There’s something inherently hilarious about one team now Mut 24 coins having the No. 1 and No. 3 picks from the 2018 Madden NFL 24 Draft, both of whom are quarterbacks, and neither has lived up to expectations. While trading for Mayfield now lacks foresight ahead of the richest QB draft in recent history, there is one scenario where this could actually work out for the Panthers — though it remains to be seen if Carolina has a real plan.
Before we jump into how this deal could make sense, let it be known that I still don’t like it, for all the same reasons I had back in May. I don’t see there being much upside in trading for Mayfield if you’re the Panthers. They’re arguably the worst team in the NFC South, and Baker sure as hell isn’t going to cause Carolina to push the Buccaneers for the division crown — and the NFC is such a murderer’s row, particularly in the NFC West, that it’s difficult to see a wild card being on the horizon. If somehow this is the special sauce to put it all together, the reward for the team is being forced to give Baker a huge contract to retain him based off a small sample size, or lose him for nothing.
What this does, however, is at least make the Panthers watchable in 2022 if we work under the assumption they were never going to start Corral in his rookie season. The team may be discussing “open competition” right now, but when the only hurdle is a sub-par Sam Darnold who already proved he can’t be “the guy,” any pretense of there actually being a QB competition is for posterity sake. In 2021 this was a 5-12 team, and with Mayfield they might be ... I dunno, 8-9?
If we operate assuming Mayfield was always going to be the starter that’s where this can get interesting. The Panthers brought in Ben McAdoo to take over the offense, and initially it was a weird decision that felt destined to have the same problems it did in New York. McAdoo prefers to run an open, pseudo West Coast shotgun passing base that necessitates quick decision making from the quarterback, and athletic ability to pick up yards on the ground when flushed from the pocket. A statuesque, aging Eli Manning was the perfectly wrong quarterback for this system — much in the same way a statuesque Darnold doesn’t fit.
You know who does fit? Baker Mayfield, and Matt Corral. Now, it takes some serious galaxy brain mental buy madden 24 coins gymnastics to imagine Carolina had extremely strong feelings about Corral being the future of their franchise and yet still waited until the end of the 3rd round to trade up and grab him. Envisioning this team is playing chess like that gives the organization entirely too much credit. That said, there is a glimmer of outside hope Corral could become something special.
