Auburn football: Why Caylin Newton will make an impact at receiver

Former Howard University quarterback Caylin Newton has made the move to receiver at Auburn. Here’s how he can make an impact.

The last time a Newton suited up for Auburn, he won the Heisman Trophy and lead Auburn to their first national championship in over half a century.

The big difference between Cam Newton and his younger brother Caylin is that Cam was a five-star prospect coming out of high school and stood at an imposing 6’6″ and 250 pounds. On the other hand, Caylin stands at only 5’11” and 201 pounds and out of high school, the younger Newton didn’t receive a single FBS offer and was rated as the No. 1945 recruit in his class.

Newton originally committed to Howard University and despite being overlooked in high school, Caylin had a spectacular freshman season as the Bison’s starting QB and was named the MEAC Conference Rookie of the Year.

He followed that up with his best campaign yet where he completed 51.5 percent of his passes for 2,610 yards, 22 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. And while Newton isn’t the most polished passer, he did show tremendous dual-threat ability, running for 555 yards and four additional touchdowns (he ran for 753 yards and 12 TDs in 2017) on his way to being named MEAC Offensive Player of the Year.

In the middle of his junior season, Newton notified the team that he would not be suiting up and would enter the NCAA transfer portal in order to go and win a championship somewhere else.

Newton chose Auburn as his next destination and although his name will probably make him a popular man on campus, the shadow of his brother’s legacy may put a lot of pressure on the younger Newton.

However, regardless of his name, I truly believe Newton is in a good position to make an impact in 2020.

The junior wideout is joining an Auburn team that has already established Bo Nix as its starter for the foreseeable future and Cord Sandberg as the likely backup. So, despite his accomplishments at QB, that’s likely not where we’ll see Newton in 2020.

At the same time, Auburn also returns three of its four top pass-catchers from last season with Seth Williams, Anthony Schwartz and Eli Stove all set to return in 2020 with current New England Patriots receiver Will Hastings being the lone man out.

But while Auburn is set at receiver at the top of the depth chart, the remaining depth that the team has at the position is largely unproven. Behind the aforementioned three, Auburn doesn’t have a single wide receiver on the current roster who had more than 32 yards last season.

Now, the Tigers did recruit the WR position hard for the 2020 class as they signed three four-star wideouts and one three-star but freshmen are often underdeveloped and obviously have less experience, no matter how talented.

As far the other receivers on the roster, former wideout Matthew Hill officially made the switch to defensive back and Shedrick Jackson and Ja’Varrius Johnson are the only non-freshman, non-walk-on receivers left and neither of them have made much of an impact at all in their Auburn careers so far.

Additionally, wide receivers Jashawn Sheffield, Marquis McClain and Zach Farrar have all decided to transfer from Auburn this offseason, further diminishing Auburn’s depth at the position.

Newton is a true athlete and while I don’t expect him to be a starter for Auburn, he is the type of player that just knows how to make plays if you can get the ball in his hand.

I imagine that Gus Malzahn and new offensive coordinator Chad Morris can draw up some pretty exciting and fresh plays for Newton as they can use him as a receiver and at quarterback on certain plays.

Auburn is in need of an electric playmaker and Malzahn’s play calls from last season often lacked creativity. Can you imagine a trick play where Caylin Newton dumps the ball off to Bo Nix or something similar?

Due to his passing ability, any time Newton is on the field, the defense will have to be wary and that could help other receivers get open and with the speed he has, the defense certainly can’t afford to play off of him.

Overall, while Newton’s transfer may have been one of Auburn’s biggest headlines of the offseason, I feel like the younger Newton brother isn’t getting enough credit as to what he might be able to do for the Tigers next season. He’s one of Auburn’s most unique and versatile weapons and I hope that the Auburn coaching staff has the intelligence to take advantage of that.