CPantherKing

This passing game is going to be rough. Looks too easy for NFL DCs to game plan for when it comes to weaknesses among key starters. Reich is going to have to be one of the best play callers in the NFL to win.

Panthers played/coached to my expectations with their personnel

Pass protection, QB play, and WRs all looked bad with starters. This team is no where near prepared for the season. May not be until October before we see improvement.

Yeah Ickey couldn't keep the passing lane open before his defender hit Bryce

Ickey and Jordan losing the throwing lanes and getting Bryce smashed in the pocket

Amare Barno doing what I know he can do. One of the few players I wanted to draft

and the Jets don't look very good too

Bryce isn't getting protection. Too many QB hits

Ekwonu with the whiff

First season in a 3-4 with a new unproven DC you mean

smh @ Brown

DL is not holding their gaps

As long as it doesn't resemble anything he did for the Broncos in losing all those leads and 4Q game leading drives from Wilson. His defense gave up 5 4Q leads and failed to stop teams in all 3 OT games. He struggled against the Bucs, Raiders, and Panthers - Mayfield, Carr, and Darnold. Inexperienced DC. Inexperienced QB. Average play caller in Frank Reich.

The answer is no. Bryce Young may have 1 playoff win during his rookie contract. As long as Young is the QB, the Panthers will need to have a championship defense/DC and an offensive play caller who can manage to average more than 2 GWDs per season. Currently, the Panthers do not check any of these boxes.

Fitterer is holding the team back. Bryce Young is a ticket to a decade of mediocrity. No QB in NFL history is worth what the Panthers gave up for Young. QBs don't make a dynasty, they elevate a dynasty in the playoffs. Corral will be no better than a mediocre journeyman QB. 4 out of every 5 undrafted QBs will make it to the playoffs when given at least 2 years of leading an NFL offense. Ekwonu is an All Pro NFL guard performing as an average starting NFL LT. The CMC trade will result in any success from the Panthers over the next decade being met with the 49ers and CMC keeping the Panthers being the best team in the NFC. Frank Reich was not the offensive genius of the Philadelphia Eagles and will be a mediocre coach who will finish behind Ron Rivera and John Fox in Panthers history. Brian Burns and Derrick Brown have hit their ceiling when it comes to run defense. Evero and Capers will struggle to figure out Ridder, Carr, and Mayfield. The Panthers have 0 playmakers on their team. I believe all of these are unpopular. No different than my opinions on Gettleman, Beane, Newton, Ealy, Butler, Benjamin, Bradberry, Funchess, Mayfield, Rhule, Moore, Artis-Payne, Worley, Little, Grier, Gross-Matos, Bridgewater, Darnold, and R.Anderson over the past decade. No more arguments for my unpopular opinions that proved me right. Same attackers on my unpopular opinions now. They will be quiet when I am proven correct again. Still waiting for the Panthers to get their act together and move toward being competitive contenders again like they did from their 2002 to 2013 roster builds. (2015 was carry over from these builds. The Panthers could have easily been a more dominant franchise.)

Open the game with some excitement. Get rid of the coin toss. Visiting team gets to decide who takes the ball first. Home team gets home field advantage. If the fans can't make it home field advantage, then blame the fans and the team. Game starts with the ball at the 50. Each team gets 1 down. The team that finishes on their side of the 50 stays on offense. The ball must go beyond the 49; the 2 yard zone between each 49 is considered neutral. If the ball remains inside the 50 yard line neutral zone after 3 snaps each, no running plays will be allowed. Touchdowns and turnovers are allowed, and will immediately begin the game. A turnover results in control of the ball. A touchdown is counted and the game continues as normal. Untimed until the starting offensive team is decided. Crowd will be in the game and loud from the start as though it is the last play of the game. After a score, let the XP decide starting field position. If the team chooses to kick the XP, the ball will be placed at the point of the kick for a missed XP, or at the 25 for a made XP. If the scoring team opts for the 2pt play, the ball will be spotted at the 2 if the team converts. If the team fails on the 2pt, the ball is placed at the 10. The other team will take over at the spot of the ball. If the defense intercepts, recovers a fumble during the XP, or blocks the XP kick, the ball will be placed at the 40 or at the spot if the defense advances the ball past the 40. The defense will have the ability to score a TD off of an XP turnover. Never going to happen, but this would be the answer to make the start of the game just as exciting as the end of the game.

