SetfreexX

I would say there was a level of ego / naivety in the sense that AT THE HIGHEST level they could get by with JAG at the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT POSITION IN THE NFL. I will give them credit for rebuilding the defense as quickly as they have and I fully anticipated we'd start to add on the offense as it was in better shape than the defense. This coming off-season is that time; however I think the FINALLY understand that you can't do anything worthwhile without premium talent ala investing a high draft pick or signing / trading for a viable franchise QB which is a situation that basically never presents itself.

He can't be put on the exempt list unless it's felony / violent crime. These are all civil lawsuits, and the only criminal aspect is half are complaints not charges.

I wouldn't say we're a mess, the offense is a mess, specifically Darnold's regression.

No, we jut need a real NFL QB.

This ^^^ Soon as they cut Cam, and passed on Fields I knew these guys didn't know wtf they were doing.

Rhule said it himself in the presser yesterday.

He tends to wear Jordan gear as a Carolina guy, so with #23 (STO) and #24 (Bouye) taken, the Olympics #9 of Jordan fits the M.O., this was my guess / reasoning when we signed him. I got it right.

it down

Tepper wanted Fields

This shows the ineptitude of the decision makers, I appreciate the emphasis on defense, but Darnold even aside from Gase at best as meh. The FO talked about QB bust rate, but then trade multiple picks for a BUST QB , can't make it up

Should've never traded for him. Stand pat and draft a QB at 8, trade up IF needed shouldbhave been the play. QB is too important not to take one at the top when available.

LT Brady LG Elflein C Paradis RG Erving RT Moton This may be the best lineup, move Miller and Daley to backups alongside Brown, and Scott.

Billy Marshall is horrible.

The portion I bolded I personally believe is coming, IF he sticks to his turn around track record (paraphrasing below) we are on course. Rhule Rough Summary Of Program Rebuild Timelines: Year 1 - Below .500 getting the base established Year 2 - Acknowledgeable improvement, around .500 (I estimated personally 7-9 wins as I wasn't a huge fan of the Darnold move, and knew we were weak on the OL) Year 3 - Marked improvement Bowl Game appearance, winning record. In our case a playoff appearance / 10 - 12 wins (I think that is possible with a better OL)

I'd go back to the play where Quez Watkins beat our depth Safety Sam Franklin for 56 yards, to me that is what gave PHI life / momentum; because they had been stifled all day, to me they just waited for Darnold to implode as the game went on as they sat on everything intermediate to short. Which they could do, due to their IDL - Hargrove / Cox

If memory serves his natural position is Safety, he was the more rare Safety convert to Corner. Here's some combine reference -- https://www.nfl.com/prospects/tre-flowers/3200464c-4f00-0000-f164-81779f9b8482 Came out of Oklahoma State as a Safety.

