Each passing day, Teddy Bridgwater’s future in Carolina looks in peril. It began at the end of the 2020 season, where both Matt Rhule and David Tepper offered little praise for Bridgewater, citing the importance of finding a guy who could carry Carolina to a Super Bowl. They didn’t seem to believe Bridgewater was that guy. Next, Carolina landed their new general manager, Scott Fitterer, who immediately tried to trade for Matthew Stafford. Bridgewater was part of the offer. As the deal fell through, news leaked that Carolina had offered Bridgwater up, and one could quickly see that Bridgewater was displeased by the news. Since then, Carolina has been linked to trade rumors for Deshaun Waston or, if he was unattainable, aggressively pursuing a quarterback in the draft. Waston’s growing legal troubles make Carolina’s pursuit less likely. 

The writing on the wall for Bridgwater only became clearer today when Will Grier released a Twitter video of him practicing with Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, and Kieth Kirkwood in Charlotte. Bridgwater was nowhere to be found.

Grier was the forgotten man all this time. Carolina vacillated between him and PJ Walker as their backup in 2020, and few have thought much about his future in Carolina since. Grier’s video, captioned “Can’t tell me shit now,” showed an excited and confident Grier practicing with Carolina’s two most exciting offensive players. 

Sure, we may be reading into Grier’s video too much in regards to Bridgewater. If anything, it probably reveals more about Grier’s role in the upcoming season, who likely will be retained as the backup quarterback. Bridgewater’s absence, however, is noticeable. Matt Rhule commented a few months ago that Bridgewater “needed to have a tremendous offseason.” All signs say imply that it hasn’t been stellar. 

By Tony Dunn
Follow @Cat_Chronicles for the latest Panthers news and opinions from the fan perspective.