And the Panthers are not awful and have downgraded from CMC and Moore? 5 of those teams went on to win the SB and 6 of them went to the SB. All those teams were awful? 34 SB winning QBs, 35 SB winning HCs, and 29 QBs drafted #1 overall. Go ahead and find the non-playoff teams drafting a QB #1 overall that won enough games in their rookie season to make the playoffs. How about the teams that traded up to the #1 overall like the Panthers to get their QB. How did that work out in year 1? Having people try to make an exception for the Panthers going from #9 to #1 as though that means they are better than the teams that finished last, or that there were no teams like the Panthers who traded up. The insane take would be comparing the Panthers to the Steelers under Cowher, the Chiefs under Reid, or the Ravens under Harbaugh going after a 1st round QB for a team that is already a contender with SB All-pro leadership already on the team.

What is preposterous is saying Young has a high probability of getting to 9 wins or more. 2 to 4 wins is typical. For the amount the Panthers paid, he should have a winning season in year 1. Peyton Manning 3 wins (failed with original coach) John Elway 4 wins (failed with original coach) Steve Young 1 win (failed with drafted team) Troy Aikman 0 wins Joe Namath 3 wins Terry Bradshaw 3 wins Jim Plunkett 6 wins (failed with drafted team) Eli Manning 1 win Matthew Stafford 2 wins (failed with drafted team) All the SB winning QBs selected #1. Their rookie wins. Average is 2.6 wins.

1-5 in the division (possible 0-6). 4-13 overall (possible 2-15). I know people don't want to think it, but this will be a rough season. It'll be even tougher come the 2024 draft with Caleb Williams and Drake Maye on the board. You thought the 2023 QB debate was tough? There is some promise with the offensive staff over the next 3 to 5 years, but the trust in this front office is going to waste their coaching window.

If you watch the videos in detail which focus more on his strengths than his weaknesses, you will see examples of what the issue is when I list the statistics. 6 sacks was the most sacks given up by a Panthers OL. That was Ekwonu. 27 pressures was the most given up by a Panthers OL. That was Ekwonu. Penalites 13. That was the most given up by an OL in the NFL. That was Ekwonu. The Panthers OL was ranked just out of the top half of the league. Now, he held and got called for penalties, but he did not make sure the QB was protected when he committed these penalties. 1 of those 13 was highlighted in the video and the Panthers QB got destroyed. That was a sack given up by Ekwonu, but the 49ers chose the penalty because they get additional yards. This is a major problem if you are giving up sacks and then extra yards with a holding penalty. This is worse than allowing the sack. That tweet that keeps being posted does not take into account the sacks he gave up that were turned into a holding penalty. You decide what is worse... a sack or a sack that is taken away from the OL in favor of a penalty? That happened in week 5. I'm not going to overlook that sack-penalty because of a tweet that says he hasn't given up an official sack since week 2. Also, the plays Ekwonu was left alone to block a speed rusher for a 5 or 7 step drop were a problem. Ekwonu would lean badly and get beat. This allowed the rusher to get to the QBs spot before the QB forcing the QB to step up prematurely. This happened on a play against the Cardinals and Moton got hit with a pressure because he blocked for a 7 step drop and the QB had to bail and step up into his defender. Routes were never able to develop and it resulted in a broken play that turned into a shovel pass to CMC. Ekwonu walked away from the play without a negative stat. He was the only reason for that play breaking down. Moton got hit with the negative stat. Only someone who looked at each rep and wrote this down as a negative on Ekwonu and a mulligan on Moton would see these plays. Watch Ekwonu's pass blocking in the 4th quarter for the last 3 losses of 2023 to the Ravens, Steelers, and Bucs. All were winnable games. Expecting a sophomore slump, and for Ekwonu to develop into an average pass blocker by year 4.

