Khyber53

Sorry for not knowing, but what exactly were his character issues? There are character issues and then there are character ISSUES, yanno?

Good luck to him. Never heard of him before, but if he's going to get a shot in the NFL at safety there's no better place for him to be than here. Right time, right coach, wide open competition and we have a need for an inexpensive, coachable and dependable player at the spot. I'm not sure any other coach in the league is as open to giving a UDFA a shot at not just the roster or practice squad but at a starting position even. Still, even with that it's a long, hard climb.

I like Rhule, I really do. What he's done here is essentially what he did at Temple and Baylor in his first season and a half at each. If he builds the same way and gets the same work ethic from his team, we should start seeing results this season and then become world beaters by the next. Still, let's not crown him yet. This is the NFL and it eats head coaches alive and spits first them out every year. There probably isn't a tougher gig to keep hold of or a more high pressure one. We just ended a season at 5-11 (with some optimism), but it was basically the same record the last coach left town with. This year's really a make or break one for the coaching staff (no matter how long that contract is for -- bad results will mean some kind of shake up). The draft we're all cheering and saying how great we did trading back and back and baaaaack. I hope we are all patting ourselves on the back at the end of the season for it and that Rhule didn't just get his guys, but got guys that will compete and win here. Still, there are a lot of big names that we passed up on, so there's some reason to worry about the "could have beens". I'm looking forward to this season and I hope we do great. I hope we can make the play offs. But I do realize that Rhule is a straight from college Head Coach and this is the toughest division in football over the last 20 years. We're staring at two games with the world champions (and probably the best QB to play the game), two games with a Falcons team that still has a dangerous QB and a new coaching staff that wants to win now. And we have the Saints, leaderless and wounded but still a dangerous team. Rhule is a gutsy, gritty guy full of character. I hope he comes out swinging and clears the room.

Looks great, maybe we will have the new version of Double Trouble out there. Mac&Chuba. Hope they put up 3,000 total yards between them.

Welcome back! Now just point that helmet in the right direction and let's get this season going!

That might be a good move, honestly.

I don't know about Darnold having the future mortgaged by this, honestly. First, we grab him for basically a second rounder. Secondly, all of the guys we've picked up are foundational pieces that if they work out and he doesn't, they'll still be in place for the next guy. Darnold's got a rough resume` and we've got to see if the game was too big for him or too big for his old coaching staff (HC, OC, QBC). Since those guys got canned for their efforts, it's a fair gamble that their suckage carried over into his game. The question is, did they damage him beyond repair? Did he ever have it in the first place and was he a bad choice made by bad coaches and a bad GM? We don't know yet. Rhule seems to think he can fix the mess and that Darnold is the kind of guy he's looking for. This year and next will be relatively cheap if we get a decent to good QB for our efforts, and it'll be a steal if he's better than that. If he's disappointing, which honestly there is a chance of, we're back to picking high and we're on the hook for $22 million over two years, basically no worse than we were with Teddy. I sure wish I could read the tea leaves and see where this will end up, but I can't. Just going to have to trust the coach and the process. We have to believe that Rhule won't be taking all seven years of his contract to build a winning squad. Don't we?

Pretty good article, but it's soooo early in the process. Hoping with all of the "no names" in that bunch, a couple rise to prominence.

This could pay instant dividends.

I wasn't happy with the trading down, and down, and down. I think we passed up on some sure things in an effort to get quantity. I've been told to trust the process and the board, trust that the coach knows what he needs and our new GM knows what he is doing. Okay, I'm certainly going to try. September is a long way off and it's going to be a long wait to see the plan fall into place. I just don't think I've got the patience for another 5-11 (6-11/5-12 now) year in me. If we can't begin moving forward then I'm going to lose all faith in Rhule. We've got some outstanding talent here in CMC and Moore, Brown and Burns, Chinn and Moton. We've got a kicker that will probably break the longest FG record (and miss a hunk of them, too) and a former first round draft pick QB who can hopefully become what he should have been. I just don't want 2021's season to be like the one before: a 16-week binge watching of Scrubs. I don't want to see another rendition of the "Team that almost won."

No love lost for the Iggles here. That is a franchise that always tends to make chicken poop from chicken salad.

Sure hope so. He certainly was something special, though. Like Julius Peppers and Steve Smith, there won't be another one like him; they are just legendary players, not just legendary Panthers.

We haven't been so far.

When a starting LT who is decent to good just gets cut for cap reasons, you have to wonder two things: 1: Is there an injury or off field issue that hasn't come to light yet? 2: If the player is fine health and issues-wise and is still ready and willing to compete, what is the paycheck demand going to be? LTs aren't cheap, reliable ones are downright expensive and great ones are ludicrous. This guy would rather try the market after the draft than renegotiate his contract? You might get a very good guy for your team. You might get someone with a hidden health issue. You will probably over pay for them. Maybe we pass on this and see what shakes out in training camp for our guys.

