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Life comes at you fast. One week you throw a Hail Mary touchdown to force overtime against the division leaders, and the next, you get benched. This is what has happened to Carolina Panthers quarterback PJ Walker. He played hero in Week 8, but apparently, the Monstars' talent has run out, and he has regressed back to his usual self under center.
The first half saw Walker complete three of his nine passes for a whopping nine yards with two interceptions. For context, I threw for only nine fewer yards than Walker did in the first half of Sunday’s game. What’s worse for Walker is that Mayfield started the second half and led a scoring drive that saw him finish with an eight-yard pass to Tommy Tremble for the first score of the day.
The Panthers are in a weird position where they need to lose for a good enough draft pick to start over and draft their quarterback of the future. They beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 7 and suddenly seemed like they wanted to compete and make a run at a division crown this year. Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals hopefully stopped that idea in its tracks, and they can get back to tanking for a great draft pick.