Panthers failure with Deshaun Watson reveals obvious truth to Buccaneers
By Rob Leeds
Not that the Panthers should ever scare the Buccaneers for any reason under this regime, but the recent fiasco only makes that even more clear.
The NFC South always has the potential to be a very dangerous division. The Buccaneers have Tom Brady, the Saints are extremely well-run and have one of the best front offices in the league, and the Falcons still have Hall of Famer Matt Ryan at the helm for the time being with the potential to add Deshaun Watson.
And that brings us to the Panthers.
The Panthers have been the laughing stock of the NFC South for the past few years, especially during the Matt Rhule era. Paying a running back and then watching him never play, trading for Sam Darnold and extending him, and not moving on from Rhule when they had the chance are just some of the terrible decisions that organization has made to stay mediocre.
The years with Cam Newton were great, but they are so far behind in the rearview mirror right now that talking about “Panthers” and the “Super Bowl” in the same sentence feels foreign.
The Panthers are poorly run and poorly coached, and the entire NFL world can see that in how they handled the Deshaun Watson process.
Carolina has been in on Watson longer than anyone. However, even the Buccaneers looked like a more likely landing spot after a few weeks of not knowing who their quarterback was, and Atlanta was able to swoop in with arguably less weapons and jump past the Panthers immediately.
It is all starting to make even more sense now as the reports have come out that the Panthers refused to meet guarantees in the third and fourth years of Watson’s contract.
Thread: The Panthers were in contact with Watson's reps on Thursday, a league sources tells @BookofEllis and I.
— Jonathan M Alexander (@jonmalexander) March 18, 2022
Yesterday, his reps called and asked them to guarantee a 3rd and 4th year. The Panthers declined, and last night they were informed were no longer under consideration
This is a bold move coming from a franchise that had no issue giving money to Christian McCaffrey and Darnold. How’s that working out?
The bad news for the Bucs is the Panthers were likely the best team to waste Watson’s talents if he comes to the NFC South. The Falcons aren’t great either, but something about using Rhule to weigh Watson down offensively was a nice way to see a division-changing move like this.
Alas.
The Bucs are still the obvious favorites in the division regardless of where Watson goes, but it would’ve been nice to see Watson anywhere other than New Orleans or Atlanta.
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