kungfoodude

I don't even see how you can be trolled by them anymore. A @TheSpecialJuan troll anymore would be to post a legit title. That would be the thing that fooled me.

It's a rookie deal, that money is guaranteed. They could try to take it from him but it really wouldn't matter. Still counts against the cap. I also think the Browns have basically already moved on. I don't think they are interested in a malcontent QB torpedoing their season.

I think Baker likely holds out in that scenario. I would imagine that is an irreparable rift.

I think you are overreacting a bit. The article isn't anything more than speculation based on some sources she probably has and filling in some blanks. Also, it isn't the first source to mention this potential move nor the difference of opinion on Baker. I mean....none of this is at all outlandish or remotely not believeable. It's mostly outdated after the draft, I would say. Also, there really isn't a real benefit to the Browns for her to spread this information. It's not going to make the Panthers more likely to make this trade. So, the "team mouthpiece" angle doesn't really seem to fit this specific scenario. It's much ado about nothing. I have no doubt there isn't consensus opinion on Baker in our FO and coaching staff. I have no doubt that we have contacted the Browns about Baker and may indeed still do so in the future. For better or worse, Fitterer seems extremely active in keeping tabs on other teams and talking about various players/deals. It's not really anything other than some offseason conversation banter. That's pretty much it.

Luke is free to do what he wants, including hanging out or even being employed by other franchises. It will never change how great of a player he was as a Carolina Panther.

Well, this is basically something really shitty franchises have always had to deal with. Once you are dysfunctional and a losing team, you are largely relegated to trying to draft your way out of it. Quality free agents don't want to end up in the purgatory of a bad team. Not a terrible thing necessarily but it means you need to be pretty damn good in the draft.

Sometimes it isn't always about the money. Some of these guys will take a little less to play on a winning team that has a shot at a ring. The Panthers best shot at a Super Bowl ring for the next few years is probably going to be getting a replica on eBay.

Plus she literally did say "it could happen." That is far from a definitive statement.

You are aware that Hicks may simply not want to come to Carolina, right?

If we keep trotting out Rhule to lose season after season, you are gonna start seeing some threads reminiscing about how we should have kept Richardson. Mark my words, it will happen if this Cleveland Browns-esque path continues.

I think that is why so many of those Alabama OL(or just Alabama players in general) fail so often. It's easy to look amazing when you are 4 and 5 star recruits in the 2 and 3 deep of your depth chart.

I can assure you that if we win less than 8 games in 2022 and Rhule is retained, the fans will have all the answers they need about the real problem with the Carolina Panthers lack of success over the past three seasons. That's been my sneaking suspicion since roughly the end of 2020, is that Tepper was a Dan Snyder-esque idiot playing losing fantasy football with a real NFL team.

Yeah and he isn't an isolated case. There are a couple of these guys just about every draft that struggle with weight/conditioning issues prior to the NFL. It's very rare that they don't continue to struggle with it. You need to be disciplined and be ambitious enough that you do anything necessary to be at your peak performance. Otherwise your NFL dream wasn't ever that big. It was just a thing you did because you happened to be good at it for a while.

I don't know if you listen to the 4 Man Rush podcasts but Matt Wahle(who may know a few things about being a successful NFL lineman) has said a few times that being way overweight coming into the NFL is a HUGE red flag. You should already have had the discipline and work ethic to make that not be an issue. If it is, you aren't doing something right. I tend to agree with him. That's something you should have been able to clean up in college.

It's easy to see a high upside guy in that range and get excited about potential. But, unless it is injury or background red flags that cause them to drop, there are usually a laundry list of reasons and most of them tend to be right. It just is what it is.

I think the W/L record is relatively unimportant for 2022. The odds of Rhule ever panning out as a head coach for us seem to be slim, so I care less about that than seeing what the roster is. If we can improve that OL unit to being....poo....top 20? That's at least forward progress. In all honesty, my overall bar for success this season is for the 2020 and 2021 draft classes to not look like a disaster. If we can just accomplish that, at least the post-Rhule rebuild might not be that painful. I think that is a realistic thing to hope for.

Lol. This fits.

Lol. You realize your post history literally proves that statement wrong. Hilariously so.

I mean, if we can't improve over that, I would fire everyone in the entire organization. Just start at the top and hand pink slips out on the way down. Even if we still suck on the line, there just isn't an excuse for being that bad again. I mean....ZERO excuse.

Lol. I think recent history has proven I am not the one emotionally overwhelmed by a message board and a lack of team success, given your recent hiatus after successive meltdowns. The Panthers sucking impacts me in terms of being frustrated that my season tickets are pointless to own. Other than that, if they keep sucking I will just keep watching with friends and roasting the team during the game. It's entertaining enough when the team is as bad as we have been for the past four years. There is little to no reason to be optimistic, hence why this board has turned so negative. You act as if that is the fans fault when in reality it is the fault of the franchise. This is what you get when you lose for this long. If you get out much, which I suspect you don't, you would rub elbows with some other suffering fanbases that are just as negative if not more than ours. Anytime you stink this bad for this long, that's the result. Unless you want a parade in downtown CLT for winning 6 games in 2022.

He would be best served as a vet minimum 3rd stringer, IMO. That allows him to just basically be around better players and watch them work, while the team not having to rely on him seeing the field in anything other than a scenario where they are likely to lose anyway. Could he develop some in that case? Possibly. But that also requires that he put in the work to improve and I think the results show he doesn't do that or can't accomplish that. He'll be a sad, funny footnote in Panthers history like Jimmy Clausen was.

Lol. I think we can all just jettison the idea of Sam Darnold at this point. He is who he is. He's basically doubled down on what hasn't worked, so he probably has 2-3 years left as an NFL player.

Yeah well you said the same thing last offseason despite the OL signings being obviously terrible. Your opinion is basically just full delusion. Which, don't get me wrong, is highly entertaining.

I am going to start out pretty skeptical but what I hope to see is gradual improvement over the course of the season. My bar for success is that Ekwonu shows he is the future and we get at least one other average caliber starting OL from the interior. If that happens, it's at least forward progress and something to build on in 2023. Anything beyond that is a big victory.