If he see's the field, it will be a very rough day for the offense.

Video shows he is a great run blocker and a sub par pass blocker who needs help. He struggles with leaning, kick step, and overall pass pro when left alone to block the QBs blind side. QB must keep his head on a swivel and not trust his LT one on one with a top speed rusher/blitzer. He is going to need 2 to 3 more seasons to develop into an average pass blocker who will not require other blockers to help him out. He'd be an all pro OG right now no question. He isn't going to sniff the all pro list as an OT with his pass blocking. He'll be a starter in the NFL for a while, but his best position is OG. As long as he is at OT, I expect him to cost his team 2 to 3 wins per season.

The video features teams like Vanderbilt, Utah State, Mississippi St, and Louisiana Monroe. You'd be better off evaluating him off his Mater Dei video. There are only 12 games worth evaluating for Bryce Young to assess his ability to transfer his skills to the NFL. Of these 12 games, he was 60% completions or below in 5 of them and 2 of them he was sub 50%. The 3 valid plays in the video to evaluate come from 2 of Young's Ls and he was 49% completion against LSU. The video featured a desperation play against LSU that was his 1 TD pass, and that is after he had been picked off in the endzone from inside the 10 doing the same style of QB play. In these games, Young threw for just over 1 TD per game on average and his opposing QB threw for more than 2 TDs on average. Young is also a sub 35% conversion rate passer on 3rd down, 4th down, and goal to go. I believe Peter King has it right with Atlanta having the edge to start the season in the NFC South. The Saints will at least be steady and push for the playoffs with Carr. The Bucs and Panthers could be flipped, but neither will be the worst team in the NFL. I expect Bryce Young's career to follow a Steve Young with the disadvantage of being smaller. He will be a very intelligent QB who will struggle with his first team and be tossed for a more promising #1 QB (likely Arch Manning in 2026/2027). A successful playoff franchise will pick Young up and keep him as the #2 until they elevate him to be their #1 QB at the age of 30. We will see. Enjoy the ride.

Ridder has 4 games started under his belt and he is 2-2. Drafted in the 3rd round and was available to the Panthers. Bryce Young is 1 of 27 QBs drafted #1 overall (The Panthers have had 5 of these QBs and their most successful franchise QB was undrafted). Only 5 of them have won a SB for the team they started for as a rookie (Bradshaw, Elway, Aikman, P.Manning, and E.Manning). No other team has paid as much as the Carolina Panthers to leverage their franchise for a #1 QB. The expectations for success of Bryce Young is extremely high and the pressure is greater than any of these other QBs. Bryce Young must be as good as these HoF QBs to even consider him to be a breakeven success. He must be the best of this group to consider him a true success. Otherwise, he is no better than any other good QB you can get in the NFL regardless of draft position. This is what the Panthers have done to Young with the price they decided to pay and the believe that he is this impressive. This is an all-in move that will make a front office look like a genius or complete fool. In their rookie seasons: Aikman had 0 wins, an 11 game losing streak max, and a rookie season of nothing but Ls. Eli had 1 win, a 6 game losing streak max, no winning streaks, and 6 Ls to start his career. Peyton had 3 wins, a 4 game losing streak max, no winning streaks, and 4 Ls to start his career. Bradshaw had 4 wins, a 3 game losing streak max, a 2 game winning streak, and 3 Ls to start his career. Elway had 4 wins, a 6 game losing streak max, a 2 game winning streak, and 2 Ws to start his career. My minimum expectation for Young in his rookie season given the franchise investment is 7 wins, a 2 game losing streak max, a 3 game winning streak, and 3 Ws to start his career. An opening day loss to Ridder is unacceptable.

Mayfield v Evero Mayfield 51 - Evero 14 Evero still needs to prove himself. Until then Bucs have the advantage. Evero may be worse than Mayfield.