Khyber53

"Loser" Rivera ball was a damn sight better than what we've had since we jettisoned him. We have had the softest, wimpiest team in the league since. Not saying bring Rivera back, but we need someone who can teach a team to push the other guys around, not just hand over their lunch and girlfriends by midway through the first quarter.

We've been rebuilding since before Tepper arrived. He arrived and wanted to turn us into the new Pittsburgh. He turned us into the old Cleveland. If we'd have tried to rebuild the Panthers as the Panthers, we might have had some success. And here we sit with another year of frustration trying to assuage ourselves by dreaming over the #1 pick next season. What a bunch of chumps we are.

Well, that wasn't much fun while it lasted.

I chirped on it all last season: our defense was nowhere near as good as people said. They pointed to some stats but didn't watch the games. Eviro being held onto was a head scratcher for me. I still don't like the 3-4, but our opponents seem to. And lastly, this team still shows no grit.

Shaq Thompson was doing his job, but honestly the other three LBs were nearly non-existent. He had 4 tackles, 6 assists and two TFLs, and that doesn't tell half the story. Clowney, got some pressures, sort of, but he gave out early a lot of times. The other two guys... never heard their names. The biggest problem isn't coaching or even a single player. It's the whole methodology of this team. Ever since Tepper bought the franchise we, or he, has been hell bent on playing a 3-4 defense. And it just doesn't work against our opponents. More tellingly, our scouting team just cannot seem to get the right parts to make it work. Stop. Scrap the thing and go back to a stout 4-3 and start looking for the next Luke-like MLB (if there will ever be one) to draft before Shaq's time on the field runs out. And on offense? Stop with the sunk funds idiocy. What we invested in Young was lost. What we invested in even tinier Sanders was lost. Let them go. Move on, take the cap hit, and start the eff over.

The best thing right now for Canales' career is to bench Bryce and say, "he just isn't going to make it. Let's move on. We tried."

It's just not going to work. You could add 15 pounds of pure muscle to him and it wouldn't add an inch of height. He can't see past his line, he can't see past the defenders, he doesn't run fast enough to be a scrambling threat. He's only iffy in accuracy when he can see. In all honesty, from this point on he should be the best paid player on our practice squad. If someone wants to snag him away from us and teach him up, go for it. We've got to move on.

I was a chump.

I'm just speechless. On the one hand, our defense held them to three field goals. On the other hand, the Saints also managed to score three touchdowns. In the first fuging half. First play from scrimmage and PeeWee throws and INT. And then it only marginally improves until the last drive of the half where we score a mercy FG to a Saints team that just wants to go in at half time and celebrate. Bench Bryce. It would be a mercy to the kid. This isn't going to ever work out with him. In the meantime, Sam Frikkin' Darnold is 15/17 181 yards and 2 TD. Sam Darnold.

I try to believe every year at the start of the season, at the start of every game. There's something different about the vibe this time around. Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. I believe we will be and it starts with New Orleans.

I have no idea how things are going to go but I am soooo looking forward to this game.

I'm calling it an old school NFCSouth worst to first move. We win a gritty first game, Bryce gets knocked around a bit but toughs it out and gets some scores and a lot of confidence. We lean heavy on the run game and two tight end sets throughout the fall, winning six games by mid-November. Cold weather sinks in quick and New Orleans and Atlanta struggle away from home, sinking their chances by Dec. 1 to make a push. Canales is in the running for division lead with his old team the Bucs, while Baker Mayfield is in the running with his old team as well. Somehow, but the end of the season, we string together a 9-8 season and sneak in as the division leaders after home wins against the Bucs and the Falcons. The passing game is okay, but the running game between Hubbard and Sanders just punishes opponents early on and gives the team an identity. Jonathan Brooks is eased into the schedule in late October and is the lead back by the middle of November. He proves to be the perfect addition to the team, carrying on the punishing rushing attack and becoming a revelation as a pass catcher out of the back field. Defensively, we perform slightly better as the run-heavy attack provides them with more time on the bench than the previous year and long fields to work with. A shaky secondary gels by the beginning of October into something respectable, but not great. Brown gains recognition as a mauling line breaker up front and Clowney shows he still has some in the tank, although his production falls off late in the season, still posting nine sacks on the year. We won't make it past the first round in the playoffs, but we'll make it back and we will be looking down the road at a solid team.

