For almost a decade, when the Falcons faced off against the Carolina Panthers, they were facing off against Cam Newton. Jameis Winston had his unreal effectiveness and Drew Brees will forever remain someone Falcons fans hate, but you’d be hard-pressed to talk about the NFC South and the Falcons-Panthers rivalry without Newton’s place in it.
Newton went 6-9 against the Falcons in 15 games, but as Arthur Smith noted this week, he was and remains a dangerous and difficult player to defend. Few quarterbacks in NFL history have had his arm strength and even fewer have his mix of speed, size and power as a runner, and Newton wielded those last three attributes particularly effectively against Atlanta, running for an average of seven yards per carry and piling up seven touchdowns over the years against Atlanta.