Cam must make faster reads

Cam Newton says he knows where to go with the football.

He just needs to get it there faster.

Newton will make his second consecutive preseason start Thursday at Cincinnati and is considered the favorite to be the starting quarterback when the Panthers open Sept. 11 at Arizona.

In his first two preseason games, Newton has done a good job getting the ball to his tight ends. But he's only completed two passes to wideouts – both to Armanti Edwards – and has yet to convert a third down.

Newton, the No. 1 overall pick, said reading defenses is his biggest area for improvement.

“You've got to get in the reads faster and quicker. I'm getting to the right places, but this is the NFL,” Newton said today. “Even though you're in the right place, the longer you're stuck on your reads, meaning the longer you take on making that throw, the longer the defense has to catch up.

“If defensive backs are beat, they have time to get back. Some of them may bat it down. The great ones may pick it.”

Newton has not been intercepted in the two exhibitions. But he's looked uncomfortable in the pocket at times, and has struggled with his accuracy – particularly on deep outs.

But he should be helped this week with the return of veteran wideoutSteve Smith, who missed the first two preseason games. Smith and Newton worked out privately during the lockout, and stayed late after Monday's practice for a throwing session that receiver Legedu Naanee also attended.

In other news …

--Right tackle Jeff Otah (knee) sat out after participating in a limited basis Monday. Otah has been dealing with swelling in his surgically repaired left knee.

--Middle linebacker Jon Beason (Achilles tendinitis) remains out. Panthers coach Ron Rivera gave no timetable on his return.

--Rivera said the team is waiting to see how offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz's hip responds to an injection he received within the past week.

--Joseph Person

Don't buy into Randy Moss' retirement

I might believe that Randy Moss(notes) is retiring, except I know this is the move of someone behaving like a petulant child.

Over the past five days, Moss has been told by not one, but two teams that they preferred someone else over him. In both cases, it was someone Moss thought he was better than. When the New England Patriots traded for Chad Ochocinco(notes) and the New York Jets signed Plaxico Burress(notes), Moss decided to take his Hall-of-Fame talent and go home.

Never mind that plenty of teams around the league think Moss has something left in the tank and could be helpful to their cause, they weren’t the right teams for Moss. He either wanted to go back to the Patriots – a proposition that one source close to Moss said was still alive last week – or go to New York, where he could play for coach Rex Ryan and make a last push for some post-career marketing dollars. A Patriots deal has always seemed like a creation of Moss’ imagination, as if his dissing of the owner and his laconic play were suddenly going to be forgiven.

The rumor of Moss to the Jets, however, seemed to have legs, fed by Ryan’s willingness to embrace rogue characters. For the first few days of free agency, Moss sat quietly as the Jets signed wideout Santonio Holmes(notes) and flirted with star cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha(notes). Sure, those guys were big-ticket items, but when the Jets signed Burress, Moss went into serious malfunction. Yeah, he may not have played well last year, but Burress hadn’t played at all in two years. You couldn’t even justify age as a difference. Moss is only six months older than Burress.

The problem is that Moss is no longer the guy who can toss napalm around a locker room and still play on Sunday. His talent doesn’t outweigh the drama anymore. Both the Patriots and Minnesota Vikings told Moss that last season. He ended up playing out the string with Tennessee, reduced to a footnote as Vince Young’s(notes) career imploded.

This offseason, agent Joel Segal tried to spread the gospel that Moss was working out harder than ever to prove he still had plenty left in the tank. Yet, less than a week into free agency, Moss “has weighed his options and considered the offers and has decided to retire,” as Segal said Monday.

Sure, and I have weighed my options and decided that I should be in People’s 50 Most Beautiful this year.

In three weeks, when Moss gets bored and annoyed that nobody is all that broken up about his retirement, he’ll return. That’s my bet, although I hope I’m wrong. I hope Moss really tells the NFL to shove it and disappears from public view, not even coming up for air when he gets voted into the Hall of Fame.

I say that not because I find Moss annoying. Quite the contrary, for when Moss is playing well he is one of the greatest shows in the history of the game, a legacy worth preserving. Here’s a stat few people pay much attention to: In 11 of Moss’ first 12 seasons, he had at least one catch of 60 yards or longer. In the one season (2006) he didn’t, he had a 51-yard long. Jerry Rice did that in nine of his first 10 years. Bob Hayes, the original deep threat, did it in six of his first seven. Don Hutson did that six times in 11 years. Lance Alworth did it in each of his first nine seasons, then never again.

Ochocinco? Five times in 10 years. Burress? Three times in nine.

The point: Moss is the greatest deep threat in the history of the game and it’s not even close. Longtime NFL cornerback Al Harris(notes) once laughed about what kind of routes Moss used to run.

“Randy doesn’t run any routes, he either runs deep or he runs a crossing pattern,” Harris said. “What Randy does is try to lull you to sleep. He’ll run at different speeds sometimes to make you think he’s part of the play or not part of the play. Then, when he thinks he has you, he just runs past you.”

Of course, a lot of people missed that fact, believing that Moss was a malingerer. That’s a misinterpretation. Sure, Moss was difficult to deal with at times. He quit on the Oakland Raiders when he got tired of coach Norv Turner’s weakness in the face of Al Davis. He was a jerk in two spots last year and basically ended up wasting a year of his career.

But for most of his 13 seasons, Moss was one of those rare guys who was simply better than everybody else. He was a freak, a physical marvel. If not for a miracle catch by David Tyree(notes) in Super Bowl XLII, Moss would have helped New England go undefeated. Instead of railing against him as a malcontent, we would be talking about who’s going into the Hall with him.

Instead, Moss is now a caricature, a guy who isn’t worth the annoyance at this point. As much as he’d like you to believe he’s going out on his own terms, he’s not. Furthermore, he’s probably not going out at all.

Just give it a few weeks.

Report by Jason Cole