BREAKING: Matt Rhule Names Panthers Starting QB

The quarterback battle is officially over in Carolina.

Nearly a month and a half ago, the Carolina Panthers struck a deal with the Cleveland Browns to acquire quarterback Baker Mayfield in exchange for a conditional 2024 5th round pick. 

Today, head coach Matt Rhule officially named Mayfield the starting quarterback.

"When we started this process, we were looking at three things," Rhule said in the team's announcement. "Number one, mastery of the offense, number two, situational football excellence, and number three, moving the ball and getting guys involved. That's been our focus all along.

"Baker has made a lot of improvement, a lot of growth in all three areas in a short amount of time."

At the time of the deal, it felt as if Mayfield had instantly become the new QB1 in Carolina but GM Scott Fitterer made it clear that the job would not be "handed" to him and that it would be deemed "an open competition" between he and Sam Darnold.

"You know, the reason we added Baker was to make the group better as a whole," said Fitterer shortly after the trade. "Our whole philosophy is to add competition not just in the quarterback room but at every position. So, if we see an opportunity where we can get better and it makes sense for us as a team and makes sense financially, we're going to do that. I think the competition is going to make Sam better. Sam, really had a nice spring for us. Stepped up and showed a lot of edge and threw the ball really well. I think competition would be good for him, be good for PJ [Walker] and it's good for Matt Corral. So I think overall, this is a very healthy situation for us all to be in."

Mayfield will now get the opportunity to lead the Panthers against his former team in Week 1 inside Bank of America Stadium. This marks the second straight year in which the Panthers' new starting quarterback faced off against his former team to open the season. Last year, Sam Darnold led the Panthers to a 19-14 win over the New York Jets.

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