Cam Newton: Evaluating His Fantasy Value After Week 2

I admit it. I was captivated.

I had seen some of rookie quarterback Cam Newton's performance against the Arizona Cardinals, but not the whole thing. So I sat down and watched the whole thing Friday night.

I have to say, he's got his flaws, but he is an NFL quarterback as far as I can see.

I wanted to wait until I saw him against a better defense though, so I made sure to take a look at the Green Bay game. The difference between Arizona and Green Bay's defense is the difference between high school and a PhD, right?

Not as far as Newton is concerned.

While the Carolina Panthers lost the game, Newton put together another 400-plus-yard performance and led his team down the field under some intense pressure.

He's a viable NFL quarterback. Is he a viable fantasy starter?

Let's take a closer look at Cam Newton and his fantasy prospects.

Newton has compiled a ton of yards, three passing touchdowns and a pair of rushing touchdowns as well.

I don't foresee the passing slowing down, by the way. In two games, Newton has attempted 83 passes and the Panthers have only run the ball (excluding Newton himself) 30 times.

Keep in mind the Panthers led in the first half. Not by three touchdowns or anything, but they were ahead. Yet the ball continued to fly from Newton's hand.

John Fox, Ron Rivera is not.

So if you're plugging in Newton, you know the Panthers will throw. We also know, after two games, that he has plenty of weapons. Both Steve Smith and Brandon LaFell have proven to be big play receivers and Jeremy Shockey performed as well. Running back Johnathan Stewart pitched in with eight catches for 100 yards.

So in his favor, Newton clearly has the talent and he has the weapons.

It's not perfect, though, and here is where you might want to keep him out of your lineup.

If you get heavily penalized for interceptions, you might be a bit concerned after his three-interception performance on Sunday.

Let's take a closer look at those three picks.

On the first, Newton either overthrew his underneath receiver or grossly underthrew his longer target. The pass was bad enough to make it hard to know for sure. I'll say he underthrew the ball since the receiver turned and looked to catch the ball.

Instead, Packer cornerback Charles Woodson dove in front of the ball for an interception. The second one was another high throw which Woodson—yup, THAT guy again—made a great leaping catch on.

The third and final pick was a throw which—wait for it—sailed on Newton and was intercepted.

Do you sense a theme?

Newton seemed to feel a lot more pressure from Green Bay than he did from Arizona, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone given the group the Packers will bring on any given play.

You could see it happen on the drives later on in the game when he was trying to bring the team back.

Newton just seemed a bit less poised at the end of the game on last plays. I think he felt that all day and that contributed to his turnovers.

The fact that at least two of them sailed on him is a bit of a concern.

By and large though, these things won't kill you. Most leagues penalize you by one, maybe two points for an interception.

He offsets that with his yardage totals alone.

I'm going to stop short of saying he's an every week start, because he's not. However, you can feel pretty comfortable playing him on a match-up basis, and given how he played against the Super Bowl champions, you can even risk him against tougher opponents as well.

Andrew Garda is a staff writer at Footballguys.com. Check out all their subscriber content—money-back guarantee until Sept. 30!