Captroop

I see that lineup and it literally turns my stomach. No joke, that's a playoff caliber offense. I said earlier in this thread, the entire cause of our downfall is the spectacularly erroneous thinking that we needed a "Franchise QB" NOW NOW NOW!!! I hated the idea of trading up. I hated the idea of trading up to #1 more. And I hated the idea of trading up to #1 for Bryce Young most of all. If we could have endured a couple more seasons for 6-11, 7-10 seasons, look where we'd be today. But the prevailing thought leading in to the 2023 draft was "I can't handle mediocrity one day more! No more middling seasons. We need to take a big shot at QB NOW!" Well y'all bitches shouldn't have been holding the goddamn monkey's paw when you made that wish, because it came true. We took a big swing at a franchise QB, and we won't be mediocre for a very long time.

I won't go as far as saying I've lost interest in the NFL. In general, there are some incredibly entertaining games being played. They're just not the Panthers games. There's an injection of new blood, and with the old guard like Brady and Rodgers winding down, we're seeing the rise of the next generation of superstars. They're just not on the Panthers. There's more parity and more divisions are toss-ups than I've seen in recent memory. Just the Panthers aren't contending. I'm just emotionally distancing myself from the Panthers. My loyalty is with them, but when I want to be entertained, I'll be watching the Lions with my family of Detroiters until the Panthers get their poo together.

I was just having this conversation yesterday at BHAWK Distillery (awesome btw!) after checking out mid-third quarter. Bryce is absolutely going to be a cautionary tale. Bryce Young being taken #1 overall is the story of people thinking too much for their own good, and data doesn't always tell the whole story. Picking NFL talent is extremely risky, so people who are in the position of making those calls like to wrap themselves in some sort of security blanket to try to add structure, logic, and reproducibility to something that is inherently chaotic. Guys who looked like sure-fire hits have flopped. And guys who were written off and drafted Mr. Irrelevant have led their teams to the Super Bowl. It's a gamble. It's a woozle. It's a wozzle. No one knows what's actually going to make a successful NFL pro. So what do the people in charge of picking NFL talent do? It varies from year to year. But right now, it seems like the answer is: Analytics! Let's take every measurable about a prospect. Let's take every characteristic. Every personality trait. And let's turn it into data. Plug it all into a computer. Do a rain dance and ejaculate on the motherboard, and hey presto! You've got a "formula" for picking NFL talent. Except you can't project NFL talent based on "data." There are too many immeasurables. Too many unquantifiable characteristics. Too many exigent circumstances surrounding players, teams, chemistry, coaching, and on and on and on. Bryce Young is the product of people thinking too much for their own good. And unfortunately, we were the fanbase that happened to be picking at #1 when we found the limits of "Analytics." After Bryce Young, people will say, "Hey, the computer said that this smurf is the best player in the draft," and someone else will rightly say, "Let me use my eyes and common sense. Hmm. No. He's clearly a smurf. Let's pick the guy who actually looks like an NFL player, data be damned."

Considering how much I was laughing, and the fact that I never once even approached the table-pounding fury I used to experience when watching games, clearly I was not surprised. I only picked "1" rather than zero because even in my darkest cynicism I couldn't have predicted the ignominy of our performance yesterday.

I'd sincerely like to have an entire draft done by online polling. We could be the first team ever to do it. Good way to re-engage a demoralized fan-base. And honestly, do you think we could possibly do worse than the people who are paid to do it currently?

To boo, you'd have to care. I expect silence punctuated by the visiting teams' fans' cheers all season til he gets the hook.

Bryce could have had a long and lucrative career in the USFL...

Cams have been good to the Carolinas. Not to mention we literally had a Cam Ward win us a Stanley Cup. I don't know if I'm superstitious, but Cam Ward just seems like the path to healing.

I don't see how you can hang this on the defense. We've managed like 40 yards of offense. We can't even give them a blow before a turnover.

Anyone want to play a drinking game with me? Every time you hear, "Carr with time," take a shot. I'm playing because I want to die.

He was never the problem. He's gonna have a much longer career than Bryce.

Yeah, cute to think this fanbase has enough interest to overload a server these days.

Zappe should land somewhere. He's a quality #2 QB and a no-brainer pickup for a #3.

