4 areas Panthers QB Baker Mayfield must improve in Week 4 vs. Cardinals

Baker Mayfield must improve 3rd down efficiency

Staying on the field has been a problem for the Carolina Panthers on offense. Third-down efficiency has been an ongoing frustration throughout Matt Rhule’s tenure as head coach and this doesn’t appear to be improving with Baker Mayfield under center.

Again, this is down to Ben McAdoo’s scheme more than anything. Although there is plenty of blame to go around based on their first three games of the campaign.

The Panthers are converting just 27.03 percent of their third downs, which is ranked No. 31 across the league. Unless this changes in the coming weeks, it’s going to make life extremely difficult in the face of some stern opposition.

Bad play-calling, no invention, and poor execution have all played their part. But at the end of the day, Mayfield was not brought into the fold for the same complications we witnessed under Sam Darnold to emerge.

Hopefully, this gets better with familiarity for all parties involved. However, Mayfield is now almost a month into the regular season, so it’s time to put up or shut up.

The Heisman Trophy winner was the first to admit that his performance levels haven’t been good enough. Becoming effective on third downs would go a long to turning Mayfield’s situation around.