Seattle doesn’t sign me if I don’t have a chance to go out there and meet them and them see me and do my physical.

“Getting released after the lockdown was put in place, I think really limited his chances of teams A.) seeing that he was healthy and B.) just having a conversation with your potential new quarterback. I think that’s been a challenge for him. I just hope that as things continue opening up and life sort of starts resembling some normalcy again that he can start checking off some of those boxes because he’s too good of a player to not be on a team right now. For so many of us who have seen him up close and personal for a long time, it’s kind of hard to swallow. We’re kind of in uncharted waters right now, kind of weird times. I think all of those factors have kind of played into the current situation he’s in.”

If Newton doesn’t want to follow the path Andy Dalton and Jameis Winston took in signing one-year deals as backup quarterbacks, he could wait for the inevitable — an injury to a starting quarterback. That could leave him a quarterback without a team for a while.