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Cam Newton recently came under fire when he said that multiple NFL MVP candidates were "game-managers."
The 2015 NFL MVP said that Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy, Tua Tagovailoa and Jared Goff, all of whom lead their respective divisions, are "game-managers."
"They're not difference-makers," Newton said earlier this week. "[They're being asked] not to lose. . . .I don't give a damn what you do. You don't have to score every time. You just don't have to throw a pick every time either. If we're going to call a spade a spade, a game-manager is different than a game-changer."
The term often has bleak undertones, but Newton disagrees.
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Brock Purdy, #13 of the San Francisco 49ers, and Dak Prescott, #4 of the Dallas Cowboys, talk after their game at Levi's Stadium on October 8, 2023, in Santa Clara, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
"Game-manager is not a negative connotation," Newton said in a video he posted to X, formerly Twitter, early Friday morning. "'Cam, what do you mean by game-manager?' My definition of that managing player is a player who has the ability to make the right play at the right time, protecting the football at all costs."
"Game-changer and game-manager is not something where I'm saying this person is not physically capable of making some great plays. I'm not saying that, or I am not saying that they're not good players."
Despite that compliment, though, he noted that those four quarterbacks have had help in being successful due to their surrounding talent.
"[Purdy's] putting it in guys' (hands) like Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey. That's my point," he said.
Brock Purdy, #13 of the San Francisco 49ers, throws a pass during the fourth quarter of the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Levi's Stadium on October 29, 2023, in Santa Clara, California. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
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As for Prescott, Newton says that the MVP favorite is "playing lights-out ball right now."
"But the first thing I think about is the lights-out defense," he said.
"When I think about the Miami Dolphins, it's Tyreek Hill. It's not Tua. That's not to say Tua's not having a great season. When I think about the 49ers, it's not Brock Purdy. This is Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, that unbelievable defensing line, Kyle Shanahan. . . .
"As an organization, going into the offseason, our main emphasis on trying to decide a quarterback is ‘We gotta go find us another A-Rod, the next Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. . . . They don't say ‘I’m going into the draft to find another Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy, Jared Goff or Tua Tagovailoa."
Cam Newton, #1 of the Carolina Panthers, warms up prior to the game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium on December 19, 2021, in Orchard Park, New York. (Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images)
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All four of the quarterbacks Newton named have made the playoffs before, with Goff making a Super Bowl during his time with the Los Angeles Rams.
All but Goff made the playoffs last year, although Tagovailoa was hurt in the Dolphins' wild card round loss to the Buffalo Bills.