Well, well, well. Look who came crawling back.
The Panthers officially announced that they re-signed franchise legend Cam Newton as a quick fix to their quarterback issues — that really started when they got rid of Newton prior to the 2020 season.
At the time, moving on from Newton wasn’t a terrible idea. New head coach Matt Rhule wanted the opportunity to bring in his own guy, which isn’t an absurd premise on its own. All the Panthers had to do was competitively punt a year and they would have their own pick of the litter of a supremely talented 2021 rookie quarterback class.
Instead, they opted to rebuild while trying to be competitive at the same time. So, they sign Teddy Bridgewater, who played exactly like Teddy Bridgewater. Some lows, some highs, but in general, just not good enough to get the Panthers where they wanted to be.
Bridgewater also wasn’t bad enough to get the Panthers where they needed to be. Naturally, Rhule (who has a seven year deal!) and the Panthers panicked a bit after landing the eighth pick in the draft — where they still could have picked Justin Fields.
What does one do when they’re in a panic? They act irrationally, of course. The irrational move the Panthers made was trading a second round pick and change for Sam Darnold. Darnold largely had a woeful career with the Jets and has arguably been worse this season.
Darnold threw an interception on 3.2% of his passing attempts with the Jets, that number has jumped to 3.6% in his short time with the Panthers. His yards per attempt has dropped from 6.6 to 6.5. His touchdown percentage has dropped from 3.7% to 2.3%. Darnold is also posting the worst QBR of his career this year as well with a paltry 35.8.
The Panthers likely didn’t expect Darnold to get worse moving from the Jets to the Panthers, but it was a bit bold of them to trade legitimate draft capital for one of the worst quarterbacks in the league and expect that to work out. Even if Darnold didn’t suffer an injury to his shoulder, they still would have needed to make a move at quarterback before he completely tanked their season.
So what were the options? Deshaun Watson is a no-go until his legal situation is cleared up and it’s extremely difficult to find a starting caliber quarterback during the season.
The last option the Panthers had? Crawling back to the man they just let go of to usher in this new era of grotesque quarterback play. And that’s exactly what they did.
Newton hasn’t played since the preseason, but if his performance as a member of the Patriots is any indication, he’s easily the best quarterback on the team. That’s not exactly a strong endorsement considering he lost his job to Mac Jones, but Newton legitimately did have an impressive performance in the preseason.
Wanted to "check the tape" on Cam Newton's INT and while I do think Cam got a little fooled by the Creeper Cover 2 look the Giants played, I don't think you could ask for a much better throw with where he end up going on it. pic.twitter.com/Z91V3RzSlo
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) August 30, 2021
The Panthers are right back where they started and it’s entirely their own fault. They tried to accelerate a rebuild when they should have been patient, bringing Newton back home where it all started.
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