Ranking Nick Foles’ best potential landing spots in 2019
By Ian Wharton
3. Carolina Panthers
There wasn’t a more depressing turn of events in football than how the Carolina Panthers season turned out. The first half of the season was terrific and the offense was firing at a level we haven’t seen before. By the end of the year, the Panthers owner was admitting that star quarterback Cam Newton could miss the entire 2019 season due to his shoulder injury.
Because of the uncertainty with Newton, the Panthers are in an extremely difficult position. They possess a decent roster that can compete with several tweaks, but Newton also lifts this team more than most give him credit for. It’s possible that even a veteran stopgap won’t be able to fill his enormous shoes.
Still, the Panthers should explore signing Foles if news on Newton continues to look bleak. They’re limited with cap space entering the off-season but can easily restructure some money around of stalwarts to open upwards of $20 million to afford Foles. Admittedly, his market would have to be drier than expected for them to only guarantee 2019 money.
Carolina isn’t the best scheme fit between Foles and Norv Turner, but Foles has certainly shown willingness to be a deep chucker if asked. Turner can boost Foles’ options with Christian McCaffrey as an underneath check down, and allow him to be vertical more often than any team on this list. The other concern is the Panthers’ line is porous, and he’s the type who needs especially good protection to be effective.
It’s not a perfect fit, but he would walk into a better situation than some of the others. There’s worse options for a one-year cash-in, both in terms of upside of his impact and quality of team. If he lead them to the playoffs with Newton out, all of a sudden his risk would massively pay off.