I just want to hear Neil Diamond sing "Sweet Caroline" at the end of Panthers games and hear the crowd singing happily along. Is it too much to ask for nine or ten of those this year? We're owed it. Neil deserves it.

I just don't know. I just don't know. This is really a tune in and find out moment.

That's not a train, that's a ship of fools.

I sure hope we get to see that they're right.

There are 32 teams in the NFL. Shaq Thompson would be a starting linebacker on all 32 of them. Right now, and for the last couple of seasons (and sadly last year was cut very short), he directs traffic in our defensive scheme. He's excellent at it. Sadly, he doesn't get much credit from our fan base because, well, Carolina has consistently had THE best linebackers in the game for 4-3 defensive schemes since the early 2000s. Honestly, probably back to their start when you consider the Hall of Famers that have lined up for us back then. But in recent memory alone, Shaq has been compared to Luke and Thomas Davis. Those were his teachers, his team mates and they left mighty big shoes. Luke will go down as the greatest linebacker to play the game. It is a tragedy that injuries cut his career short. TD, on the other hand, is the template for recuperating and rehabbing athletic injuries -- the man had the knees of Wolverine, and the on-field demeanor to match. Shaq has been excellent for us for years, but he is probably nearing the end of his playing days, just because of his longevity. Quit downplaying his importance. He's not in the dark, he's just been standing in the shadows of giants.

Latest video and within our narrator shows that he's not AI and that he has a new book coming out. He's a great guy and he's been my best buddy for more than 30 years now. Btw, yes, the dog was safe. And yes, the man was not in his right mind when they wheeled him into the interview room. His Miranda rights, very carefully, were not violated in the least bit, as they were unable to even verify his name, date of birth or address fully. Once they couldn't do that, there wasn't anything else they could do. I tell you this just to give you a little look behind the scenes of when we do these videos. We do a public information request to police departments or other agencies to get everything they are able to share on these subjects. Some provide more than others, all redact some of the information. In this particular one, we got the video of the police officer rolling up, the quick roadside deal and then him entering the apartment. We also got the footage of the attempted interview. We received some photos and about 30 pages of police reports (many of which were just forms from an officer on scene stating that they were there and they watched such and such quadrant of the crime scene). That's it. And my job is to come up with a story for this, patch together the footage, photos and reports that we received into something at least somewhat compelling. In this case, there was no information about the victim or what happened to the murderer. And that had me digging for days. In this particular case, the murderer languished for nearly three years in the county jail because of the Covid situation, then there were literally dozens of pages of trial delay requests by prosecutors and defense attorneys (and a revolving door of public defenders). In the end, both sides just threw up their hands and offered the killer a plea deal, just to get it off their docket. Was Justice done? No, not at all. Was expedience the byword? No, not at all. Is this commonplace? I'm really afraid it is. And the victim? It took days to track down even the slightest information about him, and as said in the video, his published obituary only provided that he had been born at a certain time and had died on that day. It was a sad, soul-chilling thing to stumble across and it bothered me for days that this happens to people. So, there we are. I get an initial request to do a script about a guy claiming to have killed a Terminator and I have to do my best to bring it back around and make it about people as best I can. I've got to, for my own sake.

Somewhere, deep in that massive contract are a series of out clauses. Deep in that contract.

Tepper was at the games. He saw what we saw. A mistake of the proportions of that one needs no introduction, no explanation.

We looked competent and prepared. I'm not expecting us to be world beaters this year, but if we can be consistently competitive it will be a huuuuuge step forward. Just having Bryce look calm and collected, demure and mindful so to say, was a big step. Good on the coach.

Zappe could be a very good waiver wire pick-up. The kid has the chops, he was just stuck on a team that was destined to crash and burn the Belichick legacy.

The team that draft Shedeur will regret it for a decade. The guy has crash and burn diva written all over him and will bring a baggage train of hangers on and his dad as a Coach. And honestly, he ain't that great. His PR firm is stellar, though.

(Pst, I'm one, too.)

Stranger things have happened. This will be a strange year, it just has that feel to it. I hope it's a good strange. Not like an "upside down, you thought that was bad before" Stranger Things kind of strange.