The Carolina Panthers duo of Baker Mayfield and Robbie Anderson are showing off how in sync they are with an incredible play during training camp.

Having been without a franchise quarterback more or less since the prime days of Cam Newton, the Carolina Panthers went out on a limb and took the risk of trying to make Baker Mayfield that man as they gave up a conditional 5th-round pick in order to acquire his services from the Cleveland Browns.

Mayfield had done a pretty good job when it came to helping turn the Browns around as an organisation, taking them from going 1-31 in the two seasons before he arrived to taking them to the playoffs back in 2020 and generally being considered far more competitive than they were previously.

However, he wasn’t squeaky clean through all of it as there were reports of tension behind the scenes that caused a few problems between him and the coaching staff throughout his stint in Ohio, and his overall behavior has also been seen as a negative that might not make him franchise quarterback material. 

The Panthers, having had four straight losing seasons and having not been in the playoffs since the 2018 season, obviously felt that it was a gamble worth taking, and based on first impressions, things seem to be going well.

Building the chemistry

One of the key parts of bringing a new quarterback into the fold is making sure that their skillset, rhythm and mindset gels with the receivers, after all he’s going to be the man that’s putting the balls up for them to catch.

And when it comes to the Panthers, a receiver who needs a lot of attention is going to be Robbie Anderson. Having put up an impressive 1,096 receiving yards in his debut season with the team in 2020, 2021 saw him take something of a step back as he could only haul in 519 yards.

So he is going to need to build up a real connection with Mayfield if he’s going to get those numbers back, and by the looks of it, they’re already making some progress.

Doing it in an explosive fashion

In a video posted by the Panthers' social media team, Mayfield and Anderson hooked up on a deep ball that saw Anderson dive and make a spectacular catch despite being covered by two defenders, complete with a roll and celebration afterward:

Now obviously it would have been better if Mayfield had put the ball in a spot so that Anderson didn’t have to stretch all the way to make it, but it shows that the signs are there for them to build a nice combination. And with a few weeks of the preseason to iron out any further creases, then it might just be that this duo is going to put the league on notice.