News and notes from the final day of the 2021 season

Neither the Panthers nor Sam Darnold can know at the moment what the future holds.

All we know for sure is that Darnold’s the only quarterback under contract at the moment, and that things didn’t go quite as planned this year.

After trading three picks for the former Jets quarterback and guaranteeing his $18.9 million option for next season, Darnold played well for a bit, then he didn’t, then he got hurt.

When asked what he could do better next year, he talked about specific mechanical fixes including keeping two hands on the ball when he’s outside the pocket, and continuing to work on his footwork.

Darnold threw nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions this year, and lost four of his nine fumbles on the season.

But he remains confident that he can do the job.

“One hundred percent,” Darnold said. “I’m always going to have that belief in myself that I am a starting quarterback in this league, and that I can win football games.

“It’s just alluding to what I said earlier; I think is the biggest thing, is just not turning the ball over. I get that fixed, and I win games in this league.”

While Darnold was obviously not helped by the injury that kept Christian McCaffrey off the field for most of the year or the iffy offensive line in front of him, Darnold took the high road when asked if he thought he was given a chance to succeed.

“Yeah, 100 percent, 100 percent. The talent that we have on offense is, I mean, there’s nothing else you could ask for as a quarterback,” he said. “Obviously, things didn’t go our way, toward the latter half of the season, the middle to the end of the season, but yeah. I don’t think there was any lack of talent surrounding me at all.”