Khyber53

Hey, we only have so many seasons of Panthers football to watch in our lives. Why write one of these off before it ever starts. Who are we, the Browns? We made it into the play-offs last year with a frikkin' losing record. If we can do that, we can do anything! Cry if you want to, but I won't give up until they close down the season officially. And until we get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, I'm still pulling for us to win the Super Bowl. If you don't go into a season like that, then what the hell are you watching football for? Go play Madden.

We lost a second year wide receiver, a good one, but still just a second year wide receiver. Someone who wouldn't have gotten a shot will get one this year, now. Last year, Cam didn't have Smitty, so he had to look for Benjamin. This year he doesn't have Benjamin, so he will have to look for whoever will lead the WRs. A good QB, with his contract, his experience, can make it work and can become better because of it.

Okay, let's get a grip here. We're adults but people are whining and crying like babies about how unfair it is and woe is me we are going to suck. Bull. It is a real shame that this kid got hurt and I really hope he heals up quickly and well. I want to see him back on the field next year. However, this year did not and will not hinge on Kelvin Benjamin. While he had a great freshman effort with him, there was no guarantee that he wasn't going to have a sophmore slump. And remember, we had a better record the year before he got here than we had last year. Games are won by solid defense (which we have in spades), ball control on offense and the play of the quarterback. Having great WRs is a luxury, but a great quarterback can make average receivers look great. This is going to be Cam's chance to shine and step into the level of greatness we know he can achieve. Kelvin out this year will test us and if our guys really work at it, they will succeed. And it will make for a better team next year. So quit your crying. If there ain't no crying in baseball, there sure as hell shouldn't be in the bleachers of a football stadium.

Here's to hoping what happened was just a painful but very temporary injury. If not, he'll have access to the best in the business to get past this, along with Thomas Davis' unbelievable amount of practical experience in rehabbing this kind of thing. Good players often get to come back, good teams struggle through injuries. Great players are sometimes made by an incident like this, and great teams rise above adversity. Still sucks, though.

Are we seeing him working with ST any? Looks like the kind of kid you find reasons to put him on the field as often as you can.

Peppers will be the first HoF player we can hang our hats on. Whether you still harbor bad feelings toward him or not, he was still the biggest game changer that has ever played for the Panthers. Pep, in his prime, did things on the field that left announcers speechless. He took over and changed games. He was that unstoppable force that someone can easily get up and champion when it comes time to do HoF selections. There will be a ton of sports writers in that room making those decisions, and they've all had numerous opportunities to write about something Pep either did for their team or to their team. He'll go first ballot. I'd love to see SS in the Hall, but let's face it, he is going to be the guy that fans are going to have to clamor for for years before he gets in, He created too much bad blood with the voters. He's great, he's astounding and we all still love the guy, but his rep outside of here and Baltimore isn't so good.

Two other possibilities include: 6. Oher really wants this year to work and realizes there isn't much competition behind him. He could be taking it easier to keep any chance of injury down in the off season. 7. While the DE can pin his ears back and charge, Oher can't put his full strength or meanness into effect in training camp. While he might maul someone in a regular season situation, in this drill he can't put a full hit on a teammate, especially when he is one of the new guys. I say give him a chance. He'll be better in protection when there is something important on the line.

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but if you haven't read Ready Player One by Earnest Cline, you should. It's the most fun book I have read in decades. Fantastic. His next book, Armada, is coming out in two weeks. It should be a smash hit. Trust me on Ready Player One, this is a book you'll read and re-read.

Sure looks good on paper, and the group has a much better feel to it. Plenty of reason to be optimistic. Won't know for sure until they take the field in week 1, but I think we might be onto something good here.

(Man, there are some weird quote formatting issues.)

Ehh, he got Delhomme prior to training camp the second year he was here. Give him two years and I think the Bears will be contenders. Getting Manning in Denver was a miracle, he'll not find that in Chicago this year. Fox's smash-mouth style doesn't put a premium on the QB position. He needs a good one, but not a great one. It will require a great defense, though, and he can build those. He also has a bit of luck and that seems to work for him.

​Fox being Foxy usually brings a team to the Super Bowl within his first two years. There's a great reason he isn't out of a job for long.

Just can't wait to see it happen on the field. Great post for football and the life adventure stuff!

He'll go to Denver.

