Ranking the 7 worst contracts in Carolina Panthers history
By Jason Huber
Teddy Bridgewater – Former Carolina Panthers QB
- Signed three-year, $63 million deal in 2020
The addition of Teddy Bridgewater to replace Cam Newton has turned out to be a pretty bad one.
When many fans thought the Carolina Panthers would draft a quarterback or enter a rebuilding phase, the organization decided to sign Bridgewater despite his history of never really being a game-changing player.
Bridgewater has had a solid career but has to have good pieces around him to succeed. The Panthers gave up on the former first-round pick after one mediocre season and traded him to the Denver Broncos for nothing more than a sixth-round selection and a ton of dead-cap money.
Fortunately, the contract was revised, allowing Bridgewater to be a free agent this year. But Carolina was still stuck with $17 million on their cap for a signal-caller that was plying his trade somewhere else.
They also had to pay him $33 million in his only season with the team that led to a 5-11 record. To Bridgewater’s credit, he did help receivers D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson have career seasons but he couldn’t come up big when it mattered most late in games.
This one doesn’t affect the Panthers long-term but it was very unnecessary. And in hindsight, they might have been better with Bridgewater rather than trading for Sam Darnold.