What It Means:

Darnold apparently suffered the injury in the second quarter against the New England Patriots last weekend. P.J. Walker will likely take over as the Panthers' starting quarterback in the meantime. Considering how poorly Darnold has played over the last month, Walker could potentially win the job outright. He is a more aggressive thrower downfield than Darnold and could prove to be an upgrade for Robby Anderson and D.J. Moore. The Panthers are expected to face a negative game script in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Darnold has a career-low 7.5-yard average depth of target (ADoT) this season while Walker's career ADoT is 10.6 yards on 71 attempts. The Cardinals enter Week 10 with the second-best overall defense and pass defense in numberFire's NFL Team Power Rankings. As a rookie last year, Walker scored 12.1 FanDuel points in his only career start.