​That nuanced push off in the endzone was Proehl's bread and butter play. No one did it better and if I recall, that was his Super Bowl TD pass with us. If a receiver can learn to do it as well as he did, that receiver will have just as long of a career.

Jon's a goner. It's the jaw dropper move if you haven't read the books. And they made a big deal of walking the giant in, the giant that will be the distraction that gets Jon killed. It won't happen before they get Tarley headed south for Maester training, though.

​It's complicated...

One time, I was moving furniture and one of the other guys was a big time body builder. The guy had muscles on top of muscles, a real Mr. Universe kind of guy. The problem was, he couldn't work worth a damn. He could lift weights, but a couch or a dresser and you could see him struggling. There's just a big difference between lifting weights in a controlled environment and having to use your muscle to push, pull and throw things around that are actively and intelligently resisting you. That's what I've always seen in Brandon Williams. You look at him and think he'd make Brian Urlacher crap his pants during a tackle attempt. It just never played out that way on the field.

I hope Bersin breaks through this year and becomes the slot receiver we need. We need him to become a Ricky Proehl type of player. Proehl had this innate knack for finding just the right spot in the center of a defense between the linebackers and safeties. A place where you had an open moment to catch the ball before you got plastered, sort of like the eye of a hurricane. Luckily Bersin has just that guy to teach him now. And while everyone is writing off Cotchery (myself kind of included), Brown isn't exactly a lock for an active roster spot. And Ginn is getting long in the tooth with nine years in the league. Should someone else start lighting it up as a punt returner in training camp, you might see Ginn looking elsewhere for employment. It's still early and these guys haven't been working in pads or 98 degrees with no shade. Someone we're not even expecting might emerge before this is all over with.

I love reading stories like this. Undrafted guys working hard and making it in the big leagues. All hail the underdogs!

Actually, a case can be made that Newton came into a situation that wasn't better than what Jake walked into. Newton had Smitty, Lafell, Olsen, Jeremy Shockey, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, and his offensive line included Jordan Gross, Travelle Wharton and Ryan Kalil. That's a pretty good group. Delhomme had Smitty (who emerged that year), Moose, Proehl, Mangum, Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster (good, but not Double Trouble in their prime), and an offensive line that included Jordan Gross, Todd Steussie, and Jeff Mitchell. Remember also that Smith didn't emerge as a receiving threat until later in the season, netting 7 TDs in the regular season, along with Moose's 3 TDs. I mean you can compare all you want, but the question remains, can Cam win the big one? That's a multi- multi-multi- million dollar question this year. Can you answer that question without going all man crush on Cam?

Umm, I was just comparing their first four years with the team, not 7 years versus 4. Did you not check your math? If you'll look, you'll see in those stats compared, Cam had even played a couple more games than Jake in the four year span. Cam is a great athlete and a heck of a football player, we're lucky to have him. He has not, however, lived up to his billing. I sure hope he does and I will keep cheering him on each Sunday that he is with us. But man, you've got to step back and say, "Okay Superman, show us that it's about something more than this."

And yet, Cam still hasn't reached Jake's level of wins. We're all propping Cam up and stroking his ego. The truth is he hasn't brought us a ring, or even real competitiveness yet. If he doesn't do something great this year, we're going to be sitting there like Falcons fans with Mike Vick, or Chargers fans with Phillip Rivers, or Minnesota Vikings fans with Daunte Culpepper... Look at our franchise quarterback, he's great on paper but meh in the wins column. He's got the skills, he's got the tools and he's been given no end of praise. Let's see him pick a team up and win something big.

There's only one factor that really matters outside of Madden when it comes to franchise quarterbacks -- games won. Right now, in a comparison of first four years with the team, Cam has a record of 30-31-1, which isn't exactly lighting up the field. Heck, it doesn't even compare favorably to Jake Delhomme's record of 35-25 for the same time span. That's Jake Delhomme beating him out as our quarterback over a four year span. Playoff record for each during the same span: Cam 1-2, Jake 5-2. You can throw out all of the excuses for Cam that you want, but when you look back at a quarterback's career, the questions are a) Did they win games? Did they win the big games? So when I look at Cam's record and it can't even match up to Jake's, yeah I would choose Watt over Cam with a roll of the dice as to who our QB would have been. I still hold out hope that Cam will be more of a winner than a celebrity this year. Franchise QBs play in the Pro Bowl, great quarterbacks are busy preparing for the Super Bowl.