SmokinwithWilly

Only thing I really see it doing is possibly making Tepper listen if a different play caller can't run the offense because of limitations. New hire, someone who hasn't been watching Bryce for the past 3 years up close may be able to talk some sense if he sees that he isn't able to get the job done.

It wasn't just Icky. Losing BC to an Achilles also hurt. Can't rely on him either to return this year to at least have 2 guys to cover the position if we make a move to re-sign Yosh. Now we're looking who knows where for a LT,swing T, and another backup. 2 really devastating injuries for our off-season roster building.

This is similar to his who to start at RB after Rico had 500 yards in 2 games. It took him calling a leadership council to figure it out. His offense has been stagnant for 2 years. This doesn't show growth to me. It's either extremely slow recognition of something any Huddler could see and has been beaten like a rented mule here or someone's told him your offense better improve or else. I tend to think it's the latter.

At least it's not the Raiders.

You have to draft OL every year. The position(s) is just too much of a meat grinder and teams rarely make it through a season playing all 5 starters as a single unit. The team started the season with 9 OL on the active roster. By the end of the season, we had listed 14 different OL on the roster. You can't just rely on FA to fill all those positions, especially when 17% of you roster is made up of OL. Of the 7 picks we get every year, the simple math dictates at least one at some point should be going to replenish the trenches.

He didn't actually make the playoffs. We had several opportunities to clinch on our own and crapped the bed. We had to wait for Atlanta to win to get us in. We had the tie breaker in a poo division that had 3 teams finish 8-9. If you go back and look at the games we played, we weren't a dominant offensive team under him as an OC. We beat the Jets 13-7 and barely beat the packers after they failed to convert multiple red zone trips. We relied heavily on converting 4th downs. DC was also extremely slow at recognizing trends in game and was really lacking with clock management. Was there progress this year? Yes. But most of it was on the defensive side of the ball. Our offense was stagnant with a couple of exceptions. Any improvement from Bryce was minimal and he kept insisting on XL over Coker, and even RB distribution instead of going with the hot hand. He may be building something, but I don't think we've seen enough to know what that is. It could go either direction. If he insists on being OC, then without a noticeable improvement, yes he needs to be on the hot seat like any OC would. The more jobs you take on the more you have to be judged on. I think he would have a longer leash if he hired a true OC and just focused in being HC.

What it really proves is you don't have to sell the future to go up to 1 to get a QB. Finding a QB with the tools and having a good coach/system in place makes more impact than draft rankings.

I think if the NFL can get QB contracts back down to earth, they'd have more time before they give up. 3 years and it's extension time. 30-40m a season for a guy you hope might develop. It's just crippling to the cap if you're wrong, and the ones that are going to sit for a couple of years aren't going to go in the top 10. Expectations aren't realistic because the cap implications are just too damned big.

I don't know that they're necessarily bad, it's just so hard to determine who is going to make the jump. Most of these guys face maybe 2 or 3 NFL draft caliber players a game, if any. Then all of a sudden they're facing the top 25-30% of guys that were even drafted, the ones that actually made a roster. The gap is huge between college and NFL defensive caliber players. There are no sure things anymore. We need to keep drafting guys that have the traits we want until we hit paydirt. Even with Brady, NE kept drafting QBs to develop. One injury can change a season. It's a good thing to be constantly looking for a potential starting QB.

If you don't have the strength to handle the power rusher you have to use his size and strength against him and change his angle of approach to open the holes. Foot speed and agility matter more for that technique. It's just a different approach to hopefully get the same results.

And he needs to pull his head out of his ass about calling plays. He doesn't have the talent/ability to be both HC and OC yet and it shows.

I think there actually is a strategy to dealing with the "problem." At least IMO. Figure out the success rate of position by round, where the average of each is drafted, and which colleges produce contributing position players regardless of draft position. Then build your draft board like you always would based off talent. See how players fit into the draft predictor, and then track how it unfolds. All those little pieces can help you figure out who to take and where they might fall and get you on the front end of runs instead of chasing scraps. Fitterer could never figure this out and was the worst at reading a draft I have ever seen.

Icky was always a weak pass blocker come out of college. Cross was the premier pass blocker in that class. Much easier to learn run blocking than pass blocking. I never expected Icky to ever become an elite pass blocker. If he was average, that's all I really expected. I did expect him to be an absolute mailer in the run game.

I prefer 9-8. Reason being, winning season shows overall improvement and is the 1st step to establishing a winning culture. Backing into the playoffs with a losing record doesn't show you earned anything. It's the product of a weak division. If playoffs were based off records, most likely you're not going because another team(s) have a better record. Chances are too, the next season, you're going to have a tougher schedule and a couple of those bounces that went your way are going to go the other direction and it's another losing season and no playoffs. There have been 5 teams to get into the playoffs with a losing record. The 2014 and 2025 Panthers are 2 of those teams. Losing record trip 3 isn't exactly something I would be proud of doing. We have 9 playoff appearances so far, 2 of them simply because we won a shitty division. Another one would mean 30% of our appearances are only because we were the least stinky turd. That's a stat I'd want to flush.

Injuries happen on the oline and I think it's extremely irresponsible to think that you can buy a season long starting line that won't get hurt. We need to be drafting at least 1 lineman per year, ideally a T every 2 and an IOL at least late day 2, early 3 or in the later rounds with a UDFA guard/center or 2 that can hang out on the practice squad. We bought a starting oline instead of developing a multi-tiered one with vets, rookie contracts, and PS backups. JMO, but we should be carrying 4 tackles, 5 interior OL with a true starting center and 1 G/T plug in. We need to use those protected spots on the PS as effectively as possible and get that cap number back under control. Oline just eats players every season and it's a beast you constantly need to feed.