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Welcome in Thursday edition took me a minute you know how it is as the week progresses I was thinking for a minute there wait a minute what day is it Thursday footballs back

rejoice NFL football anyway the actions been going on all week we are coming to you live from the guy co outkick studios were 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance visit guy co.com for a free rate quote as well we're brought to you by discover card we treat you like you treat you and also true car car shopping and be confusing with terms like dealer price list price and invoice true car shows you what other people paid for the car you want so you can recognize a good price when you're ready to buy a new car

to or used car visit true car to enjoy a more confident car buying experience I hope all of you are having fantastic Thursdays as we get ready for the NFL game I got to tell you I think the best game of the week in the NFL is Carolina Panthers going on the road against Pittsburgh Steelers not necessarily a great weekend of NFL action but this is the best game this is the game that I'm most intrigued to watch I'm excited to see what happens tonight and I actually think there's been a lot of drama surrounding levy on building

there two storylines coming into this game that to me are very intriguing one is levy on bell there's been a lot of drama surrounding levy on bell he put up an upside down message last night I don't even know how you do that

and evidently he's been spotted working out at a Pittsburgh area Pittsburgh area gym like a public gym I don't know much about what's going on in levy on bell's world but I do know this

often times whether or not a guy is signed is a function of something very basic and that thing very basic is what is his value compared to his replacement value wins over replacement right we don't talk about this a lot in the world of football but I think we've gotten an incredible test case so far just based off of levy on bell against James Connor

right now the Steelers are in first place in the NFC North they are starting to play very solidly and from a purely statistical perspective they have not missed James Connor at all I mean miss levy on bell at all because James Connor has picked up all of the heavy lifting there so let me give you these stats because I think they're pretty wild levy on bell in 2017 produced through eight games 979 total yards

he averaged 3.9 yards per carry and five touchdowns that's 122 total yards per game everybody knows levy on bell he for that was franchised and he was going to make 14 and a half million dollars in this year and so far he's walked away from about $7 million by not showing up to play James Connor his replacement has produced 1,085 total yards

he's produced 136 total receiving and rushing yards per game he's averaged 4.7 yards per carry and he's gotten 10 touchdowns so he has twice the touchdowns he has nearly a yard more per carry average and he has produced 14 yards more per game on receiving and rushing yards

and for that he has cost a little bit over $700,000 so in an easy question for everybody out there if you had to choose between paying $14.5 million for less production than you would get from $750,000 is there any way on earth you would believe levy on bell was worth that money I think what levy on bell has done on some level is played himself

he hasn't allowed somebody else to step into the role that he otherwise would have had and prove that that person is every bit as good as levy on bell and that part of the reason for levy on bell success was because he's got a really good quarterback in Ben Rothlesberger and also a really good combination of wide receivers pretty good tight end to by the way but Antonio Brown and juju Smith Schuster stretched the field and in general it's impossible to win a championship these days based on the game

running back position it's all about the quarterback and so that storyline is I think worth paying attention to the continued devolution of the overall value of a running back is a I believe big story overall in the NFL and this might be the last game we'll see whether levy on comes back if he's actually in Pittsburgh he tweeted that he was leaving Miami he's putting up upside down statements maybe he's going to return to the Steelers if not they can franchise him for enough time to get back to the game

and franchise him for another year I don't know what's going on in levy on bell is world 14 million dollars is a very fair salary for a running back particularly when you're being out performed by your backup who's making nearly 14 million dollars less than you this year I think levy on's played himself now on the positive side as we come into this game guys I got a couple of stats for you going to blow your mind the other big story I think coming out of Thursday night football the best game that's going to take place this week in my opinion

in the NFL is the rise of Cam Newton this year I had the guys on my gambling show go back and look at Cam Newton in his MVP season versus Cam Newton so far this year and I think the stats are going to blow you away so let me run through these for you in 2015 his MVP season Cam Newton's completion percentage was 59.8

this year Cam Newton's completion percentage is 67.3 this is the most accurate Cam Newton has ever been in his career as a quarterback the passing and rushing yards per game are almost identical Cam passed and rushed for an average of 279.6 in 2015 he passed and rushed for 279.4 so far in 20 years

18 so almost identical pass or rating the year that he won the MVP he put up a passer rating of 99.4 so far this season he has put up a passer rating of 100.8 so this year in 2018 Cam Newton is infinitely better as a completion percentage passer he's nearly identical when it comes to passing and rushing yards per game and he's substantially better in the pass or rating game.

that sounds interesting again that's 2015 versus this half season of 2018 all right then we went a step further I said okay well that's interesting because what you can see is what I believe which is that he's having a really good season what if we pull those numbers and we say let's compare the first eight games of 2015 with the first eight games of 2018.

Let's see whether my idea that Cam Newton is playing at an insanely high level is actually born out by the statistics or not and something interesting happens Cam through eight games in 2018 is infinitely better than Cam through eight games in 2015 when the Panthers went 15 and one and when they won a championship completion percentage Cam Newton in 2015 through eight games in 2018.

The game's the year that he won the MVP was only completing 53.7% of his passes this year he's completing 67.3% of his passes passing and rushing yards per game up nine yards per game in 2018 over his MVP season in 2015 passing and rushing touchdowns the exact same and look at this passer rating through the first eight games in 2015.

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