Is it better to be good or lucky? Who knows for sure, right? But what happens when you hardly have it too? This is the dilemma that the Carolina Panthers will face again at the beginning of the off-season.
Clearly, they are not very good. They haven’t been for about three years. Sunday’s 33-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints ended their third straight losing streak. They are also unlucky. Unfortunately, this is not a particularly good thing when you badly need a new defender.
A record of 5 to 11, although good (or bad) enough for a choice in the top 10, is unlikely to put them in a position to achieve one of the most acclaimed prospects in the next draft. Except for an exchange, which will cost the ransom of a prince at the very least, they will have to look outside Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson and maybe even Trey Lance to secure the future of their franchise.
Therefore, they are not too hot and they are not too cold. They are fair. . . terribly mediocre. This is called football purgatory, folks – a place that the Panthers practically called home for their entire 26-year existence.
They are not there by accident. It took a series of failed assessments as a defender to place them in such uncertainty.
The most recent came with Teddy Bridgewater’s signature last spring. Knowing that they would leave Cam Newton, Carolina signed a $ 63 million three-year contract with the 27-year-old with the hope that he would take the next step in his relatively normal career.
Spoiler: He didn’t do that.
Bridgewater proved to be the same defender as always. He’s fine, at his best. It’s okay if you’re a backup, not a successful initiator. Teddy is not always composed in his game management, he easily becomes nervous in a collapsing pocket and is often very shy about throwing the ball on the field. And when it does, it is usually not a fruitful effort.
It happened in today’s defeat to New Orleans. Bridgewater was noticeably more fragile than usual, loosening branches at a higher rate than he normally would.
Well, his Week 17 YOLO approach resulted in him competing just 13 of his 23 attempts for no scoring and a couple of interceptions, both coming in the final zone. Bridgewater, although he is fortunate to have neither played nor lost the two fumbles he coughed, can thank the wide Curtis Samuel and DJ Moore to keep your day from getting worse.
He would be replaced by PJ Walker in the middle of the third. It didn’t exactly work out either.
Although his two-year, $ 1.6 million contract straight out of XFL looked more like a flyer than a serious investment, Walker was discouragingly volatile. His game was frantic, his failures very wide and frequent. Even in the closing victory on his only start in 2020, Walker was inconsistent, playing a pair of ugly picks from the final zone against the Detroit Lions.
Walker began his appearance of relief at the end of the season by sniffing each of his first five attempts. He would end up connecting with the Saints’ defenders three times and his own receivers only five.
Then, there’s the quarterback behind him – Will Grier, who was again inactive on Sunday. Although he is the shortest man on this quarterback totem, he is perhaps the most glaring and alarming mistake that the team’s brain made in position.
Grier, who barely stood out nationally at West Virginia University, was selected by the Panthers in the third round of the 2019 draft. That hurts, considering they could have got their hands on a much-needed security guard at CJ Gardner-Johnson, who was collected by the Saints just five choices later. What hurts even more is that the Panthers and then general manager Marty Hurney reportedly had Grier as the number 3 quarterback on their board. And the two defenders in front of him? Drew Lock and Dwayne Haskins.
So, yes, that means they had Kyler Murray – Arizona’s No. 1 overall that year and one of the most electrifying players in the league – behind them. All of them.
Lock has been high and low in Denver, Haskins – in whom the Panthers have done due diligence in what may not be a big sign for any of the defenders on the current list – has just been released by Washington and Grier has been inactive for much of his two-year career.
In his only action, a couple of starts in place of another Carolina quarterback flop at Kyle Allen, Grier was an absolute disaster. He completed 28 of his 52 shots for 228 yards and four interceptions.
Unfortunately, the last time the Panthers were good was when they were lucky – and that was with Cam Newton. They were lucky that their 2-14 record was two whole games worse than any of the closest teams and were lucky that Newton broke his roof.
If we travel back to 2010, the national champion winner of the Heisman trophy was not sure. Hell, he wasn’t even the right thing at the top of the draft for Carolina, in the quarterback position, or whatever.
After losing Andrew Luck’s draw, when Stanford QB decided to stay in school and postpone their move to the pros, the Panthers had a large number of names to choose from. Wide receiver AJ Green, defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, defensive side Da’Quan Bowers and quarterback Blaine Gabbert were just a few of the possibilities beyond Newton.
But, at a risk they had to take, Carolina opted for Newton – whose inexperience in a pro-style offense (among other blows veiled to certain attributes) had many questioning her future. Fortunately, once again, he became the organization’s first MVP and the Offensive Player of the Year awards, four playoff slots, three NFC Southern division titles and a Super Bowl participation throughout his 10-year marriage.
Now where does owner David Tepper and coach Matt Rhule go from here?
Well, it starts with whoever they hire to run the front office as their new general manager. So, is this general manager willing to lead a blitz at a height in the spring?
In this case, the Panthers, who currently are not in the top five, can try to reach the second and third places. These two selections are made by the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, respectively. If these teams chose not to leave their defenders on Sam Darnold and Tua Tagovailoa, they will most likely consider switching options.
The starting capital needed to reach such a position, of course, would be immense. The Jets themselves sent their No. 6 and three runoff picks to the Indianapolis Colts for their overall No. 3 pick in 2018 to move up to Darnold. Two years before that, the Philadelphia Eagles sent the first two (8th overall in 2016 and 12th in 2017), a second, a third and a fourth to go up with Cleveland in second to pick up Carson Wentz.
Whether it’s Fields, Wilson or Lance, the Panthers will have to fall in love with one of the QB options outside Lawrence to make that leap of faith. If they don’t, the 2021 Panthers may well be Teddy’s Panthers once again.
As it stands, Bridgewater will be cast next season with a maximum of $ 23 million. The team has an exit to 2022, where he would be responsible for only $ 5 million in a ceiling, if he decided to release it.
This could mean that Bridgewater is still the beginner for now. Whoever else is added to the mix this off-season may just be holding a clipboard until further notice.
But then, and here we are – 116 days away from the first round of the 2021 draft of the NFL. In that time, moves will be made, the prospects will increase and maybe, just maybe, the Panthers can end up getting lucky again.