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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I agree with you w/ a minor quibble.
I've said for years that accuracy comes down to repeatability and repeatability comes down to biomechanics.
If you look at it from that perspective, then accuracy is a 'physical gift' in the same way short area quickness is. It's either something your body is blessed with or it isn't. You can't really do a hell of a lot to fix it - all you can do is disguise it through play-calling.
Cam simply never had much in the way of accuracy. He had the arm strenght to get the ball to places most guys couldn't and allow his WRs to adjust over the flight path and make plays on the ball. But shorter throws is where you see true precision come to play because there's just not enough flight for WRs to save marginal passes. That's why Brees and Brady have been so damn good as short passers - they are razor precise and so they can implement that short passing attack in a way few others can (especially combined with mental processing).
Cam Newton's sporadic accuracy would've made it virtually impossible for him to be a truly elite short passer. He simply couldn't run something like a WCO. And because of that, he's easier to adjust to and eventually figure out.
While he had a great deal many 'splash' gifts; the kinds of things that show out loudly in a combine, for example - he lacked the biomechanics for the repeatable deliveries that could've made him an accurate passer and thus a more difficult QB to adjust to.
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I do have a habit of not including accuracy under the umbrella of physical gifts, but perhaps you're right and I should start. I can't think of many QBs with accuracy concerns who turned pro and improved greatly in that aspect. Maybe Matt Stafford and Michael Vick?
And I guess you'd have to make the distinction between those who's accuracy issues are clearly a result of poor mechanics (like a Stafford) and a guy who just can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn (like a Josh Allen). I'm not sure where Cam falls on that spectrum. I've never been a fan of his throwing motion, that's for sure.