Mr. Scot

I wound up watching it with a group of Cowboy fans. I won't lie. It was funny

One other thing to think about (just because I saw this)... Great as Luke was at so many things, that goofy skipping touchdown celebration gets me every time

Reactions to preseason so far don't exactly make me optimistic on that front

I'd actually been meaning to post this but just hadn't gotten around to it yet. It's from Albert Breer's most recent MMQB. Here's more... And that something would be important to the Panthers, and still is, as they set the course for Young’s first season, with the No. 1 pick now entrenched as their starter. Life in the NFL for a rookie quarterback isn’t easy. Usually, the high picks wind up on rebuilding teams, or with first-year coaches, or both, and that only adds to the challenge of making the leap in competition. That means that the player in question doesn’t just have to be talented, but he also has to be physically, mentally and emotionally tough to withstand the normal highs and lows that are part of the normal road map in making the transition to the pros. The Panthers, in doing their research, found that Young had those qualities in spades—which was not just important but also essential, because Reich and his incoming staff were always realistic about what their young quarterback’s first year, regardless of which one they took after trading up for the No. 1 pick, would look like. “We just watched the tape, talked to the guy,” Reich says. “Mentally, emotionally, physically, he does everything you have to do to be elite at that position. I say all that, and you’re dependent on so many other things—it’s not going to come easy. It’s going to be an up-and-down journey, because it always is. It just is. Our expectations should be that. Anything above that would mean, not that it’s up and down, it would mean it’s just a little less rocky. “There will no doubt be rocky times.” Friday at least gave Young a window into that. He played two series against the Giants and finished 3-of-6 for 34 yards. He was sacked. He got hit a bunch. He hung in there. There was some good and a bunch of bad, and Young kept swinging, proving, again, the Panthers right in how he was handling not being on a team that had 90% of its games won the minute it got off the bus. So that’s where it’d be easy to say in doing so, he earned the respect of his teammates. But he’s already done that. And done it mostly, to this point, with how he’s carried himself. “It’s just his demeanor,” left tackle Ickey Ekwonu says. Veteran receiver Adam Thielen echoes that, adding, “It’s kind of a combination of his demeanor, his confidence, his humbleness, and then making plays on the field.” So far the Panthers feel great about what they have in their No. 1 pick. “Everybody sees how mature he is,” says veteran pass rusher Justin Houston, who just got to Carolina. “A lot of guys that I see, when you’re a quarterback, it takes a year where they get embarrassed to understand this isn’t college. You got to go put that work in. With him, you see that already. He understands. He’s the first guy in the building and the last one to leave. That’s hard to find as a guy that’s just got in the league and hasn’t played a true snap yet. He understands at a high level what it’s going to take.” Of course, he had to prove he could play, too, and that also happened fast. There was a play in training camp, earlier in the month, on which the pocket closed around the diminutive Young. He felt the rush, stepped up, kept his eyes down the field, went through his progressions and unloaded the ball. At his release point, the receiver, on the far sideline, was still a step and a half from going into his break. When he turned, the ball was there, and the throw, and in particular the anticipation exhibited on it, drew an audible response from the coaching staff. He had a couple of nice moments against the Giants, too. On his third throw, Reich called an RPO. Young put the ball in running back Chuba Hubbard’s belly, pulled it and, with Kayvon Thibodeaux and a blitzing Xavier McKinney in his face, delivered a dart to fellow rookie Jonathan Mingo, who caught the ball, bounced off a defender and went for 15 yards. Three plays later, on his second third down, this one a third-and-6, he put the ball in a spot where only Thielen, running to the sideline, could get it to pick up the first down. And sure, both plays were small moments, but each showed the command he’s exhibited in camp, command that has the players harboring the same sort of high hopes for their quarterback that the front office and coaching staff have. “It’s his ability to kind of feel for the game,” Thielen says. “A lot of times, it takes time to get that feel. For him, it seemed to come pretty natural. … It’s the timing mixed with feel and comfort, and being able to make the defense do what you want them to do, but still do it in timing. A lot of times, guys, they want to do that, so they do all those things, then they’re late because they’re trying to do too much. There’s a lot more feel to it. … You start seeing things with him, you’re like, O.K., that’s different in a good way.” Along those lines, Young’s already showing command at the line and setting protections, and that part’s been pretty spotless, too. “He’s been on the money when it comes to that sort of stuff,” says Ekwonu. “I don’t think he’s made one mistake yet when it comes to finding the blitz. Defenses do a pretty good job of scouting that stuff, and he kind of reads right through it. Definitely impressive.” All of it, too, is what his defensive teammates see in practice. “How smooth he is in the pocket, I’m telling you, he’s smooth,” Houston says. “He moves like a vet. It’s crazy. Most quarterbacks, they see you, they go one read, and they take off running. They’re young, and everything is fast on them. With him, it’s like, I’ve been here before. He got a confidence and a poise about himself like, I’ve been here. I’ve done that. I think it’s come from his preparation. That gives you a whole lot of confidence when you put in that much work. That’s real confidence. That’s why he’s quiet. He doesn’t have to say much.” And this is the part where you have to be reminded, again, that Young’s passer rating the other night was 68.1. There was a play in the Panthers’ preseason opener against the Jets where the New York coaches thought their pass rush had broken Young’s collarbone. Instead, the rookie bounced right off the turf, impressing his opponents, and returned to the huddle, just like how he responded against the Giants to a game-opening three-and-out with a 15-play, 62-yard drive that required consistency from the quarterback, and ended with a 37-yard field goal. These are small steps, of course. But they’re important, and necessary, ones. “It’s not going to be a straight line up,” says Reich. “He has to go through some really low lows, because it’s going to help propel him to new highs. If you don’t ever go through the really hard times, if you have upside, which he does, and a high ceiling, going through the low lows only makes the ceiling that much higher, in my opinion. That’s if you’re made of the right stuff. He’s made of the right stuff. There’s gonna be some tough moments. There’s going to be some bad games. I hope there’s not, but if there’s none, he’d be the first ever. “We’ll have some tough losses. Those are going to be important in how we respond to those, in how he responds as a player and how he responds as a leader.” And yet, already, Young’s leaving little doubt, to those around him, about just how those will go.

