Baker Mayfield beats out Sam Darnold as Carolina Panthers' starting quarterback
Mark one NFL quarterback competition as resolved.
The Carolina Panthers announced Monday morning that Baker Mayfield, the 2018 No. 1 overall draft pick for whom they traded in July, has beaten incumbent Sam Darnold for the starting job.
"When we started this process, we were looking at three things," Panthers coach Matt Rhule said Monday in a story posted to the franchise's official website. "Number one, mastery of the offense, number two, situational football excellence, and number three, moving the ball and getting guys involved. That's been our focus all along.
"Baker has made a lot of improvement, a lot of growth in all three areas in a short amount of time."
Mayfield will make his Carolina regular season debut Week 1 Sept. 11 in Charlotte against his former team, the Cleveland Browns.
In four seasons for the Browns, Mayfield played mostly well, battling through injuries and a roster and front office that underwent a complete overhaul. In Cleveland, he completed 61.6% of his throws for 14,125 yards with 92 touchdowns against 56 interceptions. He was a key figure in the 2020 season, when the Browns went 11-5 and snapped a 17-year playoff drought.
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The Browns, however, opted to go in a different direction and traded for quarterback Deshaun Watson in March.
Carolina sent a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024 in the deal for Mayfield, while Cleveland agreed to pay about $10.5 million of Mayfield's $18.885 million contract to complete the deal.
Last season for the Panthers, his first in Carolina, Darnold appeared in 12 games and started 11 of them. He had a hot start to the season, in part because of his success in rushing the ball and scoring through the ground, but his play declined as the season wore on. He finished the year completing 59.9% of his passes for 2,527 yards with nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He also posted 222 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns.
The Panthers also have quarterbacks PJ Walker and rookie Matt Corral on the roster, though Corral suffered a torn Lisfranc ligament Friday in his left foot. The injury is expected to keep Corral sidelined for a significant time, perhaps the entire season.
"All along, we've felt like we need to have a really strong quarterback room, and have every quarterback ready to play," Rhule said. "The reality of this league is most teams will play multiple quarterbacks. Sam has worked incredibly hard, played really well for us during training camp, and will be ready to go if and when it's needed."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baker Mayfield named Carolina Panthers' starting QB over Sam Darnold
