MasterAwesome

I would buy the "inexperienced" angle if it seemed like Brady was making strides from Year 1 -> Year 2. Instead, his playcalling looks like it has gotten worse.

Yeah he developed a gameplan that was good enough to win. He did his job. Doesn't mean I'm in awe of his Madden-style spamming of run plays over and over in 50 mph winds when he has a dominant defense, special teams, and o-line to rely on. That's basically Rivera's dream gameplan there; the only difference is Rivera didn't have the personnel to pull it off. I think McDaniels is a good offensive coordinator, I just don't think last night's game elevates him to godlike status which I'm apparently in the minority about.

Were you that impressed by his ability to call 99% run plays tonight?

Well, just watched Minshew’s highlights from yesterday and I was very underwhelmed. I was only impressed by one throw - his very last one. Otherwise it was his receivers being wide open or making something out of dump-offs. You could argue his first TD to Goedert was a good throw but that thing hung in the air for about 5 minutes and seemed to be more a product of bad defense. If the safety was in better position, that would’ve been an easy pick or at least a punishing hit on Goedert. The second TD was wayyy underthrown to a wide open Goedert which seemed to be a pattern for Minshew.

Well that's what I was saying in my post that you quoted. We don't need to compare trading for Minshew vs. trading for Darnold. 1) Trading for Darnold was a big mistake 2) Minshew is not the answer to our QB problem Those aren't mutually exclusive. I'd be more on board with having traded for Minshew if we had a top rookie QB needing to sit for a year or a legit franchise starter with zero depth if he were to get injured. But just trading for Minshew just for the sake of having a marginal upgrade from Teddy would do nothing to get us out of our perpetual QB purgatory since the Cam injury. That's just another one of those half-ass measures we've been taking for the last 2-3 years.

I think we can also agree that those "durrr Sam Darnold is 99% of what's wrong with our offense" arguments were stupid. Fast forward to today, and we've just fired our offensive coordinator and are coming off the heels of one of the worst o-line performances in NFL history against Miami. Oh and our star WRs are still dropping passes.

I mean there's a reason I compared the two beyond them being white. They're similar in a lot of ways. If people are pissed we didn't trade for Minshew then I'm just saying I expect that same energy for Heinicke. We should be arguably more upset since we already had him on our team and wouldn't even have had to provide any trade compensation. I get the "it would have been better than trading a 2nd, 4th, and 6th for Darnold" argument but it's not an either/or. I can judge each move on its own merits - the Darnold trade was a bad move in its own right, and trading for Minshew I think would be largely inconsequential and would still have us looking for a franchise QB. Also, I recall a similar "Say what you want about X QB but he has his team winning games" argument for Teddy Bridgewater on the heels of going 5-0 with the Saints filling in for Brees.

The dude is basically Taylor Heinicke with a mustache. Better than what we have? Sure. Enough to get your jimmies all rustled? Doubtful.

It’s hilarious how badly you guys wanna prop up Fields to validate your pre-draft crush lol. He doesn’t belong anywhere near the same company as Slater and Parsons. 58.1 completion %, 4 TDs, 8 INTs, 136 YPG passing, 25.9 QBR That’s absolutely abysmal. Yeah he’s a rookie and it’s very possible he could go on to have a good career, but that’s hardly a foregone conclusion. It blows my mind that people are crying about us passing him over after the rookie season he has had. The irony is that his stats are actually pretty darn similar to Darnold’s (worse actually in almost all categories) and yet one is the worst QB of all time and the other is a rookie sensation who we will regret passing over. Oh and probably the worst stat of Fields? He takes a sack on 13.5% of pass plays….13.5%….that’s insane. And before you preach about their terrible o-line, Andy Dalton has taken a sack on 5.1% of his pass plays for comparison. Again, Fields may go on to have a great career. I’m not calling him a bust by any means, I’m saying he’s had a pretty bad rookie season so the hype surrounding him right now is just weird and unfounded. Maybe if you’re comparing him against Zach Wilson (another Huddle pre-draft crush) then I guess he’s having an okay season?

Anytime I dared suggest Brady was a part of the problem, you had people bending over backwards to defend him, even though he has done nothing to prove himself in the NFL. "Oh he's just been hamstrung by having terrible QBs his whole time here. There's no way he can be successful with the trash he's been working with". Remember the "Now it's obvious Darnold was the cause of 99% of our offensive problems" narrative that was so popular after last week's win? Yeah, not looking so good now. Now that Brady has Cam Newton, it'll be interesting to see some people *cough* CRA *cough* stuck between a rock and a hard place in deciding who he wants to attribute blame to between Brady and Cam if our offensive struggles continue. I'm ecstatic Darnold is out of the picture, not only because he's been bad, but because we don't have to hear the stupid "all Darnold's fault" narrative where people dig their head in the sand and pretend our playcalling hasn't also sucked and our o-line isn't a turnstyle. You can say Brady is still limited for now while Cam is learning the playbook, but there's no excuse for CMC only having 10 carries.

