What Fitterer's Comments Mean for Teddy Bridgewater's Future in Carolina
If you were looking for any sort of clarity on Teddy Bridgewater's future with the Carolina Panthers in yesterday's press conference introducing new GM Scott Fitterer, well you were probably a little disappointed.
Fitterer did not go into detail about what he would do with any players in particular but spoke from a more general, overall view of how he plans on handling things. One of those things is how he plans to be aggressive and active in not only free agency but the trade market as well. One quarterback in particular Panthers' fans have been keeping a close eye on is Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans. When asked if he would consider getting involved in trade talks with Houston, Fitterer said the main focus was about getting to know his team's personnel first and foremost.
"I'm not going to get into hypotheticals but what I will tell you is that we will be in on every deal," Fitterer said, "We're going to find out where things are going, what the landscape is but before we do anything, I need to find out who's here. I need to figure out this roster. I need to figure out who is on our offensive line, who's on our defensive line. I know them from a 30,000-foot view but I need to know them from a coach's standpoint. I need to know from a personnel standpoint and meet these guys and see what they're made up of. So, there's a lot of things that we're going to be involved with going forward. We're going to be very aggressive in our acquisition process but it starts with getting to know our team and just being here for just a few days, I'm just starting that process."
Saying that he will "be in on every deal" in response to a question referring to Watson seems to be a good sign for fans who want to see the Panthers try to pull off the move. Regardless of whether they are able to acquire Watson or not, you can expect some movement to happen in the quarterback room.
"I do believe in competition in all positions and we're going to look to raise the level at all positions. We're never satisfied with our roster, so we're always going to look and I know we're talking about the quarterback position. That's something I believe in drafting every year or acquiring at some point just philosophically. So overall, I just need to get here first, figure out the players on our roster and that's how we're going to go about it."
Fitterer was also asked what his definition of a franchise quarterback was and this response likely made Teddy Bridgewater feel a little uneasy.
"Someone that can lift the players around them. Somebody that gives you an opportunity to win when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter. Someone that just has the leadership qualities that when they walk in the building, they know that's the person that's in charge - those are the most important things. Then you get into the position specifics, the processing, the decision-making, the intelligence, the arm strength, accuracy but what it really comes down to is the leadership and the ability to compete and win when the game is on the line."
Teddy is a great leader, a great person on and off the field, he's someone who people respect but winning games late in the fourth quarter is one thing he has not been able to prove in a Panther uniform. In fact, Carolina lost nine games by one score and had the ball in their hands at the end on several occasions to either tie it up or win. If Teddy Bridgewater wants to be the starting quarterback of the future for the Carolina Panthers, it is clear that he must perform much better late in games and in crunch time situations.
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