At the last minute, Panthers coach Matt Rhule decided to sit his starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater against the Lions and give backup P.J. Walker his first career start instead.
After the game, Rhule said putting Bridgewater on the field didn’t feel right given the history of his other knee. It was the right call. Resting Bridgewater made sure Carolina didn’t run the risk of injuring its QB1 for no good reason like the previous coaching staff did with Cam Newton. It also gave the organization a chance to see what Walker could do and he didn’t disappoint.
Walker made a few mistakes in the red zone, leading to two end-zone interceptions. However, he also showed a lot of promise, including a beautiful deep pass and some exceptional ball placement. He also made a few eye-catching throws on the run. Here are Walker’s most impressive plays against Detroit.
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Walker finished the game 24/34 for 258 yards, one touchdown, two picks and a 77.8 passer rating.
As for the distribution, Walker leanded heavily on the team’s top trio of wide receivers. D.J. Moore, Curtis Samuel and Robby Anderson all got at least nine targets. Nobody else saw more than two. It worked out pretty well. Those three combined for for 22 catches, 243 yards and a score.
Here is a look at Walker’s passing chart from Next Gen Stats.
Since he was so close to playing against the Lions, most likely we will see Bridgewater return to lineup next week to face the Vikings, who originally drafted him.
Tempting as a potential Teddy Bridgewater revenge game sounds, we wouldn’t mind Walker starting again to see if he can clean up those goal line mistakes and build on the good things he did against Detroit. That would give Bridgewater an additional two weeks of rest and recovery counting the Week 13 bye.
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