And it’s not like that decision was a difficult one for the Panthers—Baker Mayfield built a sizable lead relatively quickly, and held it throughout. But I do think, in a subtle way, it was important that he earn the job the way he did in camp.
The fact is, there are plenty of reps to go around over the summer, and Mayfield was just getting there when the team reconvened in July. Sam Darnold was with his teammates through the spring and had made nice progress in Ben McAdoo’s offense. So doing it this way allowed for Mayfield to win the locker room, put some skins on the wall and earn his place among the team’s leaders.
That started, by the way, almost right away, with Mayfield’s command of the offense coming out of his first couple of weeks as a Panther (a dead period in the calendar during which all the coaches could really do with him was hand him the playbook) and into the first days of camp. It showed his football aptitude, and also his drive to catch up with his teammates mentally with a really big year for him on tap.
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The Panthers’ logic in getting Mayfield was to get their heads back above water at the most important position on the field. But after a month of working with him, the Panthers have hope that, maybe, Mayfield could give them a little bit more than that.
