After four games, the Panthers may or may not be willing to pull the plug on the Baker-Mayfield experiment. After Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Cardinals, which is now 3-1, Carolina hasn’t gotten much performance from the former Browns quarterback this year, and his two Week 4 interceptions helped make the offensive fail bring to. After that, coach Matt Rhule was unwilling to predict changes in position, but was also unwilling to rule out any, leaving the door open for Mayfield to be benched ahead of Week 5.
“I’m going to forgo anything big until tomorrow,” Rhule said, per NFL.com. “At the end of the day I’m on the headset, I see things, I know it’s never just one person here, one person there, it’s a lot of different things, so I’ll try to give you a really well thought out one.” Answer after watching the tapes. Apart from that I think we can play better. I just feel like as an attack we need to expect more from all of us and it starts with me first.
“We need to fix it,” Rhule continued, “but in relation to one person, I just don’t think it’s right to talk about it now.”
“In the moment” is of course the key phrase. The Panthers are obviously 1-3 this year – and now a combined 11-26 under Rhule – for many reasons. But QB has been the most stable and/or obvious problem for the club since Rhule took over. It’s also not as if Mayfield entered with surefire job security, competing with former Jets exile Sam Darnold for the preseason starting job. In four games with the Panthers, Mayfield has thrown four touchdowns and three interceptions, completed just 54 percent of his passes, and posted a 74.98 QB rating, one of the worst among active starters.
When asked Sunday whether Darnold, who is recovering from a preseason sprained ankle, would be available as a backup in the coming weeks, Rhule didn’t specify when Mayfield’s predecessor could return. The only other active QB on the Panthers depth chart is backup PJ Walker, who served primarily as the No. 3 signal caller.