It was a beautiful afternoon in Charlotte. Matt Rhule sat in his office with his coaching staff, who were all celebrating the arrival of Baker Mayfield.
“Well, guys, we got him,” Rhule beamed while looking out the window at his half-constructed practice facility. “Baker is the guy we wanted all along. If you had told us three years ago that we would have Baker Mayfield AND Sam Darnold on our roster, you would be dreaming. But that’s our quarterback room!”
Everyone nodded in approval until offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo raised his hand.
“Yeah, remember when they thought we wanted Kirk Cousins?” McAdoo quipped. “How stupid is that? Like we want to go .500!”
The room burst out in laughter. Rhule dropped down to one knee thinking about having Cousins as his quarterback. Then, the laughter faded. Tears rolled down his cheeks. And the truth began to sink in.
“We are so screwed,” Rhule shrieked. “We should have taken Cousins when we had the chance! I mean, did you see what Sam looked like last year? And Baker? Oh my God! I’m going to be fetching Steve Sarkesian’s coffee at Texas next fall. THEY LOST TO KANSAS! I AM RUINED!!”
This is why the Panthers should have just traded for Cousins. For all the ways Vikings fans can pick away at his game, he brings enough to the table for a team like the Panthers to compete in the NFC South. Instead, it’s an example of what not to do when building a quarterback room.
Rhule took on a massive rebuilding project when he arrived in Carolina. His previous history in the NFL and a reputation for rebuilding programs at the collegiate level convinced David Tepper to give him a 7-year, $62 million contract. Rhule was the man in charge until he needed to start making decisions.
His first draft class was comprised entirely of defensive players. Rhule handed Christian McCaffrey a 4-year, $64 million contract. He worked on just about every aspect of the roster, but he still didn’t have a quarterback.
Teddy Bridgewater was the first man up, but he couldn’t regain the form that made him a first-round pick in Minnesota. Instead of using a top-10 pick to take Mac Jones or Justin Fields in the following draft, they traded a sixth-round pick in 2021 and second- and fourth-round picks in 2022 for Darnold.
The trade was predictably horrific; Rhule eventually benched Darnold for XFL legend P.J. Walker. After Walker failed, the Panthers came crawling back to Cam Newton, who provided eight games of nostalgia. Suddenly, the Panthers were back at the quarterback wheel of death.
It’s a stark contrast to what Kevin O’Connell inherited in Minnesota. Cousins’ tendencies drove Mike Zimmer crazy, but there was enough to work with to make him an effective quarterback. Cousins threw for at least 4,000 yards and at least 30 touchdowns in three of his four seasons with the Vikings. In the season he failed to meet those numbers, the Vikings went 10-6 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs.
You can win with a quarterback like Cousins. You can’t win trotting out a quarterback who sees ghosts.
Having Cousins as the incumbent put the Vikings at an advantage this offseason. While Kwesi-Adofo Mensah may have been investigating a possible upgrade at quarterback, he didn’t have to get one like the Panthers did. If the Vikings didn’t see something they liked, they could just sign Cousins to a short extension — which is exactly what they did.
Carolina didn’t have that option. Instead, they went into a weak free-agent market and had no picks to make a blockbuster trade after landing Darnold the previous offseason. That left them short of the capital they needed to get Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, or Carson Wentz. They even came up short in the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes, although that looks like a blessing in disguise.
Their situation forced them to dive into one of the weakest quarterback draft classes in recent memory. Not only that, they had to trade into the third round to take Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral. If things weren’t looking bleak enough, the Panthers also had to make the trade for Mayfield.
In the end, the Panthers spent a 2021 sixth-round pick, a 2022 second-round pick, two 2022 fourth-round picks, a 2023 third-round pick, and a 2023 fifth-round pick to wind up with a quarterback room of Darnold, Corral, and Mayfield.
Consider that the Washington Commanders acquired Wentz for two third-round picks. Or that the Indianapolis Colts snagged Ryan for a third-round pick. There was value to be had, but the Panthers whiffed so many times they didn’t have the assets to acquire it.
Maybe Mayfield, who went 10-6 two years ago, can help them compete in the NFC South. Perhaps Rhule will find a way to save his job. These are both things that are possible. But they would have been a lot better off had they just traded for Cousins.
