TheAthletic- The last play of your college career, you caught a touchdown to win the national title for Florida State with 13 seconds left. Then you set rookie receiving records for Carolina. Things turned in 2015. How would you assess your career since your rookie season?
"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."
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If only because I can't imagine what it's like to try to focus on something as meaningless as football when you've unexpectedly lost a parent, I'm going to give Kelvin Benjamin the benefit of the doubt here. I don't know if rushing through the grieving process to get back on the field for the franchise that responded by trading him to the NFL equivalent of purgatory months later did, indeed, sour his memory of his time in Carolina. However, I'm willing to concede that it did, because an insanely altered emotional state is one of the few things that could explain how selective Kelvin Benjamin's memory was in bashing his former quarterback. So, I implore everyone else to also forget that we are talking about a player whose issues catching the ball with consistency have carried over from his college scouting report to his professional career. I strongly suggest we ignore Kelvin Benjamin's obvious inability to create separation, and dismiss the memory of him showing up to OTA's looking like Queen Latifah to run routes like he was wearing ankle weights and Timberland boots...
I don't know what it is about the quarterback that went to the Super Bowl as the MVP of the entire league during the one season with which he was without the "help" of Kelvin Benjamin, but apparently it's all his fault that the first round pick he was throwing to failed to flourish into something more than exactly what he was projected to be ahead of the draft. It's about time we blindly accept that as an irrefutable truth. And when we do, what are we left with but a wide receiver that would kill to still be dropping hard, fast, and occasionally inaccurate balls from Cam Newton. I don't know whose lawn Kelvin Benjamin thought he was standing in when he made these comments, but I can promise that the grass is both literally and metaphorically greener in Carolina than it is in Buffalo. I understand having some level of spite considering the tragic circumstances, but I think I might be inclined to silently wipe the excess salt from my commentary like it was served by an overeager pretzel maker after watching Josh Allen toss screen passes that were more likely to bust through the neighbor's screen door than connect with the intended receiver...
Cam Newton is not without flaws as a passer and one of them is undoubtedly that he doesn't throw the friendliest of balls, but there's all-too-many reasons to believe that Kelvin Benjamin is about to find out first hand that there are far worse situations for a wide receiver who accepts no responsibility for his own deficiencies to be in. I'm not anywhere close to being a Cam Newton apologist, but Kelvin Benjamin owes him an apology for implying he would rather have played with Eli Manning (for some reason). If only as a preemptive measure to slightly limit the amount of jokes he'll be at the ass end of after what has all the makings for a terrible season with the Bills. Also of note: Wasn't sure that this ridiculous proclamation could seem any more stupid in retrospect, but alas...
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