Let’s help Sam win: The theme to the Panthers’ 2021 NFL draft was all about Darnold
If there was an underlying theme to the Carolina Panthers’ just-completed 2021 NFL draft, it was this:
Let’s make sure new quarterback Sam Darnold has every chance to succeed, and I do mean every chance.
Rather than choose a top-flight rookie quarterback to engage in a high-profile QB competition with Darnold — and there was an opening to take either Ohio State’s Justin Fields or Alabama’s Mac Jones with the No. 8 overall pick — the Panthers ended up going with six offensive players at other positions to help Darnold score points.
By the time Saturday was over, the Panthers had set out a groaning buffet of “Let’s help Sam win” draft picks: two offensive linemen, two wide receivers, one tight end and one running back. But they never picked a QB, even with what turned out to be 11 overall draft picks.
Darnold’s backup will be P.J. Walker, just as Bridgewater’s was last year.
Couple that with the Panthers’ trade of Teddy Bridgewater earlier in the week to Denver and Carolina’s option-year pickup of Darnold’s contract for a cool $18.6 million in 2022 and this is what you have: A Carolina organization fully committed to a QB who went 13-25 in three spotty seasons with the New York Jets.
There are no complete guarantees in the NFL. But the Panthers have come very close now to guaranteeing that Darnold, the former No. 3 pick of the 2018 draft, will be in Charlotte and be the team’s starter at least through the 2022 season.
As I’ve written before, I thought Carolina’s trade for Darnold was so weird it’s actually going to work.
But whether it works or not, Panther fans will need to get used to No. 14. He’s going to be here for a while — longer than Bridgewater, at least — for better or for worse.
With those six new offensive draft picks, along with returners Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, Robby Anderson (who Darnold loved with the Jets) and several new free agents, Carolina is attempting to make Darnold’s transition as easy as possible. The turf at Bank of America Stadium will be newly artificial in the fall, but the offensive talent running on top of it will be very real.
Said Panthers coach Matt Rhule on Saturday night the draft: “We brought Sam here because we believe that he could win for us. … It should be fun from here. All I want Sam to do is just take it one day at a time. Everything doesn’t have to be a referendum on whether he’s a great quarterback or not. He just needs to come into the building and work every day.”
As for the Panthers ending up selecting those half-dozen offensive players in the 2021 NFL draft, Rhule said: “I believe the quarterback position is really, really important. But I also believe great teams win. I think Sam is going to be as good as the guys around him. And we tried to put a lot of really good players around him.”
The six offensive players Carolina picked were LSU wideout Terrace Marshall Jr. (2nd); BYU offensive tackle Brady Christensen (3rd); Notre Dame tight end Tommy Tremble (3rd); Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard (4th); Alabama offensive guard Deonte Brown (6th) and South Carolina wide receiver Shi Smith (7th).
Rhule said later that Hubbard, the flashy running back that the Panthers picked at No. 126 overall, would have also been the team’s pick at 109 before Carolina made its fifth trade of the draft.
Hubbard, who had an extraordinary 2,094-yard rushing season in 2019 before being hampered by a high ankle sprain in 2020, could be the top backup for Christian McCaffrey. Christensen will have a good shot at starting at tackle, either this year or next. Marshall will immediately add playmaking ability to an already strong wide receiver room.
“We obviously established some needs,” Rhule said. “We felt like we needed a running back. We felt like we needed to have some big powerful guys on the offensive line. We felt like we needed some weapons at receiver.”
After a rare defense-only draft in 2020, this time Carolina threw draft picks at all of those positions on offense. And they also picked a tight end, where Tremble is a receiving project but one who will help quickly as a run-blocker.
All of it is designed to get the Panthers scoring more points, which will take some of the pressure off the defense and will make Carolina a better team.
All of it is designed to get Darnold — once so highly regarded that he was selected before both Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft — back to the player that people thought he could be on that draft day three years ago.
So if I’m Sam Darnold today, after all of that, I’m feeling one emotion above all others:
Gratefulness.
This story was originally published May 1, 2021 at 8:03 PM.
