Sam Darnold's Trade Value Has 'Cratered'

Carolina may have a hard time moving off of their starting quarterback.

It seems inevitable that the Carolina Panthers will have a new quarterback on the roster in 2022. Whether it be through the draft, free agency, or via trade, there will be a new face in the room led by Sean Ryan. 

The front office has made it abundantly clear that they must address the position this offseason. 

The problem? 

Sam Darnold's $18 million fifth-year option standing in the way. Had the Panthers decided not to pick up that option, they would owe Darnold as much as the Panthers owe me - nothing. They would have plenty of room to work a deal for a veteran quarterback but with his contract still on the books, it makes it nearly impossible to add competition for Darnold and still have the means to fix the offensive line which is as equally as important. 

According to Albert Breer, the trade value for Darnold has "cratered" after speaking to several folks about him at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis this past week. This doesn't come as a surprise by any means, but it does confirm what we already knew - the Panthers will have to eat a large portion of his contract to trade him. Yes, this means that Carolina could trade two quarterbacks in back-to-back seasons and pay for said quarterback to play for another team.

Knowing how difficult it may be to trade Darnold, Panthers GM Scott Fitterer carefully answered questions about Darnold's future with the team back in January.

"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.

"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."

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