Yep, and there are others who have left the organization (or no longer cover it) that can speak freely. I've yet to see anybody say "You know what? Matt Rhule just didn't have enough input."

Come on, dude. I know you like to stir sh-t up but this is out there Marty needed to be fired long before Rhule ever got here. He was bad at what he did. That didn't change just because Rhule got full control. And every GM does what the coach wants regardless of how the org chart is arranged. They may disagree on specifics, but their whole purpose is to get the coach what they need for their system. That is unless you think they're pulling some kind of weird "thesis / antithesis / synthesis" experiment. Also to be clear, nobody other than Rhule has spoken out directly on their version of events. The stories are coming from people with inside connections (Gantt, Person, others). I suppose you'll suggest they're making things up or just spouting what the team tells them, but that's the kind of excuse you typically make when you're just making sh-t up that you have no basis for. Well, except for David Tepper being in the room with you of course

Dude, this is some of the heaviest bullsh-tting I've ever seen you do The whole "I never believe anyone" bit actually translates to "I make up my own narrative in my head and no amount of reported facts from actual sources will change my mind", which pretty well sums up your posting. I guess David Tepper is sitting next to you in the room again

Meanwhile... Anybody shocked?

The guy who wanted Darnold (and Bridgewater...and Mayfield) was fired. The guy who pushed for Corral was replaced. The only trade for which current leadership bears all responsibility is the one for Young.

Yep. It's been ridiculous to the point of a irrationality, and it'll probably be magnified to the nth degree if we lose early games. Have said it multiple times: Under normal circumstances, you don't really know what your team is until around midseason. And for a team that's just starting out new like we are, it can take even longer. What you want to see this year is foundation building and general improvement, especially near season's end. Anything beyond that is gravy.

That Rhule was given full control was documented multiple times well before his firing. You can choose not to believe it if you want, but you do so with no source other than your own ass. Every reliable source says otherwise.

You want to believe Matt Rhule's version of events? Okay then

No he isn't...

That'd be my answer too. Won't surprise me if it's also the team's answer.

It'd be no surprise if Taylor reached out to Frank Reich, but I don't know whether the Panthers braintrust would be interested. Where he ends up likely depends heavily on what the Colts are asking.

There's actually a pretty simple answer to that

Heh

I don't think he's as stupid as the character he plays on the radio, but the big question is are there members of the fanbase that are really that dumb? For the answer to that, all you have to do is look back to this very board last year before Rhule was let go. And then realize that this board is just a relatively small percentage of fans. So yeah, never underestimate people's capacity for stupidity.

Actually, thanks to some inside reporting, we do know some things. I'll relate what I can remember off the top of my head: The quarterback decisions were all headed up by Rhule, though word is Ben McAdoo had a significant influence on the pick of Matt Corral. The lone exception would be the fifth year option decision on Sam Darnold. That choice was reportedly made by Fiterer. Thomas Fletcher was a Rhule pick. Likewise, he had some say in the pick of Chubba Hubbard (but no, not just because of his wife) and others. Robbie whatever his name is now was mostly Rhule, as was Haason Reddick. The Reddick acquisition though was partially owed to Pat Stewart thanks to his connections with Reddick's former team. Similarly, the significant Temple / Baylor presence on the roster (especially in the first season) had Rhule's hand in it. Nobody's ever denied that. Obviously, all the coaching hires were by Rhule. Although word is he was forced to go "outside his circle" in his last offseason, the final choices and approval were still his. As far as the majority of the roster building, for the second and third seasons under Rhule, that would have been Fitterer. I'd be hesitant to put a percentage on it, but we know the backstory from a couple of sources. Rhule learned from his first and earliest experiences in Carolina that full personnel scouting and analysis was way too big of a job for someone who also had the head coaching duties. Even with the diminished influence in year three, he still retained final say, had certain guys he insisted on and headed up the most important decisions (like QB) but didn't necessarily do a lot of the legwork. We know also that Rhule had certain guys he listened to (Evan Cooper being an important one) and he did push for certain people to be in personnel and/or the front office, but Fitterer had the majority of the control over the scouting department. There's probably more if we go back to some of the old stories, but that's most of what I remember.

Aaaasand here we are...

Definitely want to see this...

No.