Cam Newton took a beating last season. At one point, he got literally knocked out, causing him to miss time due to a concussion. In Week 14 against the Chargers, Cam Newton suffered a shoulder injury after being slammed to the ground. He looked in pain then, and it turns out he is still in pain. After rehabbing the shoulder for the last few months, continued pain has resulted in the need to surgically repair a partially torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder. 

 The Panthers announced Newton's pending surgery along with more painful news that Charles Johnson and Damiere Byrd will also be having corrective surgeries. All three are slated to miss OTAs and hope to be ready to go for training camp. 

As these players endure physical pain, Carolina fans are agonizing over the news. Many immediately asked, if this happened four months ago, why wait until now to go under the knife? Newton finished out the season playing through the injury. As he played through the pain, Carolina didn't have much to play for after such abysmal year.  The Panthers defended that this rest and rehab process would have happened regardless if Cam had sat out the final three games of the season. 

The news is concerning, nevertheless. In 2014, Newton had offseason ankle surgery with an expected recovery time of six weeks. Six months later, he was still working to get back to full strength. As now, we wondered why Newton waited a few weeks before having the surgery. As most recovery schedules, the timeline was pushed back rather than forward. We won't be able to tell until training camp. But if you see Cam hanging out with Ken Dorsey more than the team, it won't be a good sign. 

By Tony Dunn
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