Former Panthers quarterbacks did not fare well over Wild Card Weekend
Wildcard weekend was not kind to former Carolina Panthers quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield. Darnold led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-2 record, one game off the #1 seed, but flopped in his playoff debut, losing 27-9 to the Los Angeles Rams. Mayfield at least put up a fight with his Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Washington Commanders, but ultimately fell in a tight, 23-20 contest.
That leaves only Teddy Bridgewater, a recently signed back-up quarterback for the Detroit Lions, as a former Panthers quarterback still in the running for a 2024 Super Bowl ring. Those three guys were the quarterbacks who were quickly cycled through during the Matt Rhule era in Charlotte as hot fixes for the quarterback position after they dumped Cam Newton.
The Panthers traded for Darnold in the spring of 2021; benched him for Mayfield in 2022; Traded Mayfield to the Rams with six games remaining in that season; watched Darnold go 4-2 down the stretch of 2022; then let him walk in free agency to pursue the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft and Bryce Young.
It was, in brief, a wildly ineffective time for the leadership of the Panthers at every level.
If the Panthers were looking for quarterbacks who could lead them to the playoffs then they found them twice over during the past four seasons and let them walk. This should put to rest any arguments that a quarterback is all a team needs. Both of these quarterbacks played for bad teams that suffered from poor roster management and poor coaching.
We have spent a lot of time this off season already talking about whether or not Young is really the future and whether or not head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan can really build a better team. Don’t worry, we’re not done yet with any of those discussions.
But it’s worth pausing for a moment and looking at what other teams have done—and haven’t done—with the Panthers trash from recent years. It serves as a reminder that hasty judgment is not always a virtue in a league whose nickname is “Not For Long.”