Mr. Scot

Oh sure. Teams give their presumed starter permission to seek a trade all the time.

David Newton asked him the exact same question he asked Matt Rhule.

I get the impression he's already met David Tepper.

Reading your spin on a couple of things makes me doubt you actually read the full article, but accepting the premise... Your ideas, especially about the 49ers trade, are more fitting of this being a spur of the moment thing rather than something that was months in the making. I get that most people's ideas of how/why somebody did something tend to revolve around "well, that's how I would have done it", but sometimes it's better to read what actually happened

On now...

Read the story. They initiated the trade talks long before that trade happened, and had Douglas been more willing to move forward it likely would have gotten done sooner.

Because he's not a fallback. They genuinely wanted him.

CM's good about stuff like this. FYI though: The Panthers typically post the full video later in the day on their YouTube channel.

I would add to the Darnold critics excited about the fifth year option answer and thinking it means something, you probably shouldn't be. Rhule didn't say that they won't, only that they hadn't yet. There was talk they might try to rework his contract to split the difference over two years, so there may just be some finagling before it's official.

FYI: Darnold should be coming up at some point today.

Aaaaaand Rhule finishes his press conference by leaning back and rubbing his gut

I don't want to go with anybody that much older.

One answer on Darnold, talking about how his last few years were basically like his Junior and Senior year at college, basically confirm they're going to treat him like a rookie.

Actually just said they haven't officially done so. Didn't necessarily express whether any decision had been made on it.

"I don't necessarily believe in 'fair' in sports." Boy, is that a huge change from Ron Rivera.

Live now...

I go back to saying I think this is truly year one of the rebuild rather than year two. These are moves like I might expect in a year one.

Thaaaat's not a good definition.

You and Ellis... I get Stiller, though I'm not that sold on the idea. He basically plays the same two or three characters in every movie and Payton doesn't fit any of them. Frankie Muniz, though? I hope you're kidding, John.

That's not bad.

Fields second pro day comes first. Both he and Lance are basically trying to sell themselves to Shanahan. Last I saw, only the 49ers and Patriots confirmed attending (doesn't necessarily mean we won't be there, though). Hadn't seen anything on who'll be coming to watch Lance other than Lynch and Shanny.

King left Sports Illustrated for NBC a while back (don't remember when; I'm terrible with dates). Albert Breer does the MMQB now, and honestly I think he's better than King.

Takeaways from this (extensive) article… Both Fitterer and Rhule were fans of Darnold based on prior experiences. They were still extremely thorough, though. Both head coach and GM went through the film of Darnold’s entire Jets career as well as his college tape, and ultimately liked what they saw. At the time of the initial contact, both teams were still in the early stages of their draft prospect evaluations. That’s why Joe Douglas said “keep in touch”, and of course they did. (Side Note: The phone call story is pretty funny) Having read again about how strongly the Panthers want to keep their picks in the first three rounds, I’m a tad dubious of the idea that the Panthers might trade up. Granted it’s still possible. I’m just not necessarily expecting it. Similarly, the more I read, the less I believe we were ever willing to give up as much for Deshaun Watson as people theorized. Would we have traded for him? Absolutely. Would we have given up the kind of crazy, Herschel Walker 2.0 trade packages people were suggesting, though? Eeehhh, not so convinced on that point. One more thing I’m not sold on: the idea that Darnold is a “just in case” deal. As mentioned, Rhule and Fitterer were already talking about Darnold right after the Stafford deal fell through / well before their draft prospect evaluations were very far along, and they were willing to go ahead and make the trade even then. Honestly, I think it’s quite possible that if Joe Douglas hadn’t wanted to wait, this trade might have come a lot sooner. As to now, I know the possibility of taking a quarterback is still there and I get the rationale behind it, but count me in the crowd that hopes they don’t. Regardless of whether Darnold turns out to be “the guy” or not, there are lingering issues that it’s well past time we fixed. And lastly, I know some of Darnold’s biggest critics are sick of hearing about Adam Gase, but Breer’s elaboration on what he said previously regarding Gase and Darnold just strengthens the case that Darnold’s years under Gase need to be taken with at least one, and probably several, grains of salt.

