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Newton: Panthers will be favorites for 1st time in my career

Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Despite the Carolina Panthers winning 15 games during the 2015 regular season, adding two more victories in the playoffs, and making their first Super Bowl appearance since 2003, Cam Newton believes only now will his club be viewed as a consistent favorite.

While Newton tempered expectations of a repeat of last season's regular-season success, the reigning NFL MVP said Tuesday that due to Carolina's recent success, the club will have sky-high expectations for the first time in his NFL career.

"For the first time in a long time, I think for me, this may be the first time ever since I've been affiliated with the Panthers that we're favorites, not necessarily to go far in the playoffs but just winning games and being favorites to win those games," Newton said, according to Steve Wyche of NFL.com. "One thing that Coach Shula (offensive coordinator Mike Shula) as well as coach (Ron) Rivera shared with us is that nothing is promised.

"Just because we went 15-1 in the regular season doesn't necessarily mean we're going to go 16-0 in the next season. For us, I think our main focus right now is starting from scratch and understanding that and maximizing every opportunity and every person's responsibility and for us as players, coming together to make each other better."

The Panthers were actually favored in all but two of their games from 2015 - including the Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos - with the Seattle Seahawks (regular season) and Green Bay Packers picked to defeat the Panthers.

The presence of Newton will likely be a big factor in the continued confidence of the Panthers' ability to win moving forward. His dominant 2015 was highlighted by the fact he was voted the league's No. 1 overall player on NFL Network's Top 100 Players of 2016 list.

When asked who'd he'd have chosen for the top spot outside of himself, Newton pointed to the two men who finished second and third behind him on the list, among others.

"(Tom) Brady or J.J. (Watt). You know I actually played against them this year, or even (Antonio Brown)," Newton said. "You know Julio (Jones) is special. Luke (Kuechly) is Luke. I think that's what makes football so cool is just that it may not be a unanimous number one ever because you go in different regions, certain people may feel a certain type of way and I'm cool with that."

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