A lot was made of the ''Rhule blamed the loss on the defense comments''. I took some time to align my thoughts aside from the frustration after the game, and this is what I settled on. 1) The INVESTMENT in the defensive side of the ball FAR exceeds that of the offense since Rhule became coach, and this is whether Marty, or Fitterer was the respective GM at the time. (11 defensive rookies added between 2020 - 2021) 2) Burns, Brown, Reddick, Henderson, Shaq*, Horn*, are all 1st round picks // Jackson, Chinn, Gross-Matos, are 2nd round selections 3) Offensively we feature when healthy some of the best skill players at WR & HB - CMC*, DJ, Robbie 4) What has seen little investment is the Offensive Line in recent years - Paradis was a vet signing off a broken leg in 2018, Cam Erving is a 1st round JAG who's been on CLE, KC, and DAL prior to CAR, Elflein has played out of position most of his career after being a Center in college, former 3rd round pick, John Miller another 3rd rounder on his 3rd team, and Moton a 2nd rounder that was worthy of a FT / extension this offseason. (Since Rhule, we've only added 2 offensive lineman in 2 years via the draft, Brady Christensen in the 3rd, and Deonte Brown in the 6th; compare that to 5 DL draft additions since 2020 - Brown 1st / Gross-Matos 2nd / Roy 6th / Nixon 4th / Hoskins 7th) 5) Darnold is a WIP, young enough to get better, but far from a finished product, former 3rd overall pick. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ With those 5 items in mind, I don't think Rhule was so much as saying the defense is to blame, so much as he is saying ''Look at the defense we have assembled, with the investment we've made there we should be able to get the stops when we need them'even if the offense is faltering''. I think the staff knew coming into this season the OL was a weakness, as was QB in ways and perhaps in the draft they didn't want to reach when they had higher grades on the likes of a TMJ, or Tremble who were 2nd and 3rd round picks. It's important to remember we are 2 years into a rebuild, at this point all of our best offensive skill players are locked in, and the majority of the defense is under contract through 2022 (Jackson, and Gilmore pending). We also have considerable cap space, and flexibility. With those things in mind I think we see the OL attacked more aggressively this off-season via free agency as we just came off a Covid-19 strapped salary cap this off-season while also having to sign several players at key positions. TL;DR - It's not that he's blaming the defense, they simply have a HIGHER expectation than the offense given the investment there, and talent level. QB and OL are the most IMPORTANT aspects of an offense, we saw that with Cam who actually had a pretty good OL in 2015 with a bunch of average receivers (Ginn, Old Cotchery, Funch, Philly). Right now QB, and OL are the hands down WEAKEST part of our team, expecting them to close out games isn't on the table, not as currently constructed. However; based on current construction the defense has that expectation, it's why they built it the way they did.

Have you seen Darnold and the OL, how is that grouping going to apply continuous pressure...

He wasn't vaccinated at a position where we had depth, and was out almost all TC injured.

If you look at how BAL handled adding those RB's due to the injuries they sustained, it is likely we are clearing a path to add a player; hopefully offensive line. This would allow them to come in, be protected by the new PS rules, and eventually be elevated to the 53 man roster in a few weeks, without having to cut a player from the 53. We are likely to play CMC this week, which means Smith is the cut that makes the most sense IF we are prepping to bring in OL help.

I posted this as a response then thought, it may also be thread worthy based on the information. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ So long as there is a plan of succession for when high paid members of the team begin to age out, drafting is still critical which is why the accumulation of picks was emphasized, we went from 6 to 11 picks in this past draft. And for all the concern about the picks we traded in 22' - 2nd for Darnold, and a 3rd for Henderson, we still have 5 picks, so to me we are likely planning to increase that total via trading back at some points. Not to mention if we qualify for any comp picks. The issue with Rivera / Hurney / Gettleman / Hurney is that as the team got OLD, there were no young players who had been groomed to assume the roles of Olsen, Norman, Johnson, Davis, Coleman etc. Our drafts over that timeframe aside from the a few picks -- CMC / Moton / Jackson / Samuel & Bradberry (who left in FA) -- were all guys that didn't see a 2nd contract, or in some cases survive their rookie or sophomore seasons -- Worley / Sanchez / Butler / Grier / KB / Funchess / Gualden & Daeshon Hall were 3rd's / Miller / Scarlett / Little 2nd round bust / Artis-Payne Total Picks per Draft -- https://www.panthers.com/history/draft 2011 - 8 (Marty) 2012 - 8 (Marty) 2013 - 5 (Gettleman) 2014 - 6 (Gettleman) 2015 - 5 (Gettleman) 2016 - 5 (Gettleman) 2017 - 7 (Gettleman) 2018 - 8 (Marty) 2019 -7 (Marty) 2020 - 7 (Marty) 2021 - 11 (Fitterer) Average Picks Per Draft / Per GM Since 2011 Marty - 7.5 Gettleman - 5.6 Fitterer - 11 ___________________________________________________________________ Obviously maintaining double digits is unlikely, however with the crap shoot that the draft CAN be after the first two, and sometimes 3rd round, common sense would say to try to hedge the odds in your favor by accumulating more picks. This way you have more chances to hit on day 2 & 3, and can build some roster depth versus always relying on JAG FA's and UDFA's as we did so often under DG. It's quite stunning when you see how few new players we added during the PRIMES of two HOF caliber talents in Luke, and Cam. We completely squandered that time under Gettleman with his ''5th'' draft being his best. Only Shaq (2015), CMC, Samuel, & Moton (2017) are left / viable NFL players; that's 4 out of 28 total selections, that IS CRAZY!

