Teddy Bridgewater has started 13 games this season for the Panthers with middling results.
He’s completed 69.8 percent of his passes for 3,360 yards with 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. But Bridgewater’s late-game production has left something to be desired, as the Panthers haven’t completed a successful game-tying or game-winning drive in eight opportunities.
Speaking after firing General Manager Marty Hurney on Monday, Panthers owner David Tepper indicated Carolina will continue to looking for a franchise quarterback in the offseason.
“I think when you get to quarterbacks and NFL in general, you always want to try to figure out, do you have the best that’s in the position of this right now?” Tepper said, via Alaina Getzenberg of the Charlotte Observer. “And that’s constant evaluation and re-evaluation of that. And that’s what we’ll constantly go through.
“It’s an ongoing process and it’s a question of who can be that guy that can help you win. That’s the most important position on the field. ... Unless you have that guy for sure that gets you to playoffs and Super Bowls, you have to keep reevaluating that because that’s the only thing that matters is Super Bowls. And until you have that guy, you’re evaluating, evaluating, evaluating every year.”
At 4-10, the Panthers are currently projected to have a top five draft pick — a selection they could potentially use on a quarterback. Bridgewater is signed through 2022, which could allow Carolina to bring a young QB along slowly. Either way, the next franchise quarterback will be a significant decision for the Panthers’ next general manager.