Analysis: Panthers chose to settle for Sam Darnold. Now they’re stuck with him
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Expanded coverage of Carolina’s Week 9 NFL game.
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As the boos in Bank of America Stadium rained in the fourth quarter of the Panthers’ 24-6 loss to the Patriots on Sunday, it became clear to most watching, Carolina made a mistake in the offseason when it passed on drafting a quarterback.
Cornerback Jaycee Horn looks like he has the potential to be a Pro Bowl player, but he’s hurt now. What the Panthers needed most at the time was a franchise quarterback.
They still do.
Darnold finished 16 of 33 for 172 yards, three interceptions and a 26.3 passer rating.
“I’m fully aware I didn’t play my best football today,” Darnold said, adding that he can’t continue to turn the ball over. “For me, it’s understanding, if it’s not there, throw it away. And if I’m outside the pocket, making smart decisions that way.”
Meanwhile, Mac Jones, the Patriots’ rookie quarterback who beat out Cam Newton for the starting job in August, finished 12 of 18 for 139 yards and a touchdown Sunday. He was available at No. 8 when the Panthers drafted. So was Justin Fields, who has struggled but shown flashes of potential in Chicago.
But the Panthers decided to gamble with Sam Darnold on a two-year rental — trading away a second-, fourth- and sixth-round pick in the process — and now they must wait another year as Darnold showed again Sunday he’s not the team’s answer.
The 2021 season started out promising for the Panthers. Darnold was playing the best football of his career. The Panthers made some trades that indicated they were all in on making the playoffs this season.
But then Christian McCaffrey suffered a hamstring strain in Week 3, and Darnold became lost in the pocket. He started regularly turning the ball over and the Panthers lost four of their next five games.
The Panthers finally won last week after four awful performances in Weeks 4-7. They were getting healthy on defense and offense. McCaffrey, their best player, was also coming back.
But even with McCaffrey back on the field for the first time in five weeks, Darnold, who was coming off a concussion and a shoulder injury, struggled against New England (5-4).
Darnold’s mechanics were off again. He was late on some of his throws, including one that led to DJ Moore being leveled by a Patriots defender and needing to be helped off the field.
He was late on a potential touchdown pass to a wide open McCaffrey in the first half. That pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage (one of three on the day knocked down at the line) and the Panthers settled for three points.
“Yeah, definitely” McCaffrey said, when asked did he think that play would result in a touchdown. “It was a good play by them. The guy just got a hand up and put his hand up at the right place at the right time.”
Darnold likely should have been benched again Sunday. He was benched in the second half of the Panthers’ 25-3 loss to the Giants. He was limited in practice this week while recovering from a concussion.
But Rhule said he didn’t bench Darnold because he wanted to give the quarterback the opportunity to play through it.
Unfortunately, he never did.
All three of Darnold’s interceptions came in the second half.
One of those interceptions came when he was trying to throw on the run. The Panthers had second-and-10 from the New England 20-yard line with 6:55 left in the third quarter. The Panthers were trailing 14-6. Darnold was flushed out of the pocket, scrambled left and threw it to tight end Ian Thomas while his feet were not set.
The pass sailed over Thomas’ head into the hands of Patriots safety J.C. Jackson, who took it 88 yards the other way for a touchdown.
His third interception happened on second-and-6 from the New England 14 with 13:38 left in the fourth quarter. The Panthers had a chance to score, but Darnold’s pass to Moore was intercepted in the end zone by Jackson, again. And again, Darnold’s feet were not set.
After the final pick, wide receiver Robby Anderson was seen throwing his helmet down on the bench in frustration and had a few words for Darnold on the sideline.
“I don’t know what I said, but it was pretty much, ‘you need to tighten up a little bit,’” Anderson said. “Same way if I’m slacking, I need somebody to tell me that. We hold each other accountable. I hold myself accountable.”
Darnold has now thrown an interception in six of the Panthers’ nine games this season, and has thrown two or more interceptions three times. His touchdown-to-interception ratio this season is 7-11.
“I don’t want to lay things on one person, but we just can’t continue to keep throwing the ball up,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said. “We’ve got to protect the football. ...To me those are decision-making things that we’ve talked about and talked about and talked about and here we are, Game 9 of the season and it hasn’t happened.”
Darnold’s most impressive play came in the third quarter when he avoided two defenders trying to sack him and scrambled for 1 yard.
That’s how bad the offense was Sunday. It lacked energy, innovation and rhythm as the Panthers were 3 of 11 on third down. The defense forced two turnovers in Carolina territory — one interception by Stephon Gilmore and a strip sack by Brian Burns — yet the offense scored only six points (a pair of Zane Gonzalez field goals) off those takeaways.
When asked whether Darnold still gives the Panthers the best chance to win, Rhule declined to answer.
“It’s a fair question, but I don’t want to answer those types of questions in my brain right now coming off the game,” Rhule said. “Obviously we’re all disappointed. I’m disappointed.”
At the end of this season, the Panthers are likely going to be in the market for a new quarterback, whether in free agency, via a trade or in the draft.
The Panthers (4-5) gave up a lot to get Darnold — a quarterback who threw more interceptions than touchdowns in three seasons with the Jets. And they’ll be paying him a lot next season. Darnold is on a two-year deal after extending the fifth-year option on his contract this past offseason. He is guaranteed to make $18.9 million in 2022.
By the time Sunday’s game had reached the two-minute warning, half the seats at the stadium were empty. The Panthers fans who were left looked dejected, waiting for something, anything to happen.
They’re going to have to wait a while longer.
With the trade deadline having passed last Tuesday and the only quarterbacks on the market being free agents who are free agents for a reason, this is Carolina’s future.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Analysis: Panthers chose to settle for Sam Darnold. Now they’re stuck with him."
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