Will the Carolina Panthers regret passing on QB Justin Fields?

Will the Carolina Panthers regret passing on Justin Fields?

All this depends on whether or not Sam Darnold can reignite his career with the Carolina Panthers over the next two years. The organization placed a significant amount of faith in him doing just this after picking up his fifth-year option and judging by the talent currently on the roster, the USC product could have landed in far worse spots.

It won’t take long for the murmurings of discontent to emerge if Darnold starts poorly in Carolina. This is a fanbase who are still less than pleased with the treatment of former signal-caller Cam Newton after the team decided to sign Teddy Bridgewater in free agency last year, so if the revolving carousel of mediocre quarterbacks continues with their latest No. 1, doubts will creep in almost instantly.

Hopefully, Darnold can thrive and become the sort of player everyone expected when he entered the league. But even that might not be enough if Justin Fields develops into a Pro Bowl or better player that leads the Chicago Bears into legitimate Super Bowl contention.

There are so many ifs and buts to this situation, it’s too hard to tell at this stage just exactly how things are going to play out.

Carolina won’t regret taking Jaycee Horn if he emerges as the shutdown cornerback they’ve been searching for. But they will be casting an envious glance at Fields if he turns into an elite player in the coming years.