Why starting Sam Darnold over Cam Newton for final 2 Panthers games is the right move
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The height of the Sam Darnold era for the Carolina Panthers — an ephemeral slice of time, but one that actually did exist — reached its peak in Week 2 of the 2021 NFL season.
On Sept. 19, 2021, Darnold played his best game of the season, leading Carolina to a 19-point win against a respectable New Orleans Saints team. Darnold threw for 305 yards that day, including a magnificent first drive when he completed passes of 32, 20 and 20 yards to score a touchdown three minutes into the game.
Remember that? Panther coach Matt Rhule sure does, and it’s part of the reason Darnold will start again against those same Saints on Sunday.
The Panthers (5-10) would dearly love if Darnold could find the magic he had that day in Charlotte, which also served as the team’s second and last home win of the season. Darnold regaining his mojo would make the team seem not quite so foolish for committing $18.858 million to the QB in guaranteed money for the 2022 season before he ever threw a pass for them in 2021.
What do the Panthers want to see from Darnold this Sunday in New Orleans?
“I want to see him play the way he played in the first ball game,” Rhule said. “He threw the ball on time. He was aggressive with his throws. ... I’d like to see him play within the system. I’d like to see him be aggressive but not have a catastrophic mistake of the, ‘Hey, let me turn and throw the ball up in the air and see if something good happens.’ ”
That’s easier said than done, of course, especially behind the Panthers’ turnstile offensive line. Darnold showed a troubling penchant for the big turnover when this season went south. He won his first three starts for Carolina, then went 1-5 in his next six. He had 10 interceptions in those final six starts, with his three-INT games against Philadelphia and New England the most egregious.
By the end, Darnold looked jittery and shaken. As he surveyed the field and tried to figure out where to go with the ball, he looked like a man trying to order off a menu written in Portuguese.
Since then, Darnold has mostly been on the shelf with a cracked shoulder blade. Like the turnovers, which came up over and over again in his stint with the New York Jets, injuries remain a nagging problem with Darnold.
In his four NFL seasons, Darnold has always missed at least three games a year due to one injury or another. In this season alone, he has missed five games. Cam Newton, by contrast, only missed five total games due to injury with the Panthers in his first eight years as the team’s starter.
So except for those three weeks in September when the Panthers started 3-0, Darnold has done little to inspire confidence as the Panthers’ long-term starter after Carolina traded three draft picks for him in April.
Still, starting Sunday, it’s Darnold’s team once again. Newton has been benched after going 0-5 as a midseason substitute starter. Newton’s heart was willing as always, but his skills weren’t enough to compensate for the offensive line, a lack of arm strength and little familiarity with a system he was trying to learn on the fly.
Darnold said Wednesday he was just glad to be back after his injury, which allowed him to study his mistakes and realize how lucky he was to play football for a living. (The Panthers also hope that, by osmosis, some of Newton’s alpha-male swagger and toughness has rubbed off on Darnold.)
“I just got an appreciation for the game,” Darnold said of his time away, which ended when he subbed in for Newton last week in a 32-6 loss to Tampa Bay. “It was kind of the cliché of you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. When you’re out, it sucks, you know? ... To not be out there on the field with my brothers, that’s something I missed a ton.”
Although it may not be popular — Darnold was booed when he replaced Newton in a home game last week — giving Darnold another shot as a starter in these final two games is the right thing to do. He’s the only quarterback on the Panther roster who is signed for 2022. Picking up his option was a gamble that at the moment looks like a horrendous mistake, but it can’t be undone. The Panthers will pay Darnold whether he’s on the roster or not.
Cam Newton 2.0 is all but over. Newton can still run the ball, but he can’t push it downfield with success and has lost his last 13 starts in a row as a Panther dating back to 2018. He surely won’t be back in 2022. Newton may not play at all Sunday, barring injury. At best, Newton may come in for a couple of short-yardage and goal-line situations.
The Panthers need some more points. They rank among the league’s bottom seven teams in scoring offense, total offense and passing offense.
Darnold said his biggest challenge this week will be to avoid “choppy feet.”
“If my feet are choppy or sped up, that’s when I’m indecisive and can make bad decisions,” Darnold said. “And when my feet are calm and I feel comfortable in the pocket, I feel like I’m a really good quarterback when I do that.”
It’s hard for your feet to stay calm, of course, when there’s no Christian McCaffrey as a safety valve and you’re playing behind an offensive line that has started about a dozen different combinations this season. Still, the Panthers may as well give Darnold another chance. They’re going to pay him in 2022 regardless. Like it or not, they’ve invested heavily in him. Might as well see what he’s got.
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Why starting Sam Darnold over Cam Newton for final 2 Panthers games is the right move."
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