It Doesn't Appear the Panthers Will Move On from Sam Darnold
When the Carolina Panthers pulled the trigger on a deal to acquire QB Sam Darnold from the New York Jets, they thought they had the right situation in place to resurrect his career. He had playmakers surrounding him for the first time in his NFL career and the coaching was thought to be better than what he received from Adam Gase and co. in New York.
Before the season even started, before Darnold ever played a snap in a Carolina Panthers uniform, the team picked up the 5th-year option on his contract. In hindsight, it was a very bad move. Some may argue that trading a 2nd, 4th, and 6th round pick was a bad idea in the first place, but I didn't mind the trade at the time. Did I think he would be the answer? Not necessarily, but I didn't think they gave up too much for him. Let's be honest, a 6th round pick doesn't mean much and a fourth is fairly valuable depending on what part of the round the pick is. I don't blame them for the trade but I do, however, blame the front office for committing to Darnold through the 2022 season prematurely.
"It's so hard because I never want to say anything was a mistake because it's not fair to the player," said Panthers GM Scott Fitterer when asked about picking up the 5th-year option. "Sam comes in and he works his tail off every day and he studies. He's here late at night, so I think that's probably a little unfair. I can tell you what I was thinking during that time. We had committed some resources to that position. We've committed a 2nd and a 4th round pick and another pick in there. We wanted to show some confidence in him and we thought he would come in and play at a consistent level so that's why we went ahead and picked that up. The story is not written yet on Sam. He's still developing."
Darnold had a very Darnold-like year mimicking what he did in his final year in the Big Apple throwing for 2,527 yards, nine touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. One thing to note is that in each of the last two years where his numbers were bad, he played through injuries and missed time with injuries. In the first two years of his career, he combined to throw for 5,889 yards, 36 touchdowns, and 28 interceptions. Although they weren't great numbers either, it showed more of what he is capable of, especially with no line and no weapons at the time.
A lot of folks are wondering what exactly what the Panthers are going to with Darnold this offseason. Do they try to trade him? Will anyone be interested? Probably not. If so, they're going to have to eat a bulk of the $18 million he is due to play for another team and only get a 5th or 6th round pick in return, if that. Do the Panthers draft a quarterback? Maybe, but the front office seems to want to place their focus on building the offensive line first, which they should. What about trade for another veteran quarterback? It's a possibility but the Panthers don't have the draft capital nor are they comfortable "selling the farm" to land a quarterback.
"I think it'll come down to how we evaluate this over the next couple of weeks, the new offensive coordinator, what it looks like in free agency, when we build our new draft board," Fitterer said earlier this week. "The one thing we don't want to do at the quarterback position is just to force something to get a quarterback in here. We need to build this the right way. We need to build this up front. With that, I think we'll have better quarterback play long-term.
Everything that Fitterer and Rhule have said in the last week or so has led me to believe that Darnold will be on the roster in 2022. Whether he starts or not is to be determined, but it feels like they are going to rebuild the offensive line and hope that helps him be more successful as a quarterback.
"I think Sam is still developing. We have to help him. Everybody looks at the quarterback position as just the individual when there are so many other factors that go into it. The receivers, the offensive line. He had a lot of leakage. He had a lot of pressure in his face and it's tough to play the position no matter who you are if there's pressure in your face. He's still developing, he's still a young quarterback, he's been through several offensive coordinators. I don't know if he's there yet, he's gonna be. I think we're going to work with him to get there."
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