Marty Hurney: Panthers Were Up Front With Cam About His Departure
Panthers general manager Marty Hurney would not get into specifics as to why the team moved on from their former MVP quarterback, Cam Newton, Monday afternoon. It was his first time addressing the media since Matt Rhule’s hiring back in January.
Last month, the team announced that they would begin seeking potential trades for Cam Newton. Newton responded on social media saying, “You forced me into this!” After failing to find a trade partner for Cam, the team later released the former No.1 overall pick.
Despite Hurney declining to comment on exactly why the team chose to move on from Cam, he did provide some valuable context and cleared up a few questions many had on the end of the Newton saga.
“This was probably one of the most difficult decisions [we’ve ever made],” Hurney said on releasing Cam Newton. “We all know everything he’s brought to the organization both on and off the field. It was extremely difficult and with the timing of it. We put a lot of time and communication into every decision we make and as soon as we do we act on it.
“As soon as we did [decide to trade him], I called Cam’s representatives and told them we were going to start calling teams to see if there was trade interest in Cam.”
Hurney said he reached out to Cam’s representatives over a day before the news broke that the team and Newton would look to find a potential trade partner for the quarterback. There were no cheap shots or blindside hits as the franchise obviously has immense respect for Newton.
The team was unable to find a trade partner for Newton as he was unable to hold private workouts for teams due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The team’s only option was to release him as they had recently signed Teddy Bridgewater to a three-year, $63 million dollar contract.
“Once we put the time in and saw teams were not interested and got to the point where it didn’t seem like we were going to make a trade - and we thought it was in the best interest of everybody - we decided to release him,” Hurney explained. “Once we did make that decision - there was a lot of thought and communication that went into it - we let Cam know immediately.”
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