Seahawks will play another backup quarterback when they face the Panthers

The Seattle Seahawks’ final regular season road game will double as yet another matchup in which Ken Norton Jr’s beleaguered defense will face a backup quarterback.

On Tuesday, the Carolina Panthers placed quarterback Cam Newton on injured reserve with his Lisfranc injury, which will end his regular season at the very least. Kyle Allen, who has started all of Carolina’s games since Week 3, is the man moving forward the rest of the year.

Allen is 5-1 as a starter in Newton’s absence this year, throwing nine touchdowns to four interceptions but with a completion percentage that stands at an uninspiring 60%. With the Panthers holding a 5-3 record, they are very much in the wild card race, although much of that is on the shoulders of Christian McCaffrey and the 3rd best pass defense by DVOA.

For the Seahawks, Allen is (barring injury to anyone else prior to Week 15) the fourth backup that they’ve played. Mason Rudolph took over the Pittsburgh Steelers offense in the 2nd half of Week 2, Teddy Bridgewater of the New Orleans Saints had a turnover-free day in Drew Brees’ absence, and Matt Schaub filled in for veteran Atlanta Falcons signal caller Matt Ryan.

If we isolated the stats to the three backups, they read as follows:

Mason Rudolph - 12/19 for 115 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT (that obviously wasn’t his fault)
Teddy Bridgewater - 19/27 for 177 yards, 2 TDs, 0 turnovers
Matt Schaub - 39/52 for 460 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 lost fumble

Seattle is no stranger to winning in Charlotte, but this is the first time in the Russell Wilson era that Newton will not be a part of the proceedings. It’s possible he won’t play another down with the Panthers, but as we focus on 2019, Kyle Allen is the guy we expect to see on December 15th.