Baker Mayfield will undoubtedly begin as the Carolina Panthers’ No. 2 quarterback on July 27 when training camp starts, given that he’s months behind in learning the playbook and he has barely met any of his teammates.
But he doesn’t plan on staying No. 2 for long.
“When you’re at any level as high as this … nobody has the mentality of being a backup,” Mayfield said in his first news conference as a Panther on Tuesday.
Mayfield and Sam Darnold will have an open competition for the No. 1 quarterback spot throughout training camp and the preseason, which will make Carolina’s three exhibition games much more interesting than usual. But make no mistake — Mayfield was hired to be a No. 1 quarterback, and now he has to prove he’s worthy of that by beating out Sam Darnold. That’s Job 1.
The Panthers lost trust in Darnold last season, first trying to replace him with Cam Newton 2.0 in 2021, then with Deshaun Watson this offseason (thankfully that didn’t work out) and then with the guy Watson replaced as the franchise quarterback in Cleveland.
Mayfield, who will wear No. 6 at Carolina just as he did at Cleveland, sounded and acted like a No. 1 quarterback in his first meeting with the local media Tuesday. He “won” the press conference, if you believe in that sort of thing. He was confident without being cocky; playful without being silly. He interspersed serious football talk with some peeks into his personal life (he’s never eaten at Bojangles but is looking forward to it; there will be no Progressive Insurance commercials filmed in Bank of America Stadium, though Mayfield lamented this as a “missed opportunity” to show everyone the hassles of moving).
But after the initial euphoria over the Panthers acquiring Mayfield from Cleveland so late in the offseason game — for only a fifth-round draft pick! In 2024! And he gave up $3.5 million of guaranteed money to get it done! — wears off for everyone, only one thing will matter.
Can he win here?
If you had a nickel for every time the words “fresh start” were used in the Zoom press conferences of Mayfield and general manager Scott Fitterer on Tuesday, you’d have enough money for your own Bojangles biscuit.
“This will be a fresh start for him here,” Fitterer said of Mayfield. “It doesn’t matter what he’s done in the past.”
Well, it matters a little, in a “the past can be prologue” sort of way.
After Mayfield led the Browns to the playoffs in 2020 in what was by far the best of his first four seasons, Cleveland became a trendy Super Bowl preseason pick for 2021. Instead, the Browns fell to 8-9, with Mayfield playing poorly and through an assortment of injuries (left non-throwing shoulder, rib and foot).
Mayfield said Tuesday he was too “stubborn” not to try to play through injury in 2021, but it didn’t go well. A “down year,” Fitterer pronounced it. Mayfield’s 6-8 record in Cleveland as a starter meant he fell below .500 for his career, at 29-30. Darnold, for reference, is 17-32.
It was that poor performance that led Mayfield to Charlotte for such a cheap price, because the Browns grew disenchanted with him. Cleveland then gave Watson the most player-friendly contract in NFL history — outbidding the Panthers and a couple of other suitors — despite the fact that Watson is expected to be suspended soon by the NFL for his many off-field issues.
Mayfield said the offseason was a startling lesson in NFL economics for him.
“Shocked, I’d say, was pretty much the only way to describe it,” Mayfield said. “But you roll with the punches and you’ve got to move forward.”
Darnold, for his part, has tried to defuse a potentially awkward situation by obtaining Mayfield’s number and reaching out to him the day after the Panthers traded for him.
“That’s just who he is,” said Mayfield of Darnold, who went No. 3 in the same 2018 draft in which Mayfield, a former Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma, went No. 1. “Great guy. You can write whatever story you want about him, but he’s a good guy that wants to help his team win. And he loves football.”
Mayfield certainly gives the Panthers more juice, and the trade was a cost-effective way for Carolina to try to stabilize the very unstable quarterback position. We’ve seen this before in the Matt Rhule era. This is the third offseason in a row in which Carolina has tried to acquire its starting QB on the fly. Teddy Bridgewater and Darnold were the first two, and in both cases they limped to five-win seasons.
Now it will be Mayfield’s turn — eventually. Before the home season opener vs. Cleveland on Sept. 11, almost certainly.
“I feel like the team is very close to being really, really good,” Mayfield said.
We’re about to find out.
