Answering big questions left in Panthers’ season: Will we see Will Grier start? Should CMC play?
The Panthers’ season is all but wrapped up, and their focus has shifted to the new year.
Like so many, the Panthers will be looking to shake things up in 2020 and that’s already started with the firing of coach Ron Rivera. Players, coaches and team owner David Tepper have repeated the idea that this last month is an “audition” for everyone in the building.
A lot about this team will probably change before September, but there are things Carolina can do to make sure it has as much knowledge as possible about players that remain on its roster.
Among the most talked about topics over these final three weeks will be whether or not rookie quarterback Will Grier should make an appearance and what records Christian McCaffrey will break — and should he even be out there trying to break them?
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each situation:
Should Will Grier see the field?
The Panthers rookie, a third-round pick, wasn’t impressive in the preseason and has yet to play in the regular season.
That’s partly because Kyle Allen is inexperienced and needs all the opportunities he can get to improve and learn on the field. In 11 starts this year, Allen has completed 62.2 percent of his passes for 2,750 yards and 16 touchdowns, with 12 interceptions and 44 sacks.
While getting a complete picture of what Allen can do is important, should the Panthers let Grier play at least part of a game before the season ends?
Pro: Grier is the only Panthers draft pick still on the roster that hasn’t seen a regular-season snap, but that alone is not a reason to put him out there. But the team’s future at quarterback is dicey. Cam Newton had surgery on his foot this week, and his health status and the Panthers’ thought process regarding the final year of his contract are very much unknown.
So getting more information on their other quarterbacks is essential. They have seen Allen this season and have some sense of what he can do. Not so much with Grier. Taking advantage of these final games to evaluate him would be a boost.
“I think me and Will have both been around the game enough to understand that no matter where you’re playing there’s going to be chatter about who’s playing who’s not,” Allen said about all the quarterback talk this week. “Me and Will have a great relationship, Will’s going to get his opportunity somewhere and some point, who knows? He’s going to get his opportunity and I’m going to be stoked for him. He’s supportive of me through all these games and everything and he’s excited for me too. We understand that. That’s how the league works.”
Rivera often discussed the “growing pains” that come from being a young quarterback in the NFL. It might be the perfect opportunity for Grier to either show what he can do or go through the learning curve on the field.
Con: Panthers owner David Tepper said following the firing of Rivera that the team was developing Grier using a “traditional approach.” The talk has been that former offensive coordinator and current special assistant to the head coach Norv Turner was developing him during practice and that they are getting a sense of what he can do.
Current offensive coordinator Scott Turner explained that by a “traditional approach,” the Panthers aren’t throwing Grier out there just to have him play. There’s a supposed plan behind it.
“10 years ago even, when you would draft a young quarterback, a lot of times he would sit and you wouldn’t even talk about playing him and you let him get the feel for going through an NFL season as backup, watching, learning and then they’d begin playing,” Scott Turner said. “Carson Palmer was the first pick in the draft, he sat behind Jon Kitna for a year. Patrick Mahomes, obviously played in the last game of the season a few years ago, but sat for an entire season.
“Sometimes that can be better for guys because they don’t get rushed right into it and have to deal with pass rush, and just everything that goes into a long NFL, 16-game season. … We want (Grier) to play when he’s ready. I think Will’s a talented player, I think Kyle’s a talented player. I think both of those guys are guys that are developmental-type guys. We want Will to have the best career possible and not just rush him in just to see or do something that could possibly hurt that.”
Has Allen been rushed in before he was ready? Possibly. But placing Grier behind Carolina’s makeshift offensive line, which has allowed 50 total sacks this year (tied for fourth-most in franchise history), may not make the most sense for his first regular season action.
“If we don’t feel like he is truly ready, he’s close right now. He could go in the second play of the game and we all know that. I think he would do well if he did,” Turner said. “You go and you get hit a lot. You don’t have a lot of success, those types of things can sometimes have a negative effect on the development of a quarterback.”
Should Christian McCaffrey play the last three games?
This has been a season of records for McCaffrey. With three games to go, he is 274 receiving yards away from becoming the third player in NFL history with 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in a season, joining Roger Craig (1985) and Marshall Faulk (1999). He surpassed the rushing mark already, but has only averages 55.8 receiving yards per game, which would leave him 107 yards short.
But should McCaffrey even be playing the last three games?
Pro: There are three NFL games to be played and the Panthers’ best player should be out there. The running back has been among the team’s most positive pieces and having him finish the season just seems right.
Each week, McCaffrey sets a new record or hits a different mark, and whether or not he makes the 1,000/1,000 record, he will no doubt continue to make history.
“We know Christian is the guy in this offense,” Scott Turner said this week. “It’s not hard to come up with ways to get him the ball. Our offense is going to go through him.”
With a young quarterback and a struggling offensive line, he has undoubtedly become the most consistent piece on the Panthers offense. While these last three games don’t matter to the team’s postseason hopes, ending the season on an eight-game losing streak, despite what it may do for improve draft position, isn’t great either.
“When you’re not playing in the playoffs, it really shows who you are, shows your true character,” McCaffrey said. “We still got a lot to build on. As far as our mindset, it’s the next game we’re going to approach it and do everything we can to win.”
Hitting that record would be an exciting thing to come out of this season, but it will be a tough get. McCaffrey this week shared that he wished there was less focus on individual statistics, despite being the leading running back in fantasy points per game.
“If it happens great, it would be better if it did. It’s funny people ask all the time, are you going to get that 1,000/1,000 mark or are you mad you didn’t get a lot of carries, but you had a lot of catches. At the end of the day, football’s football. You say it all the time. Winning is the only thing that matters and that’s all that I care about, that’s all anyone cares about.
“I think individual statistics get highlighted in today’s society, in today’s football watchers because of fantasy football, because of gambling because of all this other stuff at the end of the day the people in the locker room, all we care about is winning. That’s the only thing we want to do is win. I think some of that stuff can take away the beauty of football.”
Con: One lesson to take away from the Newton situation is to do everything you can to keep your players healthy. Putting the Panthers’ best player, a player that they are likely going to try and sign an extension this offseason, on the field for three games with the playoffs out of the picture doesn’t do that. It puts him in harm’s way unnecessarily.
Winning is important, but playing McCaffrey all three games to end the year isn’t worth the risk. Give younger players like Reggie Bonnafon a chance to shine and ensure McCaffrey’s health for 2020.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 2:48 PM.
