With the Panthers waiting until the Day 2 of the draft to add a signal-caller, Sam Darnold remains at the top of the team’s quarterback depth chart. His status as the No. 1 at the position may be temporary, general manager Scott Fitterer detailed recently. 
“Sam is the number one guy right now” he said, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “He has every opportunity to take it and run with it. We hope he does well. We’ve seen improvement already under [offensive coordinator] Ben McAdoo.”
McAdoo publicly anointed Darnold the starter in the build-up to the draft, though he was quick to walk back his remarks in light of the team’s probability of selecting from this year’s underwhelming QB class. At the time, the Panthers only had Darnold and P.J. Walker under contract; that, and the desire to find a long-term franchise pivot led Carolina to trade into the third round and select Ole Miss alum Matt Corral.
Corral was part of the QB group which – aside from Kenny Pickett – fell considerably in the draft. Concerns related to his ankle injury and interview process turned some teams away from the former Rebel, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Carolina thinks highly enough of him, however, that Fitterer left open the possibility of him playing at some point in 2022.
Another factor in this situation is, of course, the possibility of a reunion with Cam Newton. The former MVP would provide a much more experienced option compared to the rest of the depth chart, though his arrival midway through the 2021 campaign didn’t help ease the team’s struggles. Overall, Fitterer emphasized that the top spot is far from an assurance at this point.
“We’ll see how it goes. [Darnold is] in the lead right now, but until someone really owns that position… it will always be up for grabs.”
I find it hard to believe that, as badly as Darnold’s season ended up going last year, a rookie RPO quarterback will learn an NFL offense in enough time as to actually run it better than an established QB before the start of the season. That is not to say that Corral will NOT end up as a starter, but he did go in the third for a reason, and is most likely to take some time easing in to the league.
Now, Carolina could very easily decide to change its offense to fit Corral, but doing a drastic change while the player is trying to adjust to the NFL to begin with might not be the best idea. Though re-signing Cam Newton would give Carolina a starting RPO option until Corral is deemed ready, I still do not believe that would be best for the Panthers or Corral long term.
There are a number of things to remember with regard to Sam’s struggles. First, he’s just about to turn 25. Aaron Rodgers was probably around the same age when Brett Favre turned the keys over to him. Second, when he’s been healthy, he hasn’t had consistent protection and weapons around him in his first four years. Third, starting over with a rookie QB from a weak class isn’t a good idea especially if you don’t build up the rest of the team first.
I’m a Jets’ fan and I was skeptical about using a high draft pick on a QB not named Trevor Lawrence. I liked the prospect of getting Penei Sewell. Once it was clear QBs were going to go then, I thought the Jets should have traded down. I think Joe Douglas has made good moves since then, so I hope it pans out.
As for the Panthers, I think they absolutely did the right thing by picking Ikem Ekwonu over any of the QBs at #6. With a stronger o-line and full year of a healthy McCaffrey, I think Darnold could be successful.
Darnold hasn’t had much in the way of weapons sure but he takes too long to make his read and his delivery is way too long. He looks overmatched by NFL defenses. The whole, “weapons” conversations is tough. People still say Rodgers needs more weapons despite having had the best WR and a top RB for many years. No QB gets top protection and top weapons. Darnold hasn’t had either but I doubt it would make a difference anyway.
As far as Rodgers goes, I know you’ve made that argument before, but you keep ignoring the fact that it takes more than one receiver to be adequate for a team, especially when the team hasn’t had another receiver eclipse 40 catches in four years. Darnold, like some QBs, hasn’t had that either, but without the benefits of quality coaching or even an average offensive line. On top of all that, Darnold (while he was surely shortchanged his whole career) is not an insanely physically gifted quarterback.
I do agree, 100%, that he causes a lot of his bad play through his own bad habits, which you listed. Darnold probably gets too much flack for his “seeing ghosts” comment (which really should be the fault of his offensive line and head coach/GM being failures), but he does struggle with blitz and is too often indecisive in the pocket. I would say that all of that is the fault, entirely, of poor coaching and his awful roster/environment in New York and so far in Carolina. The question is-can he be coached out of that? Or has it stuck?
I think the best that we can reasonably expect is for a different regime or organization to establish a good culture, a good roster, and coach him intensively to try and break those habits. That would be an extraordinary task, however-Darnold is young, but has been developing these habits in the league for years now. It would take an extraordinary coach to fully rescue Darnold, ala Andy Reid with Alex Smith, but with a great roster around him he may bounce back and be a serviceable starter. Would it take effort to develop Corral? Maybe, given his college system. Does Carolina have a coach who I think can do that? Not really, I don’t think. Darnold at least knows how to run an NFL offense right now, and Corral does not.
Russ Wilson was taken in the third round and beat out Flynn for the starting job and never looked back. Prescott was a fourth rounder. It can happen. Not saying it will but…
Thing is, Corral looks more like Prescott did in his junior year. After Prescott came back for his senior year, he really worked on his passing mechanics and ran more non-RPO plays to become more complete as a passer. Before that, he was a good college QB, but not necessarily a pro style player. But obviously Prescott’s development paid off, and a lot of that had to do with the work he put in in his senior season.
Yep. As another Jets fan nothing but the best to Sam. Nobody could have done well under the circumstances he’s been given. I’m pulling for him
Sam would probably still be a Jet if he could have learned to execute a butt fumble as well as Sanchez.
Still haunted by the ghosts he saw against Belichick and the Pats. Probably always will be …