Mr. Scot

Are you sure Wilks would have wanted him? Pondered elsewhere whether or not it might have been a similar situation to what Wilks had in Arizona where he wanted one quarterback but team brass and ownership insisted on a different one. Given what we've heard about Tepper, it's not hard to imagine that scenario repeating itself here.

I'm not sure even Dan Marino could function effectively under the conditions Young's been put in.

The Panthers have been a Coryell team through most of their existence, with the exception of George Seifert (WCO) Dom Capers (E-P) and Matt Rhule (whatever bullsh-t that was). These days we're still built for Coryell, we're just not running it.

I'd say runningbacks adapt quicker, honestly. Receivers? Depends on where you get them. Loads of pro coaches have grumbled about how few college receivers know a full route tree these days. I'd probably go for a vet just so we're not lacking in experience or mentorship, but I can understand that approach as well.

Kinda unintentionally reminded me have something else I was thinking of... If there aren't major changes and we go into next year with Bryce Young still the presumed starter, obviously the skill positions will need to be retooled. And as mentioned, there's a path to fixing the offensive line without major personnel changes. But there is one other spot I'd like to see flipped that we haven't mentioned yet. His backup. To be clear, I have nothing against Dalton, but skill set wise he's pretty similar to Young. I'd like to see that changed and have Young backed up with someone who fits more into the Coryell mold of quarterback. That way if things trend like they have this year, we have some options. Mind you, I still think Young can be good and potentially even a franchise quarterback, but not in this scheme. So if there aren't major changes to the scheme, something has to give.

Regarding Wilks, recent events have made me ponder something. Suppose for a moment we had kept Wilks, and we proceeded (just as we did with Reich) to go after a quarterback... Do we believe Wilks would have wanted Bryce Young? If not, then does he just wind up in the same situation he had in Arizona?

I watched a lot of college football early in the season but have tailed off since. Not familiar with him. About the only receivers I ever hear anybody talk about are Harrison Jr and Keon Coleman.

There's definitely evidence, circumstantial though it may be, that points in that direction. There's that, plus the way David Tepper raved about how Young answered questions at their dinner.

Byrd and Smith were more what you look for in a West Coast receiver. Mind you, neither of them were great, but at least they fit the skill set. To put it in terms most can relate to, I'd say mango is best suited for a Muhsin Muhammad type role (once he develops). We also have a Ricky Proehl type in Adam Thielen. What we're missing is a Steve Smith.

Corbett came from McVay's system so I'd expect him to know how to work in that kind of scheme. Moton has a really good mix of power, agility and balance so he suits pretty much anything you want to run. It's from the center-left where the issues start. I still think Bozeman could handle this kind of attack if he had good guard play. Plenty of great centers look like crap when they have to account for poor play beside them. Ickey at left tackle is the most obvious mismatch. But could he handle a left guard spot in a WCO? Probably. At the very least, it's worth a shot. But then of course, we're in the spot of looking for a left tackle again, unless Brady Christensen can handle the job. He's definitely more suited to a WCO outside spot than Ickey, so at least potentially you'd have the option of retooling the line without making major personnel changes. Obviously though, that can't happen this season.

No, they didn't. But before we make the next move, I'd want to know why.

Just the opposite actually... Death of the long pass: Are vertical plays trending toward extinction? E-P, WCO and spread type concepts are way more common these days than the Coryell style approach. There are still longballers of course, but analysis of trends in recent seasons shows things moving in the other direction.

Lemme throw out another theoretical possibility for in-season change... Thomas Brown could potentially be relieved of his duties...and replaced with Jim Caldwell. To be clear, I'm pointing that out as something that could happen as opposed to something that should, but the merits of such a move might bear discussion.

Most of the best WCO quarterbacks in the league had only moderate arm strength. It's not a necessity for this type of attack, or even for an E-P like Brady ran for pretty much his whole career. But you can't have as big a personnel mismatch as we have and expect to still run that sort of scheme.

Unless your name is Nicole, I'm afraid I have my doubts

There's that plus his own admission that he reads Panthers Twitter. It's one thing to get the message that you aren't liked though, quite another to come to the realization that you are actually the bad guy. Nobody comes to that understanding easily. Most don't come to it at all.

Think you can sell David Tepper on that idea?

Not the only solution... For one, I pointed out in the other thread that you could retool the scheme to suit the players we have this year leading into next year. But then of course, there is the option mentioned by others to simply get a quarterback who fits what we're doing rather than one who doesn't. Nice idea perhaps, but how do you do that given what we already gave up to get this quarterback? It's like the story of Tantalus.

You mean replace one player rather than replace ten? I get what you're saying, but I don't foresee that being the approach.

That sort of meeting is pretty much standard operating procedure around the league. Unfortunately, we ended up with ten offensive positions manned by Coryell style players surrounding a West Coast quarterback. So one, how did that happen? But then two, why weren't changes made to the scheme once we saw what we had? This is why I say there's no easy answer and it's not as simple as just firing somebody for the sake of doing something.

Depends on who you believe... Word around the league (reported by reliable sources) is that David Tepper influenced the choice when Reich wanted to go in another direction. It's also possible that Scott Fitterer, who openly professed that he believed in Young before Reich ever got here, pushed things in that direction. Bottom line though: We got what we got. And regardless of who made the pick, the coaching staff decides what scheme to run, and we're running the wrong one despite insistence that the scheme should be tailored to the players rather than the other way around. Oy

By the way, that was supposed to read "the Colts connection" not "Nicole's connection". My voice to text betrayed me. Ended up being ironic as hell though

Now mind you, the flipside to everything just mentioned is that it's still Frank Reich deciding what schemes we run. So even if we didn't get the quarterback he most wanted, it would have been on him to try and adjust to the quarterback we got. In other words...what an unholy mess