Following the decision by the Carolina Panthers to release Cam Newton, what are the oddsmakers’ feelings about him landing with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Whenever his NFL career comes to an end, Cam Newton will go down as one of the most talented quarterbacks to ever play the game.
Despite his talents, the Carolina Panthers made the difficult decision to release their longtime quarterback on Tuesday and Newton is now free to sign with whoever he chooses. The former MVP should have a lot of interest and his departure from the Panthers may end up being a blessing in disguise.
With Ben Roethlisberger expected to return under center in 2020, the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t appear to be in the running to land Newton this offseason. However, some oddsmakers still believe the Steelers actually do have a chance to sign the former Carolina quarterback this year.
Action Network recently released their odds for who has the best shot to bring in Newton this offseason and it turns out that Pittsburgh is viewed as a contender.
At +2000, the Steelers currently have the seventh-best odds to sign Newton. The six teams with better odds than Pittsburgh include the Las Vegas Raiders (+1200), Washington Redskins (+750), Denver Broncos (+750), New England Patriots (+500), Los Angeles Chargers (+350), Jacksonville Jaguars (+250), and Miami Dolphins (+200).
Seventh-best seems to be pretty high odds for a team like the Steelers who already have a starting quarterback for next season in Roethlisberger.
Unless Pittsburgh has a change of heart about whether they think Roethlisberger has recovered well enough from his elbow injury or not or Newton is willing to sit for a season, it seems pretty unlikely that the former Panthers quarterback would decide to sign with the Steelers.
Then again, no one really ever thought the Houston Texans would ever trade DeAndre Hopkins and they went ahead and did that last week. So never say never, but the chances of Newton actually suiting up in a black and gold uniform next season still seem to be very low.