Will Grier once watched Panthers games from the stands. On Sunday, he starts at QB.
Will Grier will become the 18th starting quarterback in the 25-year history of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at Indianapolis.
Grier also will become the very first Carolina starting quarterback who grew up in the Charlotte area, owned multiple Steve Smith jerseys and sat in Section 229 at Bank of America Stadium for years cheering on his hometown team.
It sounds like a movie.
It will sound less like one if Grier throws four interceptions Sunday and the Panthers — losers of their past six games in a row — get pounded by the Indianapolis Colts.
But what if he wins? What if Grier — who started the year as Carolina’s No. 3 quarterback and now has ascended to No. 1 due to Cam Newton’s injury and Kyle Allen’s benching — actually has a chance to become the Panthers quarterback of the future?
The Panthers (5-9) have nothing left to lose this season but a little more pride, and so sticking in their 2019 third-round draft choice and letting him fire away makes sense. You have to figure out what you’ve got, and no one really knows what that is yet with Grier.
We do know Grier can throw the ball, though.
“I love his arm,” Panthers interim head coach Perry Fewell said. “He’s got a cannon, OK?”
Grier’s decision-making? That’s what everyone wonders about. As Grier joked Thursday about his two collegiate seasons at West Virginia: “A lot of my West Virginia tape is me throwing the ball downfield on almost every play. That’s not necessarily going to work in the NFL.”
In the preseason, Grier was outplayed by Allen. Grier turned the ball over four times in exhibition games, threw two touchdown passes and sometimes seemed flummoxed by the speed of NFL defenders.
That contributed to Allen starting Carolina’s previous 12 games this season once Newton went down with a Lisfranc foot injury. Allen won his first four, but has gone 1-7 since then this season as a starter while the Panthers’ playoff hopes crumbled into oblivion. Turnovers became Allen’s main issue.
Now comes the 24-year-old Grier — who, although a rookie, is actually 11 months older than Allen because of a convoluted college career that spanned two teams, one suspension and one redshirt season. Said Grier Thursday, when he was officially announced as the Carolina starter: “It feels awesome. ... I’m obviously excited and just ready to go.”
Grier and Zion
It was this sort of moment that Chad Grier, Will’s father and a longtime high school football coach, has groomed his son for almost since birth.
Chad Grier coached Will at Davidson Day School, where Will once threw for an astounding 837 yards and 10 touchdowns in a 2012 playoff game (final score: 104-80).
I saw Will Grier play in high school. He destroyed what was often some very suspect competition. He also kicked extra points sometimes — that was the only thing he wasn’t good at.
Watching Grier as a teenager, basically throwing touchdown passes on about every third play, reminded me of when I made a pilgrimage to Spartanburg more recently to watch Zion Williamson dominate basketball games in high school. Men against boys.
Grier was Parade’s magazine’s National Player of the Year following his team’s third straight state championship playing under his father in 2013 (Davidson Day no longer fields a football team, by the way, but that’s another story).
Then came Grier’s emergence as Florida’s starting quarterback, shortly followed by his downfall. In October 2015, the NCAA suspended Grier for one year after he failed an NCAA drug test because he took a performance-enhancing substance called Ligandrol, which he had bought at a nutrition store. The quarterback hadn’t checked with Florida’s athletic trainers before taking the substance, a mistake he has admitted many times.
Grier comes home next week
During the suspension, Chad Grier told me earlier this year, his son was in such a “dark place” that it was unclear whether Will Grier would ever play football again. Then-Florida coach Jim McElwain no longer wanted his son as a starter when he was eligible to return, Chad Grier said. So Will Grier’s recruitment was re-opened, this time as a transfer.
He came close to going to Ohio State but ended up at West Virginia, and he was so successful there that Grier picked up the nickname “Touchdown Jesus” and came in fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 2018. During that time Grier also got married to a former NFL cheerleader named Jeanne O’Neil — they now have a 3-year-old daughter named Ellie who Grier said Thursday is “the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Four quarterbacks were chosen in front of Grier, who was the first quarterback Carolina had drafted since Newton in 2011. Grier was chosen No. 100 overall in the 2019 draft, behind Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins and Drew Lock. Those four have already made their NFL debut as a starter. Grier has yet to throw a real NFL pass.
But as long as he stays healthy through this Colts game, it sounds like he will make his second start in the season finale against New Orleans on Dec. 29. That one will be in Charlotte, with the Grier family — which still owns five seats in Section 229 — cheering him on.
Fewell said Thursday that Grier making his first start on the road was somewhat purposeful. “I would say that it’s not as much pressure (on the road) as when you’re coming into the hometown stadium, and you’ve got the city of Charlotte behind you as well as the Carolinas and you’re in your first start,” said Fewell, who oddly enough is also from the greater Charlotte area. “You feel the pressure if you’re starting your first game at home, so that’s a factor, no doubt.”
To get to that home game, though, Grier first has to survive this one — playing in front of an inconsistent Panthers line that allowed Allen to be sacked 45 times and hurried many more.
Said Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly, who has faced Grier all season in practice because Grier has mostly run the scout team: “Will has natural talent. He’s got a great arm. … I think he’s going to do a good job.”
We’re about to find out.
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Will Grier once watched Panthers games from the stands. On Sunday, he starts at QB.."
