Matt Rhule reveals why he's excited for Baker Mayfield, Panthers quarterback competition
The Carolina Panther’s quarterback room got a lot more interesting after they signed former Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield earlier this month. With camp right around the corner, head coach Matt Rhule talked about the current state of his quarterback room.
“Well I always look my job is to put as many good players and good coaches in the rooms and then give them the opportunity to battle it out, and I really like our quarterback room. We have Sam Darnold who’s been our starter, who had an excellent spring and talking to him this summer, Sam’s had an excellent summer, so we have Sam. We add in Baker Mayfield, who took Cleveland to the playoffs, won a playoff game, set the rookie touchdown record, to add him that’s another starting caliber quarterback,” Rhule said.
Rhule also touched on some of his more under the radar quarterback talent in rookie Matt Corral and veteran PJ Walker.
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“Matt Corral is a young guy that we drafted that we really like and have a lot of hope for and I expect him to come compete. I showed up to the stadium last night and Matt was in there working out back in Charlotte getting ready, and so that’s another guy. And then obviously PJ Walker is a guy that we’ve asked him to start for us twice, and twice PJ has gone out and won. Not many teams have four quality players like that, and it’s gonna be a lot of great competition, and to be quite honest with you Nick I think it’ll be really good for our team, the competition,” Rhule said.
Many have wondered how Darnold, who started eleven games for the Panthers last season, is handling the acquisition of Mayfield, to which Rhule said ‘the ultimate professional’.
“Sam’s an amazing person, he’s an awesome person first of all, he’s also a competitor, he’s determined to play his best football this year. So I’ve seen nothing but positive things from Sam since the end of last season to the way he showed up in the spring, to what he did in the spring, until now,” Rhule said. “I’m not gonna share a lot of my conversations with guys, but when we let him know that we were making this move, he handled it like the ultimate team guy and the ultimate professional. I think he’s taken very much a ‘hey I’m gonna control what I control and that’s the way that I play’ and so I look forward to him playing great football this camp.”
Aside from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who are a clear favorite, the NFC South is really an open battle, and the quarterback position for the Panthers could serve as the key factor in competing in that division. The Panthers first day of training camp is July 27 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.