kungfoodude

The amount of Baker hate was pretty comical considering we had a 3rd round QB from a bad QB class and Sam fuging Darnold.

Yeah, it's a little unrealistic for Corral to be top 2 on the depth chart unless we really don't do anything to improve the position in the 2023 offseason. Then he has to somehow convince a new coaching staff which will be difficult with little to no tape available. It's unfortunate but he will be facing an uphill battle with the next staff more likely than not.

4.5 mil in dead money but 2 mil in cap savings.

Yeah, that was the biggest false bill of goods Tepper gave us. Five year rebuild my ass. Maybe five years to rebuild after what this goof has done.

If he and Slater pan out, that is going to be some unfair baggage for Horn. Let's just hope we all got a great player and it fades away to nothing.

Yeah, this is a laughable idea. Dumb college homers are gonna dumb.

This seems like a very solid stop gap guy. I'm sure we won't sign him.

I don't consider it an excuse it's more of a lack of information and also just a hierarchy of blame. Rhule is at the top so he should get the bulk of the blame. We can speculate on what percentage of what move is assigned to who but the reality is that we don't know. What I do know is that Rhule is leading this organization after Tepper, so the bulk of the overall blame is rightfully his.

I think that will likely be an argument all year long. I don't forsee an All-Pro caliber year nor a bunch of victories, so although he might be playing very well the hand he is dealt will impact the results. That will allow the anti-Baker crowd to snipe away at him. That's my prediction for the scenario.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Rhule is likely gone if he can't get at least a winning record in 2022. Remember that he is the actual GM. I have some misgivings about Fitterer but I am looking forward to seeing him in a traditional GM role. I hope we give him heavy input on Rhule's replacement and don't bring in another guy that we give GM control to again. I REALLY don't want to see that mistake repeated.

Well remember Rhule is the real GM. We won't know what kind of GM Fitterer is without any reigns on him until he is out from under Rhule. I do think the trade happy "in on every deal" thing is Fitterer. Which, admittedly has been a mixed bag.

Yeah, that Darnold fiasco was one of those decisions that will haunt you forever as a GM. One of the biggest fleecings I have seen in a long time. I hope we stay away from the Mims trade based on that alone. God only knows what we might give up for him. But, after 2022 Darnold will be gone forever and we will likely have a new GM with a fairly clean slate. Remember Gettleman getting crucified for the Kalil signing? That left once he left.

The fact he was willing to convert part of his 100% guaranteed salary to bonus money shows he is betting on himself. Gotta love that.

Yeah, we just need our Sean Payton equivalent. McAdoo is probably a serviceable OC but we don't have that McVay, Payton, Shanahan, Reid style offensive genius to catapult our QB to the heights that Brees was able to achieve. Brees was also ultra motivated after his injury and bring run out of SD. Hopefully Mayfield finds that kind of motivation to make him succeed after what happened in Cleveland.

I don't think adding Mayfield makes up for that. Winning games does. That's the situation we are in. It's easy to nitpick and snipe at all aspects of the franchise with four straight losing seasons. Winning fixes all that. People will very easily forget the sins of the past when high on current success.

He is so ill-suited to being an NFL QB that you wonder how anyone scouted him and didn't pick up on it? It's wild.

Oh, I know. I have a big fear that a 7-8 win team would mean Rhule is safe. That would immediately mean that we had the worst owner in the NFL. I don't want to see that happen because that is the moment all hope is lost for Panther fans.

I think the chances of that happening are fairly low, TBH. The schedule doesn't look like that will be an easy task and this is a very thin roster at some very critical positions. It may take a Hurculean effort from Baker to drag us to a winning record.

I will never understand the infatuation Rhule had or has with him. It defies all logic and reasoning.

Yeah, I honestly don't see Baker staying if he plays well unless the team experiences a lot of success which I think is pretty unlikely. Namely because if we fire Rhule(very likely) and don't have a winning season(extremely likely) then our entire situation is going to be in flux. That means we have to convince him to stick around through a coaching change and that could be pretty hard.

Well Watson was generally acknowledged as an elite QB and Mayfield has yet to ascend to that category. So perhaps we can at least avoid that class of contract, should he and/or we decide to continue this relationship. If Brady retires, I am not sure that every team in the division isn't possibly looking for a starter. After all, this isn't the Sean Payton Saints so they may not be that quick to throw their chips behind Winston. I do think the chances of him going back to Tampa are very low. I don't think either party wants that.

The market is TBD for 2023. I know he would be probably #3 in the free agents "possibly" available at the moment. And it is a very thin QB pool, so a good season could be a huge boost to his value. I suspect there will still be at least 6-8 QB desperate teams, so it will come down to the FA pool, their draft positions and the draft class strength. As a "way too early" prediction, I think he will have to sign one more "prove it" deal at lower than elite money.

Oh you are preaching to the choir on the lack of OL(and really DL) investment. It's mind-numbing. This isn't the only situation in the NFL where the GM is subordinate to the head coach in personnel issues. It's hard to justify turning down a very clear career path upgrade like we offered him. So, I definitely don't agree that he should have held out for some other GM job. I am a little concerned about his wild trading too but not all of it may land in his plate. I am not trying to mount some defense for him, I just don't think we are seeing him in a traditional GM role so it's pretty hard to assess how good he is without having an insane level of access that we don't have. Assuming he gets traditional duties in 2023 after Rhule is gone, I think we can judge him a lot more accurately.

You are talking about YEARS into the future for things like hometown discounts, unfortunately. Ron had that at a certain point because he was beloved by the players, even with relatively modest success. And we are nowhere near "ring chasing" status very, VERY sadly. If Baker plays at an elite level in 2022, there might be a run on him. But if he plays at a good to above average level then I think his future will be a lot more unclear. The one benefit that he will have is being a true free agent versus late offseason trade bait, like he was in 2022. A lot of QB needy teams had already set their positions by the time he was openly available. 2023 will be a much more true look at his league wide value.

Yeah, that 40+ mark is still going to be considered the "elite line" for one more offseason, unless we see a huge cap adjustment in 2023. The only QB that probably has made it past that line that most didn't understand was probably Murray.