And just a little more about Darnold himself... I do think there’s one thing everyone should know about Darnold before we move on. Really, there’s a pretty simple explanation for why he played like he did the last couple years—and that boils right down to fit. I don’t really know how sold Adam Gase ever was on Darnold (he preferred Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen ahead of the 2018 draft, when he was still in Miami), and I do think the result of that was that the Jets never bent quite enough to make their system work for him the last couple of years. It’s easy to blame Gase for that, and some of it is on him. But it’s also on those doing the hiring in 2019, who by then had to know the player, and how he’d fit the coach he was about to work under. Fact is, Darnold was relatively raw coming out of USC, hadn’t had the classic quarterback training growing up in Orange County that a lot of others have (because he was a multisport athlete in high school) and played in a fairly simple system in college that allowed him to make the most of his athletic gifts. Coming to the pros, he simply wasn’t ready to run a complex system—and that’s not to say he wouldn’t eventually be able to get there. It was at the point where I know it was suggested to the coaches that they take line calls and “Mike” points off of him and give those responsibilities to the center, to try and get Darnold playing faster. And it never happened. That’s also why I think the Shanahan system is seen as a good fit for Darnold—because that system takes much of the mental burden off the quarterback. So now, as I see it, it’ll be on Panthers OC Joe Brady to tailor his scheme in a way that works for Darnold. And prioritizing getting Darnold playing fast again would be a good place to start.

Continuing on the aftermath... • The relationship between the Panthers and Teddy Bridgewater was already strained (trade rumors will do that), but Carolina’s doing its best to manage the situation now. Bridgewater has permission to seek a trade, and Rhule has left the door open to having Bridgewater back to compete with Darnold for the job. One important nuance here: $10 million of his $17 million base salary for 2021 is fully guaranteed, so there’s a ceiling for how big a pay cut Bridgewater would be willing to take to help Carolina facilitate a trade. • Acquiring Darnold gives the Panthers a lot more flexibility with the eighth pick—but it does not preclude them from taking a quarterback. The 49ers’ deal certainly sparked the last set of talks between the Jets and Panthers on Darnold. All Fitterer and Rhule had to do was start to count the quarterback-needy teams in front of them to know the chance one they valued would fall to them had dwindled. And yet, if the right one gets to them, they’d likely still pounce. This just allows Rhule and Fitterer to be true to the board, with the ability to fill corner and tackle needs (and not press the QB need) there, and good players at those positions expected to be available when Carolina’s on the clock. And tucked in there is the Panthers’ all-in approach to getting the quarterback spot right. At first, it was an aggression to look for an upgrade in Stafford, even though Bridgewater was, for the most part, fine last year. In the middle, it was turning over every rock, from Watson to Darnold. In the end, it could mean overstocking the position a little, and if you look at Fitterer’s history it’s not hard to figure where he’d have gotten that idea. Fitterer worked in Seattle for 20 years, was there for the duration of the Matt Hasselbeck era, and then saw how his boss, John Schneider, kept taking swings at quarterbacks. Seattle had Hasselbeck back for a year. The Seahawks dealt for Charlie Whitehurst and they signed Tarvaris Jackson. And then they inked Matt Flynn to relatively pricey deal in 2012, with Schneider having been a part of drafting Flynn in Green Bay in 2008. At that point, most figured the Seahawks were done for that offseason at quarterback. But Schneider didn’t let his pride get in the way of his draft board—and he didn’t hesitate to take an intriguing, undersized QB prospect out of Wisconsin in the middle of the third round. That prospect, Russell Wilson, beat Flynn out to start in camp, and the rest is history. History, clearly, that Fitterer is carrying with him.