He’s rated worse than Matt Paradis at PFF. If I were to theoretically go through your post history…would I see you heaping praise on Paradis for his play this season?

I mean, out of the rampant negativity on the boards after today’s loss…that seems like a rather tame one to single out no?

Lol Linville getting triggered and projecting it onto someone else, well I completed my Bingo card for the night! Thanks buddy.

I mean "CAMEO" is literally written in giant letters at the bottom left of the screen, it didn't sound like something that was intended to be hidden. I was more bringing awareness to the service for others in the thread - clearly people were in awe of this shoutout and the dude I specifically quoted sounded particularly excited about the prospect of something like a birthday shoutout so I offered up insight into how he can acquire something like that if he was interested. Sounds like a lot of people would be interested in this. I'm surprised apparently no one has heard of Cameo before. I'd be willing to bet the OP probably already knows it's a Cameo as his first question to his wife was probably "How in the hell did you manage this?". Sounds like you're suggesting he should be less excited about it knowing that it's a paid service, which appears to be your opinion that you are projecting onto others including the OP. Newsflash: unless you're creating something by hand, you're just forking over money for a product or service, which probably accounts for the vast majority of birthday gifts. That doesn't make it less special or thoughtful. Still a lot of thought goes into a gift like this, as his wife clearly knows he's a huge Panthers/Smitty fan and also included a write-up with more context, like how OP has a Smitty jersey in his office. Very thoughtful gift, which is exactly what I said in my post. But I apologize for offending you on OP's behalf.

I don't mean to cheapen this gift cause it's very awesome and thoughtful, but this is through a service called "Cameo" where you can pay celebrities to make videos/shoutouts for you or someone else. So it really is pretty easy lol but definitely not cheap....I just checked and Steve Smith charges $165 per video. That's pretty insane.

I don't get why this is triggering so many people. What Ron did to Cam is already done...that hate is justified. But this just seems like him basically admitting his mistake in mishandling Cam.

It's a sad state of affairs when you feel it necessary to make an apologetic thread about being optimistic about a QB we traded for lol. You weren't wrong for being optimistic, there's no shame in that. My default state is one of cautious optimism because the alternative is a pretty depressing way to live your life. Never let the Huddle make you feel bad or guilty for being optimistic about the team you're a fan of. Just remember some of the people who were right all along about Darnold are the same people who also suggested things like: you're a stupid homer if you think we'll even potentially have a Top 10 defense this year, that Shaq Thompson is a JAG who we never should have extended, Donte Jackson is a JAG who is not a willing tackler, Phil Snow would be a disastrous hire because he was the LB coach for the 0-16 Detroit Lions, etc. There is never a shortage of bad takes on the Huddle from all sides of the aisle. You kinda just shrug your shoulders and move on.

FTFY. Lol Darnold is bad but so is PJ. It’s funny that you’re hyper focusing on the QB situation and completely neglected to mention that one dude who’s back in the lineup today and accounted for 90+ rush yards and 130+ scrimmage yards (including 7 catches) in the first half. Let’s not act like Brady and the o-line are completely vindicated after one mediocre half by PJ Walker. Edit: ok my bad I forgot CMC technically came back last week lol but still he’s mostly carrying the offense today (also huge shoutout to Cam for the boost to our red zone offense). Still an OC/o-line/WRs best friend.

It's poetic irony how the once proud faction of Huddle "realists" have now become what they hate the most: *gasp* Sunshine Pumpers!!!! I mean Cam is obviously not the answer...but hell I am just hoping for some exciting football which we have been sorely lacking for several consecutive weeks.

I don’t know what Brady has done in the NFL to warrant the charitable kiddie gloves from you and others. Basically any questionable play call is a product of his crappy quarterback so he’s virtually immune from criticism. The irony is that it’s the same logic people use who say Darnold is absolved of criticism because of his crappy o-line, which you vehemently argue against. For the record, I’m opposed to both of those silly arguments and think there’s plenty of blame to go around in this offense.

There were these threads about Mike Davis last year too... I guess CMC has been injured too often the past season and a half that people forget how special he really is.

He also wanted us to draft Justin Fields who looks awful, so we’ll call it a wash.

I have barely skimmed this site in the last 24 hours cause I truly think the Tinderbox is the more emotionally stable forum than the main Panthers' forum at this point...so maybe I've just overlooked all these Darnold fanboys. Are "Darnold fanboys" simply people who say he is only part of the problem rather than the sole problem? Or are there actually people who say he is flawless and that this season is everyone's fault except his? Personally I think our o-line is far and away the biggest problem for our offense...followed by Darnold's play and Brady's playcalling being neck-and-neck for the other culprits to our offensive woes. Is that an unreasonable assessment? I feel like 98% of the board would agree with that...

Is that including Rhule’s drop?

Why stop at Thursday Night games? I think the average Huddler's wet dream would be if we could just forfeit like 3-4 consecutive seasons and stockpile a bunch of premium draft picks. Then reconvene for the ~2025 season.