Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold And Matt Corral Give The Panthers The NFL's Most Laughably Dysfunctional QB Room

I don't buy the notion that Sam Darnold is some blue-collar good boy who works super hard. He makes too many dumbass decisions on the football field for me to believe he's really diving deep into film study. The Carolina Panthers apparently didn't see that last offseason when they traded second-, fourth- and sixth-round picks to acquire him. Turns out, to the surprise of almost no one, it was a big fuck-up.

After Darnold sucked again in 2021 and got hurt, Carolina went full "sentiment over any hint of logic" for a short-lived, midseason Cam Newton reunion. For their next act in finding a viable solution to the most important position in all of sports, Carolina has revamped its quarterback room for 2022 by teaming up Darnold with two OTHER problematic dudes, requiring two additional trades.

Beyond the incumbent Darnold, an abject bust as the third overall pick in the 2018 draft, the Panthers traded up in Round 3 of this year's draft to select Ole Miss product Matt Corral. Why did someone with Corral's arm talent and production fall so far? Well, as Ian Rapoport reported, substance abuse, piss-poor team interviews and "unreliable behavior off the field" were to blame.

If that doesn't sound like the second coming of Johnny Manziel, I don't know what does. Oh wait, yes I do. The last time folks made that lazy-ass comparison was when none other than ex-Cleveland Browns No. 1 pick and NEWLY MINTED Carolina Panther Baker Mayfield came out in the draft!!

I don't trust Warren Sharp's mustache-ness but his football data is good and I'll save you some time by sharing his breakdown of how this Darnold-Baker-Corral QB room came together.

Yep. The final jewel in the crown of this kingly, disastrous Panthers QB room is Baker Mayfield. He who grabs his crotch, plants flags, drunkenly sprints away from police, and pouts at every single slight ever leveled at him. Only problem is, the two-time walk-on routine and obvious, rampant maturity issues made the Browns think they needed an "adult" at QB, to the point where they guaranteed record money and gave up multiple first-round picks for…wait for it…Deshaun Watson. That's how over Baker the Cleveland brass was.

I think the Watson trade is more a reflection of the Browns' perpetual stupidity than it is as much to do with Baker. I personally think the guy can play. People sleep on his arm strength, accuracy and the fact that he took a Cleveland team that was 1-31 in its previous two seasons and led them to seven wins as a rookie.

But the whole chip-on-the-shoulder paradigm has come back to bite Baker often in the NFL, be it in his risky style of play that's led to 56 interceptions through four seasons — or more generally what transpired in 2021 overall. Baker tried to show his toughness by playing through injuries and pretty much played his way out of Cleveland. It was another reminder that his lack of size may not allow him to physically hold up to the rigor of a 17-game season, no matter how gritty he is.

Anyway, now that training camp is closing in, I can't wait to see how this plays out. By any meaningful statistic, Darnold blows. It's to the point where if he was good at all whatsoever, it would show up SOMEWHERE. It doesn't. Anywhere. At all. The flat-out hilarious thing about all this? There exist delusional Darnold disciples in the Panthers building who still somehow believe in him.

So wait wait wait. Baker who set the rookie TD pass record back in 2018 and led the Cleveland Fucking Browns to a playoff victory in Pittsburgh is actually being considered "in competition" with this dude? OH what can POSSIBLY go wrong?

As for Corral, it's well-established that he ran a gimmicky, RPO-heavy offense under Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. How Carolina deduced that, per Rapoport, Corral had "by far" the best film of any quarterback prospect in the 2022 class over guys like Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ridder is beyond my comprehension.

Yeah, the "competitive fire", decent running ability and pure throwing prowess are all there for Corral to someday be successful. As far as the mental side of the NFL game, though, Corral is not only battling personal demons, but his learning curve to master a pro-style system is bound to be steeper than most.

It's amazing that the Panthers have rid themselves of Cam Newton and yet have still managed to have a more turbulent quarterback situation than they had last year. I would put the 401k on Baker winning this competition over a project like Corral and a fucking awful NFL player like Darnold, but who knows what the hell Carolina's front office/ownership/coaching staff is thinking. They're leaking shit about how great Darnold is so they pretty much have zero clue about anything. All those leadership entities may have differing opinions on who should start. Sounds like a recipe for success, doesn't it?

My heart goes out to Panthers fans, wide receivers DJ Moore and Robby Anderson, and tailback Christian McCaffrey. The latter is the one great hope Carolina can cling to on offense. Sadly, the All-World McCaffrey has played only 10 games the past two seasons. Now he's hoping for a comeback campaign with THIS quarterback depth chart. Yikes man.

Between Baker's antics, the stoic Darnold's shitty play and Corral's chaotic personality being relegated to third-string status, this is a dumpster fire waiting to happen. Then again, if Baker wins the job as I suspect he will, maybe the drama will only be confined to training camp. In any event, my popcorn is ready.

I know Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions are going to be great on Hard Knocks as we ramp up for the regular season. Is it too late to get a second HBO crew out to Panthers camp?  

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald