MasterAwesome

Yeah I think the latter has a lot to do with it too. I don't think it's a coincidence that there are also only two o-linemen over the age of 34 sitting in free agency waiting to be signed. O-linemen is one of, if not the most physically taxing position in all of professional sports simply because of all the weight these guys gotta carry. We saw Jordan Gross retire and then immediately lose a ton of weight since he no longer had to maintain that kind of unhealthy mass. We also saw a guy like Jason Kelce retire at age 36 while still elite at his position. I think a lot of these guys are calling it quits early not because they can't compete anymore, but to avoid severe long-term health issues.

I guess we're talking different criteria then, if you're factoring in things like the Saints winning divisional titles in 2019 and 2020 as to why their franchise is in better shape today. 5 years is a damn lifetime in the NFL, and including that tells me you have a weak case that you feel the need to fluff. Characterizing us having $37 million under the cap and the Saints having $77 million over the cap in 2025 as "sucks for both teams" is interesting...that's a difference of $104 million. Ironically, the difference between us and the Patriots (who have the most cap space in 2025) is $102 million. So I guess us and the Patriots are also both in the same "fantastic cap situation" in your words. Look, I'm fine tossing the salary cap argument if you want, but let's be consistent at least. Don't say the Patriots and Raiders are in fantastic cap situations, therefore giving them the edge...and then ignore the salary cap ramifications for the Saints. Either it matters or it doesn't.

If by "reasonable" you mean "casual", then maybe. Otherwise I don't know how a reasonable fan with any understanding of the salary cap would say our prospects are worse than the Saints. They're basically a "win now" roster that's considerably devoid of talent, in salary cap hell, 4-7 on the season, and just lost to us a couple weeks ago. The biggest difference is in QB, and their QB situation isn't even good. They've got an aging below-average QB accounting for almost 20% of their salary cap next year. And that same QB might end up being a cap casualty next year if that's even possible without incurring a massive amount of dead cap.

The kinda mediocre run blocking grades (other than Icky) combined with Sanders' poor YPC show how much credit Chuba deserves. I like that Chuba is clearly the lead back, but Miles is still getting too many snaps for my taste...I'm excited for Brooks to hopefully kick him to the bench.

I guess Burrow now has the only other 300 yard 3 TD passing game this season alongside Andy. Sunday will be a showdown for the ages between two elite franchise QBs.

His last year with the Bengals was the season before Dalton was drafted.

A good o-line, but more importantly the #1 defense in the league. Ironically they're taking an explosive uber-athletic dynamic player like Fields and have neutered him into more of a game manager. Not sure that's a very sustainable winning combo, but I'm curious to see how the rest of the season plays out and if he can go toe-to-toe in a shootout.

For at least the past two seasons, Chuba and Tremble would stay on the field after every practice (I think they still do) catching balls from the JUGS machine. And their hands have turned from a weakness into a strength. Crazy how that works...! I'm still optimistic about Tremble too; I think at the very least he can be a solid #2 TE, which seems to be an important position in Canales' offense.

Well, he looked a million times better at the end of the preseason than the start of the preseason. Isn't that the kind of progression we're looking for in a developmental QB3? Certainly better than a QB who looked progressively worse in each preseason game, like Joe Milton who has been mentioned a bit in here. Regardless of the level of competition he faced, he looked a lot more comfortable navigating the pocket and evading pass rushers, and was able to make some accurate deep throws which are fundamental skills that will translate. Obviously it's a huge long shot that he'll amount to anything in the league, but his progression IMO has been more encouraging than discouraging so I don't feel particularly strongly about replacing him at this point.

Other than obviously giving up a deep bomb each game, our whole secondary has been playing really well. How many times have we seen the opposing QB scanning the field for 5+ seconds with our lackluster pass rush, and not finding an open receiver?

I may have gotten my Sanders' mixed up lol. The numbers 0 and 6 being somewhat similar don't help either.

Was it the second sack where Miles Sanders decided to immediately turn and block Icky (or was it Moton?) and let a free rusher through? It seems like the common theme with our sacks is just confusion and mental mishaps rather than getting beat 1-on-1.

I'll be there Sunday for my one annual home game. And I'm on a bit of a streak - went to the Texans W last year and the Bucs W the year before where PJ Walker outdueled Tom Brady. So needless to say...Andy Dalton WILL be breaking NFL records for his revenge game this weekend.

Coach has to get the game ball for his first career win as head coach, of hopefully many. Especially such a statement win on the road while also calling plays for a monster offensive performance.

I remember seeing a couple of high snaps from Corbett last week. But with a more normal-sized QB like Dalton back there, those are gonna be perfect lol.

How are Mitchell and Burton playing well but Legette hasn't? They're at 32, 47, and 35 yards respectively and none have scored. And Legette has had by far the worst QB play of the three. If he's already on par with them and you acknowledge he's "super raw", then that seems like a pretty good start to his career to me?

What is this revisionism is this you below? It's okay to say you were duped like the rest of us in thinking the "elite mental tools" (your words) would be enough to overcome the physical concerns. You thought he was a 3rd or 4th round type pick that wouldn't translate in the NFL but you were cool with us taking him? There were a lot of people VERY against taking Young, but you sure as hell were not one of them. Apparently you've duped people harder than Bryce duped us, if you've got people thinking you were the leading voice in the pre-draft anti-Bryce movement.

I'm glad the Dillon Johnson book hasn't been shut. His one half of a preseason game has the potential to induct him into the Panthers' HOF alongside David Gettis, Marvin McNutt, and Brandon Wegher.

Lucky for you, my steamy Derrick Brown fanfic "A-Gap Penetration" will be released this weekend.

All right Panthers' conglomerate...I usually go to bat for you as much as anybody, but maybe we can consolidate our multiple Derrick Brown features into one thread/article?

I'd say Chuba is definitely worth a late round pick. He should be the feature back early on, and if he performs well in that role, I could see the Panthers bringing Brooks along more slowly just to spell Hubbard.

I'm sorry but this is just such a confusing response to what I posted. Who are you trying to convince that Bryce was part of the problem? I don't think I could have made it any more clear in my post that I acknowledge he was. I actually explicitly stated my position and asked the other guy to express what was unreasonable about it, so I'll ask you the same.

The whole "our o-line/WRs/coaches were actually good last year" Revisionism World Tour some of y'all are going on recently, is a level of sunshine and rainbows that would make even Bryce apologists blush. You would think we had a talented playoff-caliber team whose success was thwarted single-handedly by Bryce. Yet ironically those of you who recently want to downplay our o-line/WR/coaching struggles last year are the same people who argue we have the worst, least talented roster in the NFL...so which is it? Simply put: do you agree that o-line/WR/coaching last year were net negatives? If so, then this petty squabbling about whether they were worst or bottom five or bottom ten is a silly distraction. The position of the fans you're referring to is simply that every facet of our offense was a mess (including Bryce) and that it was such a dysfunctional symphony of a dumpster fire that it's hard to apportion what percentage of blame goes where, and that this season will largely clear that debate up. Which is basically exactly what @Icege outlined above. Can you articulate why you find that position to be unreasonable?

I don't understand your argument. If you acknowledge that stats would look worse on 30+ yard passes than 20+ yard passes, then wouldn't they be better off using 30+ yard passes if they're trying to make the bolded argument that you're saying they're trying to make? Those passes from 20-30 yards that you wish to exclude, are actually helping to make deep passes look much more successful on paper.

Matthews has been on the Active Roster since last Thursday.