Sam Darnold has chance to hit reset button with Carolina Panthers

Sam Darnold is on his way to the Carolina Panthers and now has the opportunity to prove that all he needed was a change of scenery. 

The Carolina Panthers answered their question at quarterback by trading for former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.

It’s hard to really gauge what kind of NFL quarterback Darnold is considering how bad the Jets were during his three years there and how little talent he had surrounding him. Throw in the terrible coaching and we really don’t know much about Darnold and who he is as a signal caller.

Darnold will have a chance to turn his narrative into a positive one. He’ll be able to do so with the Panthers, who traded 2021 sixth-rounder and 2022 second and fourth-round picks to the Jets in exchange for the former USC Trojan.

Sam Darnold can display what kind of quarterback he really is with the Carolina Panthers.

In three years with the Jets, Darnold started no more than 13 games and only threw for over 3,000 yards once (2019 when he tossed for 3,024 yards) and never had more than 19 touchdowns (again, this came in 2019). He also threw double digit interceptions in all three seasons.

These numbers aren’t great, but Darnold rarely had talent around him and when his receivers were finally healthy near the end of the 2020 season, we saw that he could be a decent quarterback. His offensive line was also a mess, leading to him getting sacked at least 30 times in each of his three seasons.

When there isn’t talent to throw to, a decent offensive line to offer protection, or a worthwhile coach to help assist with sidestepping those things, of course a young quarterback is going to struggle. The Jets weren’t a good fit for Darnold and now he’ll get a fresh start with a team who wants to have him and wants him to succeed.

The Panthers have talent on offense, including former Jets wide receiver Robby Anderson, who played with Darnold for two years in New York. There’s also Christian McCaffrey and D.J. Moore to help Darnold out and hopefully, the Panthers make offensive weapons a point of emphasis in the 2021 NFL Draft.

With Darnold landing somewhere new, the rest of the NFL will finally know if his struggles were a result of the Jets organization or if he really doesn’t have what it takes to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL. For Carolina’s sake, hopefully it’s the former.