NFL

Giants’ Tuck says Auburn QB Newton will struggle in NFL

There’s a great deal of buzz and intrigue about whether Auburn quarterback Cam Newton is worthy of being the No. 1 pick in next month’s NFL Draft.

One prominent NFL players casts a vote of “Nay.”

“Would I take him at No. 1? Absolutely not,” Giants defensive end Justin Tuck said last week, speaking in a panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, according to the website Yardbarker.com.

Tuck says he’s a fan of Newton, but questions whether Newton’s style will work in the rough-and-tumble NFL.

“In this league, the athletic quarterbacks don’t last long,” said Tuck, who regularly makes life difficult for opposing quarterbacks.

“It’s the quarterbacks [like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees] that can sit in the pocket and take a picture of whatever defense we’re in and know in 0.3 seconds that a hot slant is going to be open,” Tuck said, “or in two seconds, with this pump fake, that safety’s going to step up . . . It’s those guys that [teams] are looking for, and I don’t think Cam is that player yet. If he comes into the league doing what he did in college, he won’t be in this league for very long.”