Panthers GM Voices Displeasure With Sam Darnold

The Sam Darnold experience has been an absolute rollercoaster for Carolina Panthers fans.

Trading for him was a nice low-risk move. Picking up his fifth year option seemed like a reckless use of $18 million in cap space. His play through the first three weeks of the season made picking up his option look like a terrific move. Then he played like Sam Darnold for the rest of the season.

Now, despite Darnold carrying such a heavy cap hit this season, Panthers GM Scott Fitterer has made it clear that the team is ready to move on.

Scott Fitterer: Panthers aiming for "best available" with No. 6 pick but will "be aggressive" in adding a QBhttps://t.co/7nr36JymPA pic.twitter.com/rivoOWz408
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) March 3, 2022

Picking No. 6 overall puts Carolina in a great spot to draft Darnold's replacement, though this isn't necessarily the best year to be looking for a franchise QB. After five players were clear first-round picks at the position in 2021, there's a lot less excitement in the 2022 class.

There's more consensus in the class quality (you won't find many mock drafts with a QB going in the top five) than there is about who the best QB prospect is.

Ultimately if the Panthers are going QB at No. 6, you'd have to imagine that either Kenny Pickett, Matt Corral or maybe even Malik Willis is the pick. There's an outside shot that UNC's Sam Howell moves up draft boards too.

They're not the most exciting players in the world, but after watching Darnold throw for 2,527 yards with 9 touchdowns and 13 interceptions across 11 starts, any of them would give Panthers fans reason for increased optimism.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.