4 pros and cons to the Panthers trading for Sam Darnold
By Dean Jones
The underwhelming factor
This offseason sees fans of the Carolina Panthers dreaming of a trade involving Deshaun Watson. The Houston Texans quarterback is clearly unhappy with the state of the organization and although it’s going to take a king’s ransom for them to even consider shipping their face of the franchise, they would be wise to maximize the player’s value as early as possible.
Carolina has probably already put in a call to Houston, which is in keeping with Scott Fitterer’s in on every deal approach to his first few weeks in the job. However, the fact they are asking about and making offers for other players of interest might indicate that the asking price is simply too rich for the Panthers’ blood at this stage of their rebuild.
Should they manage to work out a deal for Darnold, there might be an underwhelming response from large sections of the fanbase who were thinking bigger. Landing someone like Watson is a once in a lifetime opportunity and ending up with a clearly inferior player – albeit at much less of a cost – would pile even more pressure on him to make a strong start.
If it’s clear from the outset that Darnold is never going to live up to expectations coming out of college, it won’t be long before the support starts turning not only on the signal-caller but also on those in power who opted to bring him on board.
This might be a little harsh. But it’s the sad nature of the beast and nobody will know what’s at stake more than the Panthers themselves.