New Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo emphatically stated “yes” on Tuesday when asked whether Sam Darnold was his starting quarterback and added that the third pick of the 2018 draft was one reason he took this job.
Seconds later, the former New York Giants head coach tempered his yes by adding that coach Matt Rhule has a say over the decision but that “the way it is in the building right now, Sam is our starting quarterback.”
Darnold and P.J. Walker are the only quarterbacks under contract for 2022, and the Panthers are vetting quarterbacks as candidates for the No. 6 pick in the draft.
“One of the things I’ve been working on is being better
talking to you people [media], so announcing the starting quarterback here I
just put my foot in my mouth,” said McAdoo, who was fired by the Giants
after the 2017 season.
“That wasn’t something I should have said.”
But McAdoo has liked parts of Darnold’s game since the New York Jets drafted him No. 3 out of USC.
He told the New York Post in 2018 that Darnold had a “lot of magic in his game,” although he wondered aloud whether Darnold ever would be the franchise-saver the Jets needed him to be. At the time, he couldn’t get past the flaws in Darnold’s throwing mechanics and ball security.
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“I think he’s special,” McAdoo told the Post.
“He’s obviously a talented guy, he can make plays with his feet. I’d just
have a hard time drafting a guy in the first round where you don’t necessarily
like the way he throws.
“He can overcome it, guys have, but that’s something
that’s a challenge for me. I’m gonna be looking at that, trying to fix it,
because it’s a fundamental flaw, and I believe in the fundamentals. The
quarterback, his No. 1 job is to pass the football. If I don’t like the way he
throws the ball, I have a hard time picking him, right?”
But in a sense McAdoo picked Darnold when choosing to come to Carolina after spending last campaign as a consultant for the Dallas Cowboys.
“Sam does have some magic in his game,” McAdoo
said in his first interview since being hired on Jan. 24. “He’s got some
athleticism to him. I’m excited to work with Sam. We’ve been working the last
few days here to get up to speed on offense, and he’s shown flashes of being a
good player in this league.”
That doesn’t mean the Panthers are more likely to take a left tackle than a quarterback at No. 6. They’ve spent the past few months evaluating quarterbacks and used seven of their 30 official visits on the position.
The Panthers have had visits with — Liberty’s Malik Willis, Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, Ole Miss’ Matt Corral, Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, North Carolina’s Sam Howell, Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe and Nevada’s Carson Strong.
Willis, Pickett and Corral, according to draft analysts, are
the most likely to go in the first round, with Pickett considered best prepared
to be a Day 1 starter in the NFL.
McAdoo doesn’t put a lot of stock in being game ready.
McAdoo appears open to Darnold being his starter despite reports the Panthers are interested in trading for Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. League sources told ESPN that the team simply has been doing due diligence on the position and that if such a trade occurred, it would be after the draft.
McAdoo said in the 2018 Post article that Mayfield had an
“edge” about him but that he didn’t see “a lot of pro-style
football in his tape.”
McAdoo declined to talk about Mayfield on Tuesday.
“I’d love to comment on your question, but
this isn’t my first rodeo,” McAdoo said. “I’m going to keep the comments
to players on our roster right now.”
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