Carolina Panthers OC Ben McAdoo says QB Sam Darnold is the team's starter

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo emphatically said «yes» on Tuesday when asked if Sam Darnold was his starting quarterback and added the third pick of the 2018 draft was one reason he took this job.

Seconds later, the former New York Giants head coach tempered his yes by adding coach Matt Rhule has a say over the decision and «the way it is in the building right now, Sam is our starting quarterback.»

Darnold and P.J. Walker are the only quarterbacks under contract for 2022, and the Panthers are vetting quarterbacks as candidates for the No. 6 pick in the draft.

«One of the things I've been working on is being better talking to you people [media], so announcing the starting quarterback here I just put my foot in my mouth,» said McAdoo, who was fired by the Giants after the 2017 season.

«That wasn't something I should have said.»

But McAdoo has liked parts of Darnold's game since the New York Jets drafted him No. 3 out of USC. He told the New York Post in 2018 that Darnold had a «lot of magic in his game,» although he wondered if Darnold ever would be the franchise-saver the Jets needed him to be.

At the time, he couldn't get past the flaws in Darnold's throwing mechanics and ball security.

«I think he's special,» McAdoo told the Post. «He's obviously a talented guy, he can make plays with his feet. I'd just have a hard time drafting a guy in the first round where you don't necessarily like the way he throws.

»He can overcome it, guys have, but that's something that's a challenge for me. I'm gonna be looking at that, trying to fix it, because it's a fundamental flaw, and I believe in the fundamentals. The quarterback, his No. 1 job is to pass the football. If I don't like the way he