Cam Newton Calls 2011 “The Greatest Draft Class of All Time,” Doesn’t Feel He Would Go No. 1 Overall Again Looking Back

Cam Newton entered the 2011 NFL Draft as the most hyped and promising player, and rightly so. Not only was he the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, but he was also one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks in the class. He was capable of evading pressure like a wide receiver while spraying passes all over the field for fun. It’s no wonder he ended up as the No. 1 overall pick of that draft.

Even still, what often gets lost about Newton going first is just how brutal that draft room really was, because the 2011 NFL Draft was stacked with future Hall of Famers and decade-defining stars at nearly every position.

Newton was drafted alongside Von Miller, J.J. Watt, Julio Jones, Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, A.J. Green, Jason Kelce, Cam Jordan, and several others who would go on to define the 2010s. Multiple MVPs. Multiple Defensive Players of the Year. Super Bowl MVPs. Hall of Famers. It was, as Cam recently put it, “loaded… like a baked potato.”

This context matters, especially after a recent comment from Von Miller reignited a decade-old debate. During an interview where Miller was asked to put on a hypothetical general manager’s hat, he was reminded that he went No. 2 overall in 2011, right behind Newton. When asked whether he would still take Cam No. 1 if he were making the pick today, Miller didn’t hesitate.

“In hindsight, I probably would’ve took J.J. Watt, number one,” said the star linebacker. It was a candid answer, and a brutally honest one, considering Watt’s historic career: three DPOY awards, multiple first-team All-Pros, over 100 career sacks, and one of the most dominant peaks the league has ever seen.

So, when Newton was asked to react to Miller’s claim, the former MVP didn’t take it as a sneak diss. He, in fact, agreed with Miller, citing how epic his draft class was.

“I still was top three, top five in a very legendary, all-time greatest draft class of 2011,” he began.

Newton then decided to take a roll call of sorts, citing all the legendary names drafted alongside him: “Richard Sherman. Julio Jones. Patrick Peterson. Von Miller. J.J. Watt. A.J. Green… We was loaded… The greatest NFL draft of all time,” the Panthers legend said, leaning into the absurd depth of that year.

The 4th&1 Podcast host then circled back to Miller’s comment, reiterating that with Watt’s resume and Miller’s own Hall of Fame trajectory, the LB’s “hindsight” comment is perfectly sensible. “You couldn’t win it wrong with them picks,” he said, summing it up.

Newton’s career deserves its own space in that conversation. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year, made multiple Pro Bowls, carried Carolina to a 15-1 season, and won league MVP in 2015. And from an influential lens, in many ways, Newton was the prototype of the dual-threat quarterbacks we see today.

So if anything, the former Panther’s reflection reinforces the point rather than weakening it. The 2011 draft was so dominant that even the No. 1 overall pick can look back, tip his cap to J.J. Watt’s generational dominance and say, yeah, that guy could’ve gone first.