The Carolina Panthers spent much of the offseason trying to make things easier on quarterback Cam Newton, who is coming off his second surgery in the past three years.
They spent $55.5 million on free agent tackle Matt Kalil to protect Newton’s blind side, and used their first two draft picks on Christian McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel to give Newton a different breed of play-maker.
But the evolution of the Panthers’ offense still will come down to the play of Newton, who followed up his MVP season of 2015 with a disappointing, injury-plagued 2016. Newton played the last several games with a partially torn rotator cuff, which he had surgically repaired in March after rest and rehabiliation didn’t heal it.