Mr. Scot

So a reporter asked Matt Rhule today if he thought it would be fair to ask Teddy Bridgewater to mentor Sam Darnold. Rhule's response? "I don't really believe in fair or unfair in professional sports." Loosely translated: "I don't give a sh-t." Ron Rivera always wanted to help be sure players ended their careers on their best terms. Matt Rhule doesn't really seem to be especially worried about that. He appears to be more of a "do whatever it takes to win" guy. I'm curious which approach fans are more comfortable with.

I think it's more likely he'd finish with less than 20% winning seasons over his tenure.

Well if he follows his usual pattern, they'll just put him in a motion capture suit and superimpose Payton's image over him.

That's the first Panthers press... conference I can remember that included New York media.

Well, the GM that brought him aboard was kind of a dumbass so that one's understandable.

Andy Serkis

You're the only one here pathetically trolling a fan forum for attention.

Man, on this format, Darnold comes off seeming even younger than he actually is.

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.