Cam Newton pulled back the curtain on yet another interesting moment in Carolina Panthers history.
In the summer of 2018, Newton’s Panthers were set for preseason action against the Buffalo Bills and Kelvin Benjamin—who had spent the first three and a half years of his NFL career in Carolina. But a few weeks prior to that matchup, the disgruntled wide receiver expressed some unflattering impressions of his time with Cam in an interview with The Athletic:
I mean, I felt like I would’ve been even more successful if … I don’t know, man … If I would’ve … Looking back on it, I should’ve just been drafted by somebody else. I should’ve never went to Carolina. Truly, I just think Carolina was bad for me. It was a bad fit from the get-go. If you would’ve put me with any other quarterback, let’s be real, you know what I’m saying? Any other accurate quarterback like Rodgers or Eli Manning or Big Ben — anybody! — quarterbacks with knowledge, that know how to place a ball and give you a better chance to catch the ball. It just felt like I wasn’t in that position.
As the teams were warming up for the exhibition, Newton went over to Benjamin to get some clarity on his words. Here’s how it went down:
So, what was said?
The 2015 Most Valuable Player revealed what happened on this week’s episode of 4th & 1 with Cam Newton:
Benjamin played just two full seasons in Carolina—where he amassed 1,008 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in 2014, followed by 941 yards and seven scores in 2016. The former first-round pick would then be traded to Buffalo in the middle of the 2017 campaign.
He’d never come close to the same success he had with Newton, totaling just 597 yards and two touchdowns away from the Panthers. Benjamin lasted just one more season following his departure—with his final NFL snap coming in 2018.
