The only person who isn’t incensed about Kelvin Benjamin taking shots at Cam Newton seems to be Cam Newton.
After the former Panthers wideout called Carolina “a bad fit from the get-go,” in an interview with The Athletic, and implied Newton was inaccurate, his new coaching staff with the Bills took exception.
“There’s a time and a place — I’m not saying specific to what comments were made — there’s a time and a place for things like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott, who was the defensive coordinator from in Carolina from 2011 to 2016, told reporters, per ESPN.
“This was not one of them. We have a lot of respect for our opponents, No. 1, and everyone else in the league. I’ve spoken with Kelvin and that’s not how I want to handle things like that. So we’ll move forward as a team and I’m hoping we’ve already done that.”
The explosive comments haven’t worked out for Benjamin, who felt the need to go on Twitter on Saturday to defend himself, saying he was salty and had been holding his feelings toward Newton in.
“I’m just crazy then !!!” he wrote. “I was the one who buried my mom and skip the grievance process to get back and help that team …. let be real it’s was all fake .. and to be honest i was salty Who wouldn’t be …. I just ben holding it all in. And now I’m free. Hate me or love me ..🖐🏽”
Meanwhile, just about all of the current Panthers quickly are defending Newton, sometimes at Benjamin’s expense.
“You’d like to see him just kind of move forward to his team, embrace his new opportunity rather than go personal on it,” tight end Greg Olsen told the Charlotte Observer. “I’ve been shipped off from another team, too. So I get it. At the same point I always knew there was probably more I could’ve done, at that point in my career. And tried to make those improvements the last eight years to do what I thought I was capable of.”
Still, the quarterback himself only seems to be using it as motivation. In an Instagram story, Newton shrugged off Benjamin’s rip and said, “I’m just gonna work.” He did reportedly reference Benjamin’s comments during a drill on Sunday.
“Think I am a liability,” Newton said, per ESPN. “I think I am an asset.”