So long as there is a plan of succession for when high paid members of the team begin to age out, drafting is still critical which is why the accumulation of picks was emphasized, we went from 6 to 11 picks in this past draft. And for all the concern about the picks we traded in 22' - 2nd for Darnold, and a 3rd for Henderson, we still have 5 picks, so to me we are likely planning to increase that total via trading back at some points. Not to mention if we qualify for any comp picks. The issue with Rivera / Hurney / Gettleman / Hurney is that as the team got OLD, there were no young players who had been groomed to assume the roles of Olsen, Norman, Johnson, Davis, Coleman etc. Our drafts over that timeframe aside from the a few picks -- CMC / Moton / Jackson / Samuel & Bradberry (who left in FA) -- were all guys that didn't see a 2nd contract, or in some cases survive their rookie or sophomore seasons -- Worley / Sanchez / Butler / Grier / KB / Funchess / Gualden & Daeshon Hall were 3rd's / Miller / Scarlett / Little 2nd round bust / Artis-Payne Total Picks per Draft -- https://www.panthers.com/history/draft 2011 - 8 (Marty) 2012 - 8 (Marty) 2013 - 5 (Gettleman) 2014 - 6 (Gettleman) 2015 - 5 (Gettleman) 2016 - 5 (Gettleman) 2017 - 7 (Gettleman) 2018 - 8 (Marty) 2019 -7 (Marty) 2020 - 7 (Marty) 2021 - 11 (Fitterer) Average Picks Per Draft / Per GM Since 2011 Marty - 7.5 Gettleman - 5.6 Fitterer - 11 ___________________________________________________________________ Obviously maintaining double digits is unlikely, however with the crap shoot that the draft CAN be after the first two, and sometimes 3rd round, common sense would say to try to hedge the odds in your favor by accumulating more picks. This way you have more chances to hit on day 2 & 3, and can build some roster depth versus always relying on JAG FA's and UDFA's as we did so often under DG. It's quite stunning when you see how few new players we added during the PRIMES of two HOF caliber talents in Luke, and Cam. We completely squandered that time under Gettleman with his ''5th'' draft being his best. Only Shaq (2015), CMC, Samuel, & Moton (2017) are left / viable NFL players; that's 4 out of 28 total selections, that IS CRAZY!

3-4 Base DL - Jones / Brown / Fox -- Reserves - Gross-Matos / Nixon / Roy Edge - Reddick / Burns -- Reserves - Luvu / Haynes ILB - Thompson / Carter Jr -- Reserves - Johnston / Stanford / Martin (just promoted) CB - Gilmore / Jackson / Bouye / Henderson -- Reserves - Melvin / Taylor / STO / Horn on IR S - Burris / Chinn -- Reserves - Chandler / Franklin _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ It is absolutely amazing the transformation of this defense's personnel in really just a year as we are just a quarter into the 2nd year. Right now the gaps are LB'er depth and safety depth though Hartsfield is on IR if memory serves. I don't recall if he was slated as ''season ending'' I just remember ''surgery''. Either way with all the concerns about the corner position especially heading into the off-season, I am more than impressed with the work done in FA (Bouye), the draft (Horn / Taylor) and via trade (Henderson / Gilmore). It is a complete flip from -- Douglas / Apple / Pride (who is on IR) / Elder So yeah, pinch me!

Smith isn't eligible until after 4pm est today.

Leaves them to develop without pressure. Gilmore was on the PUP list, so the question is does he still have to wait until Week 6 since he was traded. I'd imagine he would need to, but if the Henderson trade didn't tell you they were serious, this Gilmore one says they're not d***** around. If Schwartz or DeCastro get healthy around mid-season and we're in it, be on the lookout with how they have attacked the roster when quality players are available.