Was former Carolina Panthers QB Teddy Bridgewater right all along?

Teddy Bridgewater received criticism for his comments about the coaching staff, but was the former Carolina Panthers quarterback right all along?

Things didn’t turn out as expected for Teddy Bridgewater with the Carolina Panthers. The quarterback went through some real complications in 2020 – especially down the stretch – which caused the organization to move on from the player after just one season and go with Sam Darnold instead.

A move that’s not exactly going according to plan without the services of Christian McCaffrey alongside him.

Darnold has regressed considerably over the last month. His status as the team’s starter is hanging by a thread and the rumors swirling around a potential trade for Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans do nothing to suggest Carolina is convinced the USC product is the man to lead them moving forward.

This has all been mismanaged horribly by the Panthers.

One cannot ignore the legal complications enveloping Watson. But the fact they gave up a second and fourth-round pick for Darnold – sending Bridgewater to the Denver Broncos for a sixth-rounder and a $17 million dead-cap figure – indicates there is no real plan in place and it’s costing them in a big way.

Bridgewater was highly critical of the Panthers upon leaving the organization.

Speaking on the “All Things Covered” podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden, the signal-caller highlighted some concerning practice strategies that were not of the required standard and something that was holding the team back in 2020.

"“I’ll just say this, for Joe Brady’s growth they’ll have to practice different things in different ways. One of the things we didn’t do much of when I was there, we didn’t practice two-minute drills, we didn’t practice red zone. … We didn’t practice on Fridays, but you walked through the red zone stuff and then Saturday you came out and practiced red zone but you got only 15 live reps.”"

Bridgewater was touted with sour grapes by most following these comments.

But judging by what we’ve seen so far this season, he might have a point.

Carolina Panthers have no clear plan without Christian McCaffrey.

The Panthers hit the ground running over the first three games. However, things began to unravel quickly when McCaffrey suffered a hamstring problem and the complete catastrophe at the New York Giants on offense has cast further doubt on the current regime and how they are going about their business.

This isn’t the most experienced coaching staff at the NFL level. But we are now almost halfway into Carolina’s second season with Matt Rhule at the helm and the same problems continue to emerge almost every week.

Whether it’s in the planning phase, problems with practice, a lack of execution during games, or all three combined, Carolina needs to come up with a solution quickly or their 2021 campaign is going to spiral out of control.

Bridgewater isn’t doing much better with the Broncos after a strong start. Whether the Panthers would be anything more then 3-4 with the Louisville product under center is another matter.

Carolina’s gamble on Darnold looks to be a miscalculation unless a drastic turnaround takes place in the coming weeks. Leaving the Panthers back to square one in their quest to find Cam Newton’s long-term successor.

There is something amiss. And at the very least, Bridgewater now has a sense of vindication even though he later revealed these comments were taken out of context.