Carolina Panthers’ trade for QB Sam Darnold is so weird that it will actually work

The Carolina Panthers just spent three draft picks and millions of dollars to acquire a player who was statistically the worst quarterback in the NFL in 2020.

At first look, it makes absolutely no sense to trade for Sam Darnold.

But you know what? I like it. I think this deal is just weird enough to work.

The Panthers were about to get painted into a quarterback corner — again — this offseason. Trading for Matthew Stafford hadn’t worked out. Drafting a QB with their first-round pick — which would have worked out just fine if only Carolina had only managed to lose that game against Washington — probably wasn’t going to work out.

Trading for Houston’s Deshaun Watson — clearly owner David Tepper’s top choice to solve this problem only a month ago — couldn’t and certainly shouldn’t work out now due to the 22 separate and serious lawsuits that have been filed against Watson. Teddy Bridgewater? Based on last year, that wasn’t working out, either.

What was left?

There was this 23-year-old quarterback with the New York Jets with a big arm and enough explosive playmaking ability that he was the No. 3 overall pick in 2018, but he also had some horrendous stats from 2020 (and not much better ones for 2018 and 2019).

But he had a cap-friendly salary for 2021, and he still had that big arm, and he had never had weapons anywhere close to what he will have in this offense.

Sam Darnold was a battered stock, one that could be bought at a reasonable price to shore up the Panthers’ bad position at the game’s most important position.

Was it a huge gamble?

Absolutely, and Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer admitted as much Monday. Only a few months into his own tenure as Carolina’s new GM, Fitterer made one of those career-defining decisions that will either haunt him or anoint him.

“I still think he’s highly competitive,” Fitterer said, explaining his logic in trading for Darnold. “I think he’s smart enough. I like the skill set. He’s only 23 years old. You know a lot of these quarterbacks don’t mature and hit their prime until 24, 25, 26. So if this is a player that we can hit on at this price, and if he is our quarterback for the future, it’s definitely worth the gamble.”

Even if Darnold is just serviceable, making this move now also frees the Panthers to bolster their O-line, D-line and cornerback in the first three rounds of the 2021 draft. They weren’t going to get the quarterback they wanted at No. 8. This was a decent alternative, with the potential for being a lot more than that.

Importantly, there were no first-round draft picks involved in the trade, nor much of anything in the 2021 draft, nor any key Panther players. Carolina gave up a sixth-round pick in 2021 and a second- and fourth-round pick in 2022 to get the deal done.

Darnold’s cap number of $4.8 million in 2021 is low enough that Carolina could technically keep Teddy Bridgewater on the roster, too, and let them figure out who’s the starter on the field.

Will Bridgewater like this? Of course not. I’m sure he is furious, or at least as furious as the gentlemanly Bridgewater gets. He may get traded, but my bet is his cap price ($23 million) is too high to have any takers unless he agrees to lower that number considerably.

Regardless, the Bridgewater deal made by previous general manager Marty Hurney and coach Matt Rhule (with a lot of input from offensive coordinator Joe Brady) looks awful in retrospect.

The Darnold deal is another throw at the QB dartboard, a problem the Panthers tried to solve by signing Bridgewater a year ago. To review, Bridgewater was just fine in quarters 1-3 most of the time last season season. But his fourth quarters were an utter failure.

Darnold is only 13-25 as a starter in three seasons with the Jets. New York seems determined to take BYU quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 overall pick. That made Darnold expendable.

“We see him as a starter,” Fitterer said of Darnold, although a few minutes later he said he also saw Bridgewater as a starter.

Darnold should start on opening day for Carolina, one way or another.

But even if he doesn’t, this is a move that hasn’t cost the Panthers an arm or a leg. It’s a strange acquisition in several ways, but it’s worth the risk.