Matt Rhule holds the power with the Panthers, and that’s creating problems
The first time Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold noticed something was amiss was around Week 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles at Bank of America Stadium.
The Panthers were 3-1 entering Week 5, and though they had lost to Dallas the week before, it wasn’t a bad loss.
But Week 5 was the first time the Panthers looked inept, incapable of moving the ball downfield. Their offense struggled. Receivers dropped passes. The offensive line didn’t block. And Darnold threw three interceptions in a 21-18 loss.
“That was kind of the first game of the season where I felt like things got out of hand in terms of me turning the ball over,” Darnold said.
In 12 games this past season, Darnold threw nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions, and completed 59.9% of his passes, one of the worst seasons of his four-year career.
The Panthers lost their final seven games, and 12 of their last 14, finishing the season 5-12.
But while things appeared to fall apart around Week 5, the Panthers’ problems this year happened well before the 2021 season began. They began with a series of miscalculations and offseason moves that haven’t worked out.
It’s why the Panthers finished with only five wins for the second consecutive season. And while sources with knowledge of the team’s thinking have said they expect Matt Rhule to return for Year 3, it’s these miscalculations, and Carolina’s lack of overall improvement in Year 2, that has undoubtedly put the coach on the hot seat.
“At the end of the day, we’re the 30th-ranked offense in the National Football League with the second-ranked defense,” Rhule said, “in a league and time when you have to score points to win. We know what we need to do to fix it.”
When owner David Tepper hired Rhule, he allowed him to have final say on all roster moves. In the two years since, that decision has created problems for the Panthers and led to the 2021 season getting derailed before it ever started.
Trading away Teddy Bridgewater
One of the Panthers’ biggest mistakes was trading away quarterback Teddy Bridgewater for next to nothing. The Panthers signed Bridgewater to a three-year, $63 million deal in the 2020 offseason. The three-year deal indicated that he was only supposed to be with the Panthers a short time, or at least until the Panthers could find their future franchise quarterback.
But after a 5-11 finish, and a season where Bridgewater threw 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and was 0-for-8 on game winning or game tying drives, Rhule and his staff were having second thoughts.
Rhule didn’t like that Bridgewater struggled to push the ball downfield and couldn’t win late in games. Most of his throws were underneath.
After the season, Rhule criticized Bridgewater. He said he “hadn’t played his best football,” which likely hurt his trade value.
“I feel like ever since he got hurt in the second half of the Tampa Bay game, Teddy hasn’t played his best ball,” Rhule said in January 2021. “Teddy has to have a tremendous offseason.
“It’s been a long time since he’s played an entire year. Part of being a quarterback in this league is being able to withstand the physical toll of the season and playing your best football at the end of the year. I don’t know that I’ve seen that from him.”
It was reasonable to be disappointed in Bridgewater’s performance that year. And trying to upgrade the position also made sense. The Panthers nearly had a deal done to get Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions, in exchange for Bridgewater and the No. 8 draft pick, before the Rams outbid them.
But when that deal fell through, the Panthers should have kept Bridgewater for one more year and parted ways with him after the 2021 season. Instead, with the Stafford deal done, and Houston refusing to engage in trade talks for Deshaun Watson, the Panthers traded for Darnold, and then traded away Bridgewater to Denver.
The Panthers received only a sixth-round pick from the Broncos for Bridgewater and paid $7 million of his salary in 2021. He accounted for $17 million in dead cap.
Bridgewater, in 2020 with the Panthers and 2021 for the Broncos, played much better than Darnold has. Darnold was 4-7 as a starter, while throwing nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Bridgewater was 7-7 as a starter, while throwing 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season.
Trading for Sam Darnold
Trading for Darnold last offseason was a gamble.
The fourth-year quarterback was coming off the worst season of his career where he threw nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 12 starts. The Jets went 2-10 with Darnold as a starter.
The Panthers were banking on his youth — he was 23 — and that he hadn’t fully tapped into his potential yet.
Rhule became interested in Darnold in the offseason after seeing film on the former No. 3 overall pick of the 2018 NFL draft in a defensive meeting. He saw some of Darnold’s ability to make throws. Rhule, then-offensive coordinator Joe Brady and others thought he could grow out of his mistakes. They thought, if given the weapons the Panthers had, he could perform well in Brady’s offense.
Darnold had a tendency to make mistakes. His feet often got choppy, his mechanics were off and he threw interceptions when faced with pressure.
