Count Warren Sapp among Cam Newton's fans

Warren Sapp is like seemingly everyone else.

He wants to see what Cam Newton can do at quarterback for the Carolina Panthers once the NFL labor issue is resolved.

"He has all the tools. You don’t score (50) touchdowns in the SEC if you don’t have skills," Sapp said Thursday after speaking to the Charlotte Touchdown Club.

"You watch what Jordan Gross said about the kid when he was just around him those couple of days (last month). He was really surprised at how respectful he was and willing to learn and be in the middle with the guys. You very rarely meet people with that kind of aptitude to go from on top of the world, winning a national championship, going through everything he went through in college...

"That in itself, going through everything he went through in college, with him performing week in and week out with everything swirling around him, this kid has got something. You just don’t survive that kind of onslaught every day for a whole football season. I want to see what this kid’s got."

Sapp, a 13-year NFL veteran with seven Pro Bowl appearances, is now an analyst for the NFL Network. He played for Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl champion team in 2002 and spent four difficult years with the Oakland Raiders at the end of his career, playing on two teams that finished 2-14, the same record the Panthers posted last season.

He expects the new Panthers coaching staff to work quickly to help Newton find a comfort zone.

"It’s not about learning. It’s about understanding what heat is in the pocket," Sapp said. "You’ve got to have a quarterback in the pocket that is fire- retardant. The key to any defense is attacking the quarterback to see if we can get him off his game, see if we can get him uncomfortable in the pocket.

"I know something about (offensive coordinator) Rob Chudzinski and (quarterbacks coach) Mike Shula. They’re not going to give him anything he’s not comfortable with. They’re going to give him a nice little comfort zone. It’s going to be on the playmakers around him to make plays. In certain instances when they send people after him, he’s going to have to handle that 10 or 12 times a game. How he can handle those situations and how fast Chud and Mike can get him up to speed on NFL reads and throws, he’ll be fine."

During his speech at the Westin Hotel, Sapp — who won the inaugural Bronko Nagurski national college defensive player of the year award in 1994 at Miami — recalled two early experiences facing the Panthers. He recalled getting left by the team bus when the Bucs played the Panthers in Clemson during the franchise’s first season and, one year later, losing two earrings in a muddy game at the team’s new stadium here.

Sapp, who also appears on Showtime’s ‘Inside The NFL’ show, sees similarities to where the Panthers are today with where the Bucs were when he arrived.

"I liken it to when Tony Dungy got to us in 1996. The first eight games he was teaching us to play. That’s what (the Panthers) are looking at," Sapp said.

"Ron Rivera knows this game. What the players have to do is buy in and buy in totally. It might not benefit you directly but it benefits you overall. That’s what’s going to be most important to them. You know if we’re all in a boat together and you row this way and I row that way, all we’re doing is going in a circle."

For Rivera, Sapp said, the challenge is simple.

"Be consistent," Sapp said. "Whenever Dungy came in, he was like a rock. Every day, the same guy. He spoke to us the same way. He explained it the same way. He asked for the answers the same way. You can’t come in one day and be high and the next be down low. You have to be constant.

"Just be consistent in what he’s doing and in his message and the ball club will follow him."

Click here to order Warren Sapp’s proCane Rookie Card.


(charlotteobserver.com)