This one stood out to me, and this one as well. This is the play where he was ultimately taken down. I think it show a lack of what JT O'Sullivan calls "the big A" Anticipation. Johnson in the top left is already in his break, the LB is beaten by 10 yards and flat footed, and the safety has already bit on Mingo, so Dionte is wide open (or at least VERY "NFL open"). Bryce is seemingly staring #5 down, but doesn't pull the trigger, and ends up scrambling in the face of pressure. Maybe he just needs to get the timing down with Dionte. But as another Huddler suggested, I wonder if he is questioning whether he has the zip to get the ball there before the LB can react.

I don't believe the fluff about Bryce that I'm hearing from practice will translate to a gametime situation. Especially in his first live game action of the season. But I think the defense will show out. Bryce Young will lead a scoring drive. Yes Bryce Young will lead a TD drive. No. Bryce Young will have at least 50 pass yards. No. The Panthers will have at least 1 passing TD. No. The starting unit (with QB) will have at least 3 drive attempts. No. The starting OL will allow a sack. Yes XL will log 25+ rec yards. No. Ja'Tavion Sanders will have more yards than XL. Yes Jack Not The Snake Plummer will have a TD pass. LOL!!! No. Jordan Matthews will lead the team in rec yards. No. ISM will lead the team in receptions. No. Panthers starting D will allow 0 points to the Bills backups. Yes Panthers starting D will create at least 1 turnover vs the Bills backups. Yes Panthers starting D will log at least 1 sack vs the Bills backups. Yes The Panthers D will have at least 1 takeaway. Yes The Panthers D will limit the Bills to under 10 points (9 is their high). No. Garbage time is a thing. Tie Breaker - Exact number of pass yards for Bryce Young - 44 Tie Breaker #2 - Exact number of receiving yards for XL - 21

I'm not going to assume it's the case, but I've been around marketing people enough to know that there's a non-zero chance the engagement with and general reaction to the posts by the panthers servitor gets bundled up and presented at some sort of weekly corporate meeting. So going off that possibility alone, I'm just going to say to the junior marketing drones who are aggregating these data points: Tell Dave to play the f***ing starters. Fan enthusiasm is historically low. Give us SOME reason to watch. SOME reason to vaguely get excited. SOME ripple of hype that we can ride into week one. Because right now, it's entirely possible that I might forget we have a game on the 8th.

Fist bump, past Cat poop! You clever, sexy macho man, you!

Called it. He was featured way too heavily in garbage time to deduce anything other than, "he's not making the team, but we like him. Let's give him plenty of game tape to show off for other teams"

Oh no. With them starting, we'll have no shot at a playoff run! Horn is a injury waiting to happen. If we can fleece someone for a first I'm all for it. We're a garbage team, and our only way out of rebuilding purgatory is hitting on some draft picks (who actually see the field consistently). If we can move him, do it

I am exactly as interested in the team as they give me reason to be interested. I can slog through watching a bad team. I've done it before. I've rallied on Sunday mornings knowing we were in for a shellacking, and still managed to muster some enthusiasm. But what, I ask you, what is there for me to get excited about right now? Okay, snarkiness aside, I have one thing to look forward to, and that's to watch a punishing defense again. But on the other hand, I don't know if that is worth enduring offensive ineptitude, and even that comes with the creeping dread that when Evero gets poached, we're back to having nothing to get excited about.

The way he was featured tonight, it seems like he probably isn't, and the coaches want to show him off for other teams so he gets a shot. Why give him such good tape in garbage time if you are trying to stash him?

This. How can you possibly make decisions on cuts when you're QB is putting up 42 yards through 3 quarters?

I never thought Darnold nor Baker were the problem, and frankly I think giving up on them both was a huge mistake. I don't think hey would have been world-beaters, but if anything the QB carousel we've seen the last several seasons shows that the QBs under-performing was the symptom, not the disease. Terrible line. Mediocre talent at the skill positions. Uninspired coaching. No QB could step into the Carolinas for the better half of a decade and hope to be successful. I was always in favor of trotting out Darnold to be "good enough" to helm a floundering team, and at least have some consistency at the position while we build a good team up around him. Then turn the reins over to an heir apparent. But for some reason, a huge chunk of this fanbase, and apparently the front office was obsessed with the idea that we needed to spend a high pick on a "franchise QB" now. Well, how did that work out? No better off in the QB situation, and talent poor as a result of the trades to make our QB situation possible. Our intolerance for a little spell of mediocrity has earned us a decade of irrelevance.