He'll end up in Pittsburgh. This is Big Ben's last ride, they'll want to protect him with a steady guy.

And I'm not sure we even keep 6. We may go in with five receivers considering how many linemen we have to rotate on offense and defense.

Whoever is willing and able to return kicks and/or punts will be there. Which one of those guys is brave enough? I think willingness to play special teams is going to be a huge deal for making the team with Rhule. He wants football guys who are hungry, aren't divas and are willing to buy in. He wants guys who give more than just a warm body in the receivers room and a choice seat by the Gatorade table.

That kid can become a monster. Just needs a lot of polish. It takes more than "Hulk Smash" to win in the big league. Of course, being able to Hulk Smash-it will really help!

After everything looked like we were just passing on adding to the line (those first and second round picks just flew by) they did pick up a haul of warm bodies to throw in there. There could be some promise and I'm beginning to think Christensen could be steal and our answer at LT. Some folks point at size and arm length but the guy measures out a lot like Jordan Gross. If he plays like Jordan, then it will be the steal of the entire draft. What's the chance of that happening, though, right? Jeremy Chinn turned out to be the steal of last year's draft, so maybe the third round is our magic round. Overall, we have options and some youth in the mix for the offensive line. Hope we can get five guys who can gel and give us at least a bit more stability.

They really moved the chess pieces around a lot. Do they have a real plan or are they just playing crazy and hoping something sticks? I don't understand their picks last night but it's not like they called me ahead of time and laid out their strategy. Maybe they grabbed some unsung heroes, maybe they missed some better choices. Just going to wait and see how it plays out on the field. I remember back in the day going "Jake Who?" when this unknown Cajun guy was trotted out just before halftime of a losing game. I hope I can be just as pleasantly surprised by this season as I was by that one.

No, I don't think that is going to happen at all. We're in that "everyone's lawyered up and building cases" part of the ordeal. Until it goes to court, and it might not for a long time (good lawyers keep filing extension after extension), no one is going to want to touch him, in a literal or figurative sense. The sheer number of accusations is just overwhelming. Is he guilty or not? I have no idea and no one outside of the individual situations knows it. Billionaires with tons of advisors and legal councils of their own probably aren't going to extend an offer of any sorts for the time being. Many will watch the ownership of the Texans with more than just a bit of entertainment in their eyes. Remember, we (and even millionaire QBs) aren't anything other than game pieces. Watson is just basically a Pokemon card, a rare one, but nothing more than a piece of paper to them if his perceived value is threatened.

I can't agree with you and I can't disagree with you. Outside looking in you have to say we passed on some names that should have gotten attention. Inside looking out maybe they got players that were way, way, way undervalued. We have a ton of late round picks, picks of people generally that aren't going to make it to the field and possibly not to the final roster. On the other hand, they could be saying it's time to say goodbye to any third or fourth year players that are just living on the special teams squad and bringing in new, cheaper, blood. We've got to trust in the process, I know. We've got to post better than 5-11, though, this too I know.

Honestly, I don't know exactly what to think of the picks. There was a lot of talent coming off the board as we traded back and back and back. Yes, we picked up more picks, but all would be for apparently lesser quality players. I just look at the three players and wonder if they didn't lose some people off of their draft boards before we made these picks. If not, then our scouts are either doing a massive job of finding diamonds or we've got some odd ways at looking at potential. Taking a WR from LSU just seems like a Brady luxury pick when we have such needs on the line. Maybe we're looking at long term cost savings because after next year Robby is going to be even more expensive. Who knows? Out of all the tackles that went off the boards after we traded down, this was the OT we went with? It's a bit of a head scratcher but maybe there's some skills there that outweigh the measurables. Tommy Tremble... gotta love the name. But beyond that he's a who? guy to pick at this stage. I'm giving the picks an optimistic but shaky B.

After innumerable trade downs and seeing a lot of familiar names fly off the list to other teams, we grabbed three guys to be on the team. Who was passed over no longer really matters. Whether they were the best players that could have been picked doesn't matter anymore. They are all Panthers from here on, and I'm going to cheer for them. Here's hoping that they all become stars in their own rights.

So, we grab a guy out of LSU that Joe Brady is familiar with. A guy that has injury problems, including foot stress fracture issue that may or may not have come back up again in his final season. We play the Greg Olsen waiting game with a WR's foot while we could have picked literally any other position where there was more need? I guess, if anything, he'll have a lot in common with the walking wounded free agents we picked up this offseason while they are hanging out in the trainers' room.