3 keys to victory for the Carolina Panthers at Saints in Week 17
By Noah Bryce
Carolina Panthers must pick a QB
The two-quarterback system is a failed experiment that keeps getting dug out of its rightful grave over and over again because surely it will work this time, right?
Don’t think about the fact it has never been successful at the NFL level apart from a Don Shula-led Miami Dolphins team. Forget that it is barely serviceable in college or the CFL. This is what will bring us a championship because we are different.
Turns out, we aren’t.
Sunday proved that for the Carolina Panthers.
The system itself comes from the idea that you are not fully confident in either player for one reason or another and so you play to what the coaching staff is confident with. But that’s where the problems start.
Moving past the obvious issues with rhythm from the quarterback’s perspective, this constant switching is a nightmare for the other members of the offense and especially the linemen.
Sam Darnold is a true pocket passer at his core and Cam Newton is the ultimate scrambler. The two couldn’t be farther apart and blocking is treated entirely differently for both players and they struggled accordingly as the protection crumbled around them.
Protecting the quarterback has already been an issue, why make it worse?
For Darnold, it is all about keeping a clean pocket.
For Newton, it’s about opening running lanes.
Even the way the two throw the ball and which receivers they target are different. Picking a leader and sticking with them is the only way that a team can build chemistry and perform to their highest ability. Every time that signal-caller is changed it resets the clock on building that connection.
There are no good options on this roster right now. But the Panthers have to pick one and lie in the grave they have dug for themselves.