On Wednesday, the Carolina Panthers finally found themselves a certifiable upgrade under center. But how much of an upgrade is it?
Former league executive Scott Pioli joined NFL Total Access after the trade of Baker Mayfield to discuss precisely that. He first, however, noted how slick of a deal it was for the Panthers.
“Right off the top, the trade compensation for Carolina is terrific,” said Pioli, who does know a thing or two about swaps. “If you can give up only a fifth-round pick—that’s potentially a fourth-round pick—and only have to pay around $4.85 million in cash for a guy that could potentially be your starting quarterback, that’s a win.”
The deal will see the Cleveland Browns pony up, alongside that $4.5 million in Carolina’s books, for $10.5 million of what was an $18.8 million salary for the former No. 1 overall pick. As for the remaining $3.5 million of that total—Mayfield agreed to trim off the amount from his base salary, but could earn it back through incentives.
Pioli then questioned how much juice they’ll actually get out of this efficient squeeze—and his answer may surprise you, in more ways than one.
“Now, my thoughts are—how much of an upgrade is this going to be?” he added. “As I view this, they’re going from an average NFL quarterback in Sam Darnold to an above-average NFL quarterback. Baker Mayfield has shown, at times, that he can be good. He has shown at times that he can be average, he can be less than average. Overall, I think he’s an above-average quarterback.”
Well, calling Darnold an “average quarterback” is one heck of a compliment. Considering he was far from that with the New York Jets and then bottomed out after the first month in Carolina, “average” is probably two or three tiers above what he’s actually been.
And hey, if the Panthers are getting a largely above-average quarterback in Mayfield, they should be sitting much prettier in 2022. Not since the first coming of Cam Newton has Carolina had a passer anything close to good.
As long as Mayfield can stave off Darnold and Matt Corral this summer, we’ll see which Baker—average, less than average or above average—this team gets.
