vorbis

no one should be surprised that Tepper hired a private investigator to look into this. even if the decision to bring in Watson would not be a good one, which I don't think it would be, getting someone you trust to dig in to the details of a public, messy situation so that you can make the best choice is a good decision.

would imagine this will be a Fitterer hire when it happens. and Fitterer seems to have really good contacts around the league, so I'm expecting a good one after the draft.

good for Ian Thomas, that's a good contract for him. yeah I don't get this move, but let's be clear about the impact of this contract: it's basically a one year prove-it deal with half of the guaranteed money in the first year. it's definitely more than I expected but it's not going to hamper the team after this year. but in a year where they have numerous holes to fill using free agency, I'm surprised they committed that kind of space to a player like Thomas without even letting him test the market. what is it about Ian Thomas that they just had to secure him before the free agency period? I'm not seeing much in that regard.

to my knowledge he's never played or coached in the NFL, giddy up. first time for everything. started as a QB in college and then switched to WR to finish up his career (at UNC I think). he's been an OC and QB coach at the collegiate level, so I do think he's a coach on the rise to some extent. good reports about the performance of his WR at BC this past year, with many setting career highs in catches. that could be the result of a new offensive philosophy as much as anything. at any rate, welcome aboard.

oh no, his staff photo

yes this is not exactly news, as it popped up a few times during the GM search, with people thinking some candidates balked at the setup in Carolina. gotta be honest, I've done a lot of work to try to talk myself into this Rhule experiment working, and he does have some signs of decent decision-making, and I do think he has a lot of qualities that work in a leader (though to be sure he has plenty of, no, a massive amount of signs pointing in the opposite direction). but it's a detail like this that really just sends me crashing down to earth and feeling profoundly apathetic about the near future for the Panthers. there's just no way for the organization to outgrow Rhule's limitations. he has final say, and by many accounts he has a fixation for controlling all aspects of the team, and he seems to double down on it when times are tough. maybe in another coach this would be a good thing, but the story that's being written is bad, bad, baaaaad.

for all the talk about Rhule wanting to "build" something in Carolina, this feels like a hire that will actually accomplish just that. I'm all about it, let's go.

I appreciate the work you did to flesh this stuff out. but for all of the positive aspects of his roles as position coach, none of it has led to tangible results that suggest even an average play-caller. he's a great speaker and can outline a vision from behind a podium, but as a coordinator and head coach he has a dismal track record. great speaker, great ability to sell a vision, great testimonials from some of his peers, but with ample track record of results that belie that vision. reminds me a lot of a certain head coach around here that is currently in the process of underwhelming an entire fan base. obviously if he is hired I will hope for the best, but the warning signs are blinking rather brightly with this candidate.

I didn't know who this guy was so I looked into what he's done in his career. I'm sorry, I'm not seeing it. sure he is on an upward trajectory as a pro coach and may have a bright future, but I am not seeing any kind of track record that indicates an NFL OC who will make a meaningful difference in the 2022 Panthers. in fact the opposite. each time he has been given a more significant role, he has not driven positive results at all. absolutely no signs of him excelling as a play-caller. good record of success as a position coach in the NFL, but as OC at Duke his offenses were barely in the top 1/3rd of scoring in the NCAA. as HC at ECU his offenses got worse, and by the end of his 3 years (9 wins in 3 years btw) his scoring offense was in the bottom 20% of the NCAA. as OC at Maryland the next two years this same pattern emerged. bottom 20%, then bottom 1/3rd of NCAA in points per game. I am not seeing any kind of momentum for him blossoming as OC of the Panthers.

I think Jaycee's still in the walking boot. though I don't know if he still has his leg cart thing. so any hopes of him accelerating his timetable won't start a second before he's walking in a normal shoe.

gotta agree with those saying Henning. if Chudzinski had stayed around longer then he might take it. the success he had in his seasons here had as much to do with the weapons at his disposal as anything else. it's a shame the team never really achieved that potent two tight end look again. not to mention still having Deangelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart, Steve Smith, Mike Tolbert, and a veteran offensive line. I always appreciated his feel for incorporating gadget and trick plays, though. but Henning did more with less, and his offense was one of the few offenses in Panthers history that carried the team at times. you always felt like the team had a chance, even when it came to erasing deficits. and having the ability to build a viable running game no matter who was toting the rock was something I think I took for granted at the time. Brady just isn't in their class at this point. whatever advantage he might have in play design (dubious IMO, especially compared to Chudzinski who basically wrote the playbook that Shula used in 2015) is offset by the lack of feel he has shown for getting weapons involved. he could grow into the best OC the Panthers have had, but reading the tea leaves, he might be gone before that gets a chance to happen.

man, the comp pick rules have got to be the most convoluted, confusing thing in the whole NFL landscape. wtf.

bingo. the pick given is a 2023 pick, which just happens to be the same year the Panthers would get a comp pick for Gilmore if he doesn't re-sign this offseason. and yeah, I'd probably put money on that comp pick being higher than a 6th. of course this is dependent on other FA moves the team might make after this year.

it's not win now mode, it's win mode

lmao. that is a pittance to trade for a former DPOY.

it's always a good idea to get early pickings on premium talent languishing on sinking ships. which is exactly what appears to have happened with CJ Henderson.

re: plans with #26 going forward guys I don't think Donte Jackson is a "just throw him in the slot and he'll be great" guy. he's super fast but he's not an agile, two-way twitchiness type of player. he's a premium, explosive athlete but you have to be able to handle the shake and bake in the slot. that's just not his game. if you want the best version of Donte Jackson, you're probably going to be playing him on the boundary.

just to flesh out an earlier point I made in this thread (lost in the insane activity of posts in here, wheee) calling this a great trade or great asset management is not the same thing as saying it's 100% going to work out in the Panthers favor. Henderson could not work out and this is still a great trade because the process and decision-making around the trade is sound. it's the kind of decision-making that perennially great teams make, and I'm totally here for it.

even if it doesn't quite pan out and CJ Henderson tops out as an average type CB, this is the kind of trade that can build a defense that can withstand losses to injury and whatnot. took advantage of a team in a tough spot with their young player, and got a cornerback who has started every game he's played in two years, with supreme physical traits, and to do that cashed in a bit of draft pick capital, and a player at a position of surplus coming out of camp. that's very very solid asset management.

the answer is o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ "player acquisition"

damn. CJ Henderson is a big-time acquisition, for it to be an in-season trade. you just have to know that Fitterer/Rhule loved him coming out. hard not to speculate what this could potentially mean for Donte Jackson.

this isn't a huge reveal or anything, since if it was a significant strain there's no way in hell that he would have been jogging to the sideline after the injury. but it's still welcome news and welcome clarity on what he's dealing with. thanks for posting

it's hard to agree to this hypothetical, to be honest. you'd have to know that a particular kicker was available. and really, there's only a handful of kickers who would be worth that kind of compensation. it's too easy to get replacement level production by scouring the waiver wire and plucking off practice squads like the Panthers have been doing.