5 things Cam Newton must do to win Super Bowl 50

4. Spread the wealth

When star sophomore wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin went down in the preseason with a torn ACL, it looked like the Panthers’ passing offense could be in serious trouble. Carolina was left with the ragtag combination of Ted Ginn Jr, Corey Brown, Jerricho Cotchery and rookie Devin Funchess at receiver, as it appeared Newton simply wouldn’t have any targets to work with.

However, the Panthers finished the regular season with the top offense in the NFL at over 31.2 points per game, and continued that success into the playoffs. The play of Jonathan Stewart and Newton himself certainly helped that, but there were other factors in the passing game.

In particular, tight end Greg Olsen turned in a terrific season, hauling in 77 receptions for over 1,100 yards. Olsen seemed to be unguardable at times and acted as a security blanket for Newton with the lack of elite talent at receiver.

Newton can’t rely on Olsen being his only top target in the Super Bowl. To compliment the pass rush, the Broncos have a strong and deep secondary that has the potential to limit Olsen.

The Broncos did a nice job against Rob Gronkowski last week until the final minutes of the game by using nickel corner Bradley Roby with some help from their excellent safety duo. They may do the same with Olsen, leaving a lot of one-on-one matchups with Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr.

Both of them are outstanding cornerbacks in their own right, so nothing is going to come easy for Carolina’s passing offense. For that reason, Newton is going to have to spread the ball around to all of his receivers while throwing a lot of different looks at the talented Denver secondary.

Next: 3. Find the receivers on explosive plays