But the Panthers had already decided they wanted to move on from Bridgewater. The Eagles traded Carson Wentz in February to the Colts. Stafford and Jared Goff were off the table after being swapped. And Deshaun Watson was unavailable.
Trading for Darnold was the next-best option. Or so they thought.
Acquiring him from the New York Jets wasn’t cheap. The Panthers traded away a 2021 sixth-round pick, a 2022 second-round pick and a 2022 fourth-round pick for Darnold.
With a need to build an offensive line, having those picks would have been critical to filling the Panthers’ biggest holes.
That decision and the one to pick up Darnold’s fifth-year option have been disastrous. Had Darnold played well, then the $18.9 million he is guaranteed in 2022 would have been low-end starter money, Rhule said.
“That was a collective decision,” he added.
Said Fitterer on Monday: “We wanted to show some confidence in him and we thought he’d come in and play at a consistent level.”
But Darnold didn’t. In Weeks 4-9, before suffering a cracked shoulder blade, he turned the ball over 11 times. The Panthers went 1-5 in that stretch. Now they’ll pay him $18.9 million next season in what will likely be a backup role.
Trading away Denzel Perryman
As well as the Panthers’ defense has played this year, they still had their weaknesses.
One of those was stopping the run. The Panthers ranked 18th in the league in rushing yards allowed (1,935) and 20th in rushing touchdowns allowed (16).
The Panthers signed Denzel Perryman last offseason to a cap-friendly two-year, $6 million deal to help at linebacker after former middle linebacker Tahir Whitehead struggled in 2020. Perryman was considered one of the better run stoppers in the league.
But he had never played a full season because of injuries. In training camp, his nagging injuries and lack of availability had become a growing source of frustration for Rhule. Perryman, who was dealing with a hip flexor and a foot injury, practiced only once in full pads at training camp, and was limited in OTAs.
The Panthers traded Perryman and a seventh-round pick to the Raiders for a sixth-round pick, leaving them with a limited linebacker room.
In Las Vegas, Perryman rejoined defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, who had previously coached him.
That move, in hindsight, was a mistake. Perryman ranked sixth in the NFL with 154 tackles. He also had five tackles for loss, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries and was voted to the Pro Bowl.
The Panthers, meanwhile, have to address their linebackers. Middle linebacker Jermaine Carter, who finished with 88 tackles, will be a free agent. While the Panthers could re-sign him, they would have had Perryman, a Pro Bowl-caliber player, on a friendly deal for at least another year without having to worry about filling the position.
Now it becomes one of their most important positions to fill.
Passing on a quarterback or offensive lineman in 2021 draft
In two seasons under Rhule, the Panthers haven’t been able to figure out their quarterback situation.
Their offensive line hasn’t been good, either. And because of that, it will be their top priority to fix this offseason. But the Panthers could have fixed at least one of those two issues in the 2021 NFL draft.
There were three quality options that addressed those two needs when the Panthers picked eighth in 2021: They could have chosen quarterback Justin Fields (now with the Bears), Mac Jones (Patriots) or left tackle Rashawn Slater (Chargers).
Fields and Jones have both had their rookie struggles. But Fields hasn’t had protection, and Jones has the Patriots in the playoffs. Slater is a Pro Bowl left tackle as a rookie.
Left tackle was — and has been since Jordan Gross retired in 2013 — a weak spot this past season. Slater could have strengthened that. But the Panthers viewed him more as a guard because of his shorter than average arm length and didn’t want to draft a guard in the top 10.
The Panthers took South Carolina cornerback Jaycee Horn instead. Horn looks like he has potential, but suffered a broken foot in Week 3 and missed the rest of the season.
Even without Horn, the Panthers’ secondary had a decent year. They ranked fourth in the league in passing yards allowed per game (192.8).
The Panthers were able to get something from rookie Brady Christensen, who they view as a starter for next year, either at guard or left tackle. The third-round pick started the final two games at left tackle and held his own.
Perhaps he can address that need.
But the Panthers still must figure out what position he’ll play, the rest of their offensive line, as well as what they must do at quarterback.
“We have to build the backbone of our team. I don’t think we can win without having a dominant front-seven, offensive line performance,” Rhule said. “Obviously we’ve invested more on defense than offensive line.
“Until we can control the line of scrimmage, it will be hard to win.”
Rhule’s job depends on it.
