Carolina Panthers: QB Issues Dominate First Quarter of Season
The Carolina Panthers will begin their season against three opponents with unresolved issues at the quarterback position.
The Carolina Panthers start play in two days. Then they will have sixteen games. Those are sixteen unique challenges. Often, to make analyzing a schedule like that easier, we cut the season into four quarters. The Panthers are thereby about to enter the first quarter of their season, and a key quarter it will be.
The importance of the first quarter has to do with three of the four teams that the Panthers will face. Those three teams happen to be the first three teams on the schedule. They are the Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers, and Minnesota Vikings. Each of them has a quarterback issue to deal with, making each of those games winnable.
The Broncos looked like they might start the season with Mark Sanchez as quarterback. In the preseason that looked less likely and now the Broncos are starting the season with Trevor Siemian behind center. Sanchez was cut to save money and a draft pick. Siemian is a seventh round player from last year’s draft. He is starting because Paxton Lynch, this year’s first round pick, is probably not ready.
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Siemian is a question mark pure and simple. The Broncos won last season against the Panthers because of their defense. They lost some depth in the off season but kept the big parts (Von Miller). They know how to win an ugly game against the Panthers. The trick is whether Siemian can be as cool and conservative as Peyton Manning was last year.
Week 2 sees the 49ers come in for a visit. These are not the Jim Harbaugh 49ers of old, but the new Chip Kelly 49ers. They too have made a quarterback change. Colin Kaepernick has been benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert. That means a lot of unknowns as well. The Panthers beat Kelly’s Eagles last season and Gabbert owns the worst record for a starter since 2011. This is game they should win at home.
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Week 3 brings in the Minnesota Vikings. A few weeks ago, Vikings fans were wondering how they would take over the world. Now they are trying to figure out how to keep the world from falling apart. Teddy Bridgewater’s knee injury put the team in panic mode. Suddenly they were starting Shaun Hill and dreading it. Minnesota sent a first rounder to the Eagles to liberate Sam Bradford, but it is still Bradford.
Bradford was not great last season, and certainly the Rams didn’t mind bailing on him earlier than that. He also is more injury prone than Bridgewater. The move from Chip Kelly to Norv Turner should also be a shock for him.
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The point is simple, the Panthers need to win the games where these quarterback issues exist. They just happen to affect the defending Super Bowl champ, defending NFC North champ, and another team. The Panthers built a whole season last year on luck like this, and they need to continue the trend. Week 4 is Matt Ryan and the Falcons, by the way.