Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule gives a QB update at mini-camp
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00:00According to reports, Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Ruhl said this week that if the
00:04team played today, Sam Darnold would be their starting quarterback.
00:08However, he also added that if the team can make a significant upgrade at the quarterback
00:13position this offseason, they are leaving that door open.
00:17I'm Glennette Montana-Pattison with SI Right Now and joining me is Skyler Callahan of All
00:21Panthers on Fan Nation.
00:23Skyler, it's no secret that Sam Darnold got off to a rocky start in his first season with
00:29Carolina.
00:30In 2021, he threw nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 12 games played.
00:35Now, I know that you've been at the Panthers' facility, minicamp is going on right now.
00:39How has Darnold looked so far?
00:41Well, the first part of it was not very good.
00:44It was very rocky, but I think you could say that for all the quarterbacks there, Matt
00:47Ruhl, P.J.
00:48Walker, because they're installing a new offense with Ben McAdoo.
00:50So there's a lot of teaching going on, a lot of learning, and it was more thinking than
00:54it was playing.
00:56Last week, Sam Darnold had his best day that I've ever seen him with Carolina.
01:01Threw the ball extremely well, looked really good, looked confident.
01:04He's even had more of a swagger to himself this year.
01:07When he comes into the press conference room, he's actually talking to us, the reporters,
01:11instead of just going straight to the podium and not really looking at us.
01:15So he's got a different vibe to him, but this week, it was kind of a mixed bag.
01:20Today was not a good day, probably one of his worst days, if I'm being honest, and it's
01:25not, and like I told a couple of people down there, it's probably the worst time that he
01:29could have had, one of his worst days, considering today was the last day of minicamp.
01:34So they're going to go, Matt Ruhl's going to talk with Scott Fitterer in the next couple
01:38of days about the quarterback situation, see what they want to do.
01:42But I get the feeling they're not 100% sold on what they have in that room right now.
01:47Let's talk about that, because there have been some rumors that Baker Mayfield still
01:51could be an option for Carolina.
01:54Is Baker that significant upgrade that Ruhl did mention earlier this week?
01:59I don't know if he's a significant upgrade, but he could be somewhat of an upgrade.
02:04When these first reports started coming out before the draft, I just thought, there's
02:08no way this would ever happen, especially with the contract that Sam Darnold has.
02:13They're not going to be able to unload that to any other team, no one's going to be interested
02:17in picking that up.
02:18So I just didn't see how it was going to be feasible, but the more talks that they have,
02:21it seems more and more likely.
02:24They were very close on draft night, now it seems like those talks have furthered since
02:28that draft.
02:29And I get the feeling, like I said, I think that they are leaning towards trying to bring
02:33in Baker Mayfield.
02:34It seems like those talks have really kind of picked up in the last few days.
02:38It's all really coming down to how much money the Cleveland Browns are willing to pay.
02:42And if they can agree to that, I think you're going to see Baker Mayfield in Carolina.