kungfoodude

I'll take any advantage we can get. You don't get extra wins for facing a team at 100%.

I disagree. This is ignoring how much of this team was deconstructed after 2019. We are like an expansion franchise, without the benefit of an expansion draft. Last season was a surprise. For us to be as competitive as we were with so little was a step in the right direction. If we finish in the 6-8 win range(still with a losing record as an example) but continue to show we are improved as a team overall, I don't think that is going to be devastating. If we finished with a winning record, that would be a dramatic improvement and WAY ahead of schedule. That's the one thing that the Sunshine Squad and the Debbie Downers seem to be missing, this was always likely to be a long haul, whether successful or not. You don't jettison every ounce of veteran experience and talent and then attempt to build from the literal ground up and it just happen overnight. You want a "best case" of something similar, but probably not nearly as dramatic of a teardown as ours? The Cleveland Browns. All those top 10 picks year after year and now finally it looks like they have enough talent and experience to contend. And that was in the face of all their franchise dysfunction. That's the problem there is no quick fix for. We have to build a winning culture, gain actual league experience(players and coaches alike) AND continue to bolster our below average roster depth. That is no small undertaking so being impatient with it will only serve to add unnecessary stress. Reasonable expectations are year three to have a winning record, year four have our first ever back-to-back winning seasons and by year five to be a top 10 NFL team. I think that is a more than reasonable expectation that allows many offseason cycles to continue to draft well, expand our roster core, make key signings, fix glaring roster holes and add the necessary experience to be a title winning team.

K, OL, LB seem to be the positions that need the most help. Kicker is a major need. I wouldn't be against a veteran QB but I don't think that is likely.

Says the guy that is only here for former Cocks.

I am not anti-RAS, nor anti-elite athlete but the skills need to be there to back that athleticism up. After all, unlike college, almost everyone in the NFL is an top athlete. That's really my rub. The idea that you can just take raw material and mold it into whatever you like. That doesn't often work in the NFL. If you already aren't pretty proficient at your craft by the time you get out of college, the odds are that learning curve may be too steep in the NFL. That's really what my concern about that specifically is, that they lean too heavily on their ability to make something out of nothing.

The 4 Man Rush described the stench it emitted as unbearable.

That wasn't Kasay, that was actually @bigskypanthersguy. That's why he's asking for Kasay back.

No he does not chew. He has a staff of expert chewers that masticate his food and then spit it into his mouth to preserve his immaculate jawline from undue wear.

I think the 2020 class will hinge on YGM's development. Brown is likely to be above average as his floor and Chinn appears to be a top 10-15 at his position as his floor. If YGM can develop into at least an above average NFL starter, that will be an exceptional draft class. Pride, Robinson, Roy and STO provided some decent roster filler material, which is about as good as you can expect from that part of the draft.

Ya'll need to stop doing this to yourselves. This draft class has suited up for a combined 0 games. I agree there is a lot of promise with the group but the level of victory laps being taken over our grand success is completely unwarranted. This is how you get people calling 6th rounders "busts."

This is BIG concern I have as well. Same with the obsession with RAS, wanting linemen that are above all versatile, etc. Those are all things you do in college that don't always transfer to the NFL. If you haven't been successful in multiple NFL stops(Erving/Elflein), the problem is probably the player. If you have a history of being injured(Perryman), that isn't likely to change. If you are an elite college athlete that didn't produce in college(Heyward-Bey), that typically doesn't bode well for NFL production. These are areas that I will admit concern me a lot about Rhule. What I hope happens is that the failures in these areas are quickly filed away as experience and he learns from these cases as we make mistakes. I do think a big failing initially was not having someone in the organization with a lot of NFL coaching experience to help him out.

On paper that 2019 roster was INSANELY better than this 2021 roster. But, we all saw how that worked out.

This is true. I forget he was a ginger. Perhaps there is hope yet.

This is a valid point. Can one succeed in the NFL without a soul? Andy Dalton didn't.

I don't get the obsession with the 60+ yard FG's. We know Slye isn't likely to even hit any of those nor are most kickers in the NFL. The scenario where you are even having to attempt those kind of kicks means your offense couldn't get it done in some fashion.

Yeah but we are talking about an entire class, not just a player. That takes time unless it is an amazing class or a giant bust.

Yeah and I can understand wanting to get some players reps too. Ultimately, I don't think one side is more or less wrong than the other. It's just different philosophies. Rhule obviously is very worried about injuries in the preseason and he has lots of reasons to worry because our 2nd and 3rd teams haven't done a tremendous amount to show that we will be okay if we starting losing starters. Once we get our "dress rehearsal" game against Pittsburgh, I think a lot of the discussion will finally die off and we can focus on the season. I am already pretty over the preseason games. It rarely takes me more than one game to be over it but with basically little to no starters playing, I ready to get this show on the road now. Meaningless football games are only better than no football games, and barely that.

Darnold was an extremely polarizing player(even more so than Bridgewater), so I think you have more people that are staunchly anti-Darnold. Don't get me wrong, I have little to no faith that this experiment will work out but I am not going to jump off a cliff until we start seeing him play actual games, and quite a few of them. There is no reason to be getting this worked up over the preseason. It rarely matters for veteran players(unless they get injured) and this preseason is the first of the "new" preseason format, so it actually has even less meaning than ever before. I suspect that it will continue to decline in relevance as the NFL schedule expands(18 regular season games is all but an inevitability). I imagine eventually there may be almost no starters playing when it cuts down to two preseason games.

Week 1 is too early to draw a conclusion. As Panthers fans we should know that better than anyone after the Kyle Allen and Teddy Bridgewater fiascos in recent memory. I'd be reticent to pass judgement on Darnold until at least half a season of play, unless it is all bad or all good.

Yeah, I mean from the "bang for the buck" perspective, it definitely sucks to not see more of the starters. That is a very valid point to bitch about, especially if you are a season ticket holder

Only 3 weeks from the start of finding out....

Yeah, I don't know about "excellent." We've gleaned some minimal information about how they might look. Some good, some bad, some in between. If we get 2+ starters out of this and 3-4 of these guys make the end of their rookie deals, it was a damn good draft.

Yeah, we will have plenty of time to re-hash that issue if we are still dealing with QB issues and Fields is a star in 3-4 years. We may as well stop beating that dead horse until at least towards the end of this season. I gotta be honest, the "they" isn't super relevant to me. It doesn't really matter what each individual person on the staff thinks, nor how much of the picks were Fitterer's, Rhule's, Tepper's or whoever's decision. They will all get some credit or blame depending on the result. We have no idea what the offensive staff thought of Fields or Darnold or whoever. Nor will we probably ever know. That ship has long since sailed anyway. It just is what it is.

I think they just didn't like Fields as a prospect and it just boiled down to that. All the Horns+Darnold/2^3 nonsense was just that, nonsense. They just didn't like him as a prospect.

Just looks like a busted play to me. Hard to say.