Cam Newton Is One of the Best Running Backs in the NFL

The Panthers QB's penchant for punching it in is getting historic.

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You read that headline correctly. The quarterback of the undefeated Panthers should also be considered one of the best running backs in the league if you're judging greatness by how many times he reaches the endzone.

All the credit goes to Pro Football Talk for doing the research because unless you've been following Newton and the Panthers for the past five years, chances are his prodigious scoring pace will come as a surprise.

The former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick is the only NFL player to rush for at least five touchdowns over the past five seasons. Only Adrian Peterson, LeGarrette Blount, Mark Ingram, and Marshawn Lynch—all running backs, of course—have scored at least five over the past four seasons. Injuries have played a role in some of the above not making it five in five and while we all know a quarterback isn't rushing the ball 20-plus times a game and taking the kind of pounding a running back takes, Newton gets knocked around a ton. Having only missed five games during his career, including three after last December's scary car crash, Newton deserves credit for proving to be pretty durable and putting up these historic rushing numbers.   

Newton already has 40 rushing touchdowns in his career, with three games left in his fifth season. Not only has no quarterback done that, but no quarterback has come close: Daunte Culpepper, with 26 rushing touchdowns in his first five seasons, comes the closest.

Hall of Famer Steve Young holds the record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 43. While Newton hasn't rushed for a score since Week 12, he could easily eclipse the mark before the season ends. And that would just put further distance between Newton and other legendary rushers—Hall of Fame rushers—like Gale Sayers, Thurman Thomas, Jerome Bettis, and O.J. Simpson, who all failed to rush for 40 scores in their first five years in the league.  

So what's the point of all of this? Are we saying Cam is Hall of Famer in the making? Is he going to be the 2015 NFL MVP? 

All Pro Football Talk wanted to do was point out how Newton has quietly racked up some impressive rushing numbers and we thought that was noteworthy. While it still seems like people aren't completely sold on the 13-0 Panthers right now and that Newton, for whatever reason, isn't getting the universal praise you'd expect from an undefeated QB, some of his numbers show he's absolutely deserving of more.

Even if he's not in the same category as Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers as a "pure" quarterback—we can have the whole "elite" debate during the off-season, I guess—give it up for Newton being in a class of his own when it comes to running with it and reaching the endzone. He's doing it better than any other running back in the NFL. 

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