kungfoodude

These guys are young. Dumb comes with that.

Honestly, he's a fifth round pick. If he is a dumbass and gets booted, we aren't out much.

Yeah, I think a lot of what we are doing is just throwing poo against the wall to see if it will stick but being selective about the poo that we are throwing. If we snag a couple of cheap starters from the bunch of offseason moves, it will be a solid strategy.

https://walterfootball.com/ws2021dnixon.php During the leadup to the 2021 NFL Draft, Daviyon Nixon (6-3, 305) was a consensus second-day prospect, but he ended up falling all the way to Round 5. Nixon started out his career in the junior college ranks before landing at Iowa, and after some developmental time with the Hawkeyes, he grew into a force for them, fitting right in with the program's continued tradition of good defensive line prospects for the NFL. In 2019 as a rotational backup, Nixon made the most of his limited opportunities with three sacks and 29 tackles. He became a full-time starter for 2020 and produced an excellent season despite fewer games in which to impress. The junior totaled 45 tackles with 5.5 sacks, one forced fumble, and an interception returned 71 yards for a touchdown on the year. He then declared for the 2021 NFL Draft rather than return for his senior year. In speaking to team sources, there were major character concerns with Nixon that sunk his draft grade. Some teams had dropped him from their boards because of his character issues, and the feedback from the Iowa staff was not positive. Nixon is going to have make some serious changes with his off-the-field habits in order to stick in the NFL and avoid suspensions. The Panthers ended Nixon's fall in the fifth round, and they were a perfect landing spot for him. After releasing veteran Kawann Short this offseason, Carolina needed a three-technique and interior pass rusher to go next to powerful nose tackle Derrick Brown. The Panthers did not draft another player at the position or sign a veteran, so Nixon is in a prime position to receive early playing time and compete to be a starter immediately. With Brown on one side and dynamic edge rusher Brian Burns on the other, Nixon should see phenomenal looks with single-block situations from opponents sending double teams at Burns or Brown. If Nixon can get clean up his off-the-field life, and work hard to be a good pro, he has the potential to be a steal for the Panthers in the fifth round and the skill set to be a good starter in the NFL.

98% likelihood he is camp fodder. Not a bad guy to bring in, however. They definitely value athleticism, which I like. We just don't want to go full Al Davis. Never go full Al Davis.

Gunslingers are fun if they are more good than bad. To date, Darnold has been more bad than good. As you said, it's all an unknown at this point. So we will see in a few months

I expect him to struggle this year and get progressively better over the next three seasons. I would hope he has solidified his spot as our #1 CB by that time.

Yeah, and he was often seen turning the ball over to the opposing team at a far, far higher rate than Teddy ever has in his career. That's the concern.

I see a lot of depth guys and very few starters. Not great but admittedly our depth has been fuging atrocious after the post Ron Roster Purge. Definitely not what I would have done but if we get more than one good starter(assuming Horn is a given) and some solid depth/rotational guys, I won't be super pissed.

Well, we have to get a superstar QB to ruin, first. Maybe we are building a team that doesn't rely on a superstar to compete. As aggressively as we pursued an established elite QB, I think I see that they view it as a priority.

Yeah, which is why they pursued Stafford and Watson so heavily. I suspect we will start showing a lot more desperation next offseason if the QB position is an issue. That is one of the quickest ways to get canned in the NFL. Keep failing in your QB search. This is why I was dreading the post Cam era so much.

Yeah, that's ultimately the problem with believing he isn't going to improve(which I don't), there isn't a win. You just look at the result and say, "Panthers gonna Panther" and then facepalm. Not fun.

Well, mediocre is probably ultimately not worth trading for either. He doesn't have to be elite but he does need to be good for that trade to make sense.

It gets so much worse.

He will always be linked to Fields, Slater and whoever else would have been available in the 2nd next year. It just is what it is. Bad decisions will always be compounded when they involve draft choices. Good choices will make you look like a genius.

The second rounder will only be relevant if he is a disaster. Other than that, he'll just be an over drafted backup QB taken in the 2nd. I agree on taking Fields, although I can understand their apprehension if they didn't like the evaluation on him. Time will tell if that is correct or not. It would be nice for this all to work out. Getting a franchise QB that cheaply would be fantastic. There just aren't many stories of a bust QB turning into an elite QB in NFL history.

I think it will more so be rather obvious if he is adjusting to the things we are doing or he is still the same guy he was in NY. Certainly, you cannot make a final judgment for a 17 game season based on a 2-3 game start, but I do think that we will have a general idea of how he is gonna work out. Remember, he is a three year NFL starter, not a rookie. I know people like to pretend he is based on age and lack of development in NY. But he is also three years into knowing what it takes in terms of preparation and being a professional football player. It's going to be on him to make of this what he will. We can scheme and scheme and scheme but it's on him to figure out some of this stuff. Last year we had a relatively successful scheme(definitely not perfect) offensively but Teddy Bridgewater did Teddy Bridgewater things and that is why he is not longer here. And I don't mean that he will be set up for complete success here, either. It remains to be seen if he has even an average level NFL line in front of him. But, elite/franchise QB's still win in less than ideal conditions. So after playing here in Carolina, whatever the ultimate result will be a reflection of Sam Darnold and not the Jets/Panthers.

I tend to agree with him. I think if Darnold is gonna be bad, it will be immediately apparent.

If we get as many starters as that, then it was a great draft. I don't see that happening, however.

I don't think these predictions are very outlandish at all.

Not enough used needles in the sand to be Myrtle Beach

We have traditionally been fairly decent depth wise, but after the Ron firing we absolutely gutted that roster(not without reason). 2020, even with the drafted talent, was such an insanely bad roster. Even with some quality starters the bench was so bad in a lot of the position groups. I really hope we can start to get back to having a real NFL depth chart again.

No reason to ruin that surprise.

Would you be okay with Horn getting suspended after pulling out a cell phone in the end zone following a pick six at the Superdome?