vorbis

I know it's literally sponsored propaganda, but tbh this video made me feel, for the first time this year, that the culture of the team might actually be changing. all that talk from Morgan and Canales, and it might actually be happening

Robert Hunt is the biggest home run FA acquisition this team has had in a long while

fans looking at the "up to $X" numbers on a contract announcement, doing simple division, and thinking it will be an $X/year cap hit is a tale just as old, though. $15M guaranteed over 4 years. hope to see the numbers, and wonder if they even shifted any of the guaranteed money into this year since he signed mid-season. if he drops off a cliff then it won't be difficult to get out of that contract. otherwise he's clearly a cornerstone of the offense and they're rewarding the right kind of player. deep breaths!

the constant "process blue" washing of the Tepper foundation's every dollar donated is corny as hell. I liked it better when you heard tell of nice things the owners did from a 3rd party. with some credibility and positive word of mouth. not tooting your own horn every time you give a little scratch.

I will say that the vibe I'm getting from the new coaches, and even from Morgan, as stiff as he is, is authenticity. not overshooting in their ambitions, practical in their coaching and in their thinking, and living who they are in every setting.

*looks around* Trevin Wallace has a chance of being a good player

yes, and I don't think it's a question.

damn, I screwed up and watched a bunch of Mike Williams plays last night and now I want the Panthers to sign him. I don't think I realized how many amazing plays he has on top, top corners, and against double teams. his highlight reel stacks up against anybody's. I know he has an injury history but he has legit skills. I wonder how much the allure of playing close to home matters to him.

watching some Dolphins footage and yeah, Hunt looks like a monster. a tone-setter. liking it.

thinking about it and wondering if the "Corbett to Center" talk is just the front office source covering up for what would otherwise be an obvious, visible from space, need to draft a center early, since there isn't one on the roster right now.

that's what a source told Joe Person. Corbett to center.

Damien Lewis to Panthers

5 years, 63M guaranteed with 26 in a signing bonus means the contract is a lot more cap friendly than it initially appears. plenty of flexibility. the splashy 100M number is good for his agent to show to prospective clients. the cap number for the Panthers should be a lot easier to swallow.

I have no idea how good Hunt is. but obviously making a big investment in the interior OL for the 2nd year QB was always going to be the plan. not surprised it's a market-setting deal. but mannnnn they better be right holy crap

Robert Hunt to Panthers

I think a better coach and leader than Shanahan could make it work with an accomplished coach like Wilks. I see firing him after one season as a sign of weakness. yes he's a great offensive mind, but maybe he's not all that as a HC. if Wilks was good enough to hire after righting the Panthers ship, then he's good enough to retain after a year that saw SF finish 4th in total defense and stifle KC in the first half of the Super Bowl. I think Shanahan just didn't trust Wilks. with an offensive-minded head coach, Wilks had total purview over the defense. and yet here we are in the Super Bowl and Shanahan is calling time out because he doesn't like a play call that Wilks is making. literally his job. just a bad sign all around, to me. raw deal is exactly what Wilks got.

Will Harriger QB coach

the amount of people talking about Evero primarily in terms of compensation picks is kinda weird ngl. sure there's a rule that dictates what happens if he stays another year and then leaves for a head coach job down the line, but the football counts more. he's a good coach. he's done good things here already, and nobody will be surprised when he finally gets a head coaching spot. I wouldn't want him to stick around if he doesn't want to, but he has lots of reasons to want to stay. it's a good place for him to be, he IS valued, he's already here, and he will have pretty much total purview over the defense here. anywhere else he goes as a DC, even if he has a good relationship with the head coach, he'll be starting from scratch yet again. he turned down the interim HC opportunity in Denver after Hackett was fired (fair enough), and wasn't offered the interim role here for probably a variety of reasons. reasons totally unrelated to his potential success or failure as a future HC, I would assume. but turning down the interim role, leaving Denver to come to Carolina, and then leaving Carolina again after a year when he has a path to stay, this is not the kind of story that will be an asset to him in HC interviews. even if it's not fair to him, which it probably isn't. he has a lot to gain by continuing to build the defense in Charlotte. the pieces are still all there. when asked why he took the job after not getting the HC job last cycle, he mentioned his relationship with Tepper and the pieces on defense that the Panthers had. nothing about both those things has changed. I know the best way he can show everyone how wrong it was that he was passed over for the HC role two years in a row...

voted Raheem Morris. I think he's kind of the safest bet because he's already had some success as a head coach, then a bit of a unique situation and he lost his gig. he's had a bunch of years to think about what he can do better, and he's still relatively young. everyone speaks highly of him (have for years now), and he can get players' respect. as good a starting point as any. and I imagine he has good contacts throughout the league to build a formidable staff (that will succeed as one, unlike others we could mention).

fact of the matter is, due to the overall dysfunction with the franchise, any stated strategy or plan for dealing with something along the lines of hiring new football leadership is going to be looked at by both fans and by football talking people as the wrong move, or worthy of healthy skepticism. and it will remain this way until the franchise finds some sustained success.

Byrd already has an injury settlement. he's off the roster/IR.

wonder if this means the writing is on the wall to some extent for Brandon Smith. because he seems tailor-made to be competing for a backup LB spot in the middle.

damn

In this period of optimistic offseason puff pieces, I enjoyed this timely catch-up with Tommy Tremble from Mike Kaye. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/article276127776.html it's easy to focus on Tremble's comments about this year vs last year, and god knows there's a lot of material to mine there. but I'm just appreciative that he feels equipped to develop his game under Reich/Brown/Lilly. he definitely has the physical tools to succeed, and now he's hopefully getting the coaching he needs to take his game to the next level.

people should definitely make enormous-scale conclusions about a single play in OTAs I don't think this has ever backfired before honestly