We’re just four games into the 2022 season and the Carolina Panthers already might be souring on their Baker Mayfield experiment.
Buy Panthers TicketsFollowing Sunday’s 26-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, one in which his offense looked as broken as ever, head coach Matt Rhule took the podium for a somber press conference. He was asked if Mayfield, who struggled mightily throughout the outing, was in danger of being benched.
“Nah. I didn’t think about that today. I was just kinda in the moment like, ‘Hey, go to the next drive,'” Rhule said. “Obviously, I know it wasn’t good enough. And I know the numbers aren’t what they need to be—in a lot of different areas. I have to, even as I said to the team, go back and see, ‘Hey, why is this happening? Why are we not playing better than this?’ I know we have the personnel on offense to make plays and it’s just not coming together the way it needs to.”
Mayfield—in yet another disappointing performance filled with overthrown passes and batted down balls—completed 22 of his 36 attempts for 197 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The offense as a whole, in turn, amassed only 220 total yards and converted on just two of their ten third-down tries against what had been a terribly generous Arizona defense.
So, if Rhule wasn’t thinking of replacing Mayfield in this game, will he do it for next one? With Sam Darnold eligible to be activated from injured reserve this week, ESPN’s David Newton asked if a switch is already in order.
“Yeah, I don’t have any thoughts about anything moving forward yet,” Rhule replied. “I can talk right now, really, about this game. I don’t know anything in terms of anybody health-wise. So, I can’t make any comments on that. For me right now, obviously, we’re gonna go back, we’re gonna watch the tape, we’re gonna try to get these things corrected. Usually on Monday, I’ll give you guys some better answers in terms of exactly what we’ll try to do moving forward.”
Monday’s presser should be interesting then, huh?
