SmokinwithWilly

This is where the drafting of Bryce comes into play. At some point he's going to have to elevate the players around him. We can't afford to keep stacking the offense in FA and ignore the defense. We've spent a lot on him already from having a very expensive oline, drafting a receiver in the 1st in XL, Brooks in th 2nd, paying Chuba, Mingo, trading away DJ, Sanders, were going to have to pay BC. That's a lot on the offensive side of the ball. Scoring points is great but if you can't stop anyone you're kind of screwed and we can't stop anyone at RB.

Being a GM seems to becoming more and more about how to build a team using the rookie contracts of the big paydays at QB, CB, WR and DE. Devoting 15-20% of cap space to a single player is crippling unless they're in the greatest of this generation conversation. Not many guys are but a whole lot want to be paid like they are ie Burns.

Yes he did. Just more proof that winning that trophy doesn't guarantee NFL success.

Chris Weinke won the Heisman too.

I don't hate Colorado. He may be the top prospect on a lot of boards, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best at a single position. Using Madden scores here for ease, so could be an overall 99, 97 as a WR and 96 as a CB and still be 2nd ranked at each position. He won't be used on the field playing both ways. He's going to be one or the other with possibly a play or 2 a game on the other side of the field. It's not a slight against him at all, just an observation of how it's going to work once he reaches the NFL level.

Cam also didn't play 2 positions. Little different comparison there.

Gotta wonder if there's something else in the water in Pittsburg.

Wouldn't 300 yards and 2 TDs passing be considered "lighting it up" vs. the Eagles? I take "lighting it up" to be an exceptional performance, not just NFL standard play. Don't you?

I'm a Michigan guy and I admit I haven't watched much of Johnson or Graham this year because Michigan has been so bad this year. Saturday was the biggest game of the season, but man it was that painful. Defense was fun to watch, but that offense. That was just a kick in the boys over and over again.

Still better than Joey Slye.

Still remember listening to the Locked on Panthers podcast the day after that game and Julian said that Bryce had mentioned he didn't bother to look off Bates on one of those INTs. That always struck me as an odd thing.

Always need to have fresh guys to rotate into the trenches. Maybe it's because my football career ended from a knee injury, but man it's easy to have a knee fold the wrong way and boom, your season is done.

It doesn't matter if they're pro level teammates or not. Bama consistently has one of the top recruiting classes in the country. The best talent is coming to Alabama vs a majority of other schools they play. It is true and it's documented.

I think it probably had something to do with his career about to be over. He's always been surrounded by the best talent and with that comes some ease in doing your job. When everyone on your team is at least 2 or 3 star better recruits than 90% of the opposing team. In the NFL everyone is 5 star recruits. I think it was probably a wake up call that either he starts actually putting in the work, or he was going down as one of the biggest busts in NFL history.

Figure out how to get Kyle Pitts from Atl. For whatever reason, the Falcons hate throwing to him. Pairing him with Sanders could be a nasty combo. Add T Mac in the 1st and everything else to the D. Bring in competition at the QB position because we need that still.

We should try and trade for Kyle Pitts. Atlanta is determined not to use him and prefers a blocking TE. Tremble for Pitts and we'll throw in Sanders too.

Because games cannot ly be manipulated by the refs so much with so many cameras. More cameras means less chance to steer the outcome. This is an entertainment league with as much outcome integrity as the WWE.

Those must be some might tasty meatballs.

The position is valuable but situation allows for better or worse performance from the position. Creative offenses with strong offensive lines seem to have a much easier time plugging and playing RBs. Look at KC, Philly, Detroit. Creative offenses with strong offensive lines. Miles Sanders is a prime example. Behind Philly he had a season to remember. Behind ours, a season to forget.

Regardless of what Bryce does, the team should always be seeking improvement. We need a vet that doesn't bleed dust and a 3rd young QB to groom. Howell is an intriguing option if he could be had for a reasonable price. I don't want to ever rely solely on BY or any other QB for that matter. We've all seen the importance of grooming a backup when Brady went down week 1 and the Pats still won 11. Doesn't matter if it's FA, the draft or even a trade. Try and find someone who can fit the system, plug him in and see what happens. We should always be trying to improve our situation.

My thought is Bryce needs a great cast around him. He's always been surrounded by 4 and 5 star recruits and Alabama could have as many as they could recruit. Unfortunately in the NFL there's this little thing called a salary cap and we can't keep that kind of talent around him unless we're sacrificing somewhere else or we have near perfect draft classes. My biggest fear is he's going to be just good enough to get to year 4 and we're going to need to pay him 40m per season and the talent pool around him is going to suffer and then we'll be back to mediocre except on a 200m 5 year contract.

Not really. They're gonna let Daboll guide them right to a top 3 pick, which is what we should have done with Rhule.

The offer was 2 1sts and a 2nd. That's not a Panthers fan valuation. That's an NFL team GM valuation trying to win a SB before Aaron Donald retired and we said no because we were going to build around him except we didn't and ended up getting a 2nd rounder. We would have gotten a higher draft pick for Burns this year with the Rams trade than we did, and for what? 2 whole wins. Just because the Panthers have had the scrapings of a Porta potty for GMs doesn't mean competent teams or people who look at statistics know that your chances of getting starter quality talent on rookie contracts is higher in the 1st round. Maybe we should look at how successful teams do their player valuations, because they're winning back to back seasons and counting, and well, here's to year 6 of losing in row under Tepper. 3 wins so far this year. 50% improvement. Go team.

Who cares about entertaining? Burns was not a difference maker. He never took over a game like a TJ Watt. He couldnt set the edge or defend the run. He was consistently taken out of plays by a single linemen, TE, or even a WR, and he disappeared 2 on 1. Did he get sacks? Sure. But he was never top 5 elite. He did one thing. Rush the passer. Hassan Reddick did it better and played a more complete game. Teams recognize value in future firsts. It's why you didn't see us trade away a 1st, 2nd and 3rd and DJ or the 9ers trade away 3 3rds for Trey Lance. Other teams don't want that for high picks. They want future 1sts because they do have value and when your team is hot garbage, you need as much elite talent as possible.