CRA

Norman had a fantastic and dominant season. But it was largely an anomaly. But it was really fun to watch. Those first years were pretty dang rough. And he hasn't looked very good away from Carolina. Gamble was our last legit DB we had on the outside. In terms of multiple years and consistency. Peanut and Lucas both put in a strong single season of play.

No doubt. Disrupting WRs off the line is something we haven’t done well enough....and is one of those big little things. Horn is great when you let him do what he does. I just think the outrage to that post is more the grading than the commentary on Horn though.

If you changed the pick grade to A+ and kept the commentary the same..... I mean that commentary was the Jacyee Horn universal scouting report.

I mean we don't play a lot of press man coverage.... and it gets harder and harder to play a lot of man coverage in the NFL. That is a legit discussion. even if you got the DBs to play man....the athletic QBs situationally make it a poor call pretty often.

I think it will. Hiring the new guy in Jan obviously prevented or limited the ability for a lot of change. Draft was 3 months out. But I do think the decision voices at this stage, are very comparable to last year. The FO is still largely the same. Same people's input. Coaches. Owners. All the same info largely. It's going in Fitterers ear and not Hurndawgs and the final say is his.

outside of the Clausen draft. I always viewed Hurney as a yes man. He tried to do what the coaches and owners wanted.

We got a new GM in Jan. I think most of the FO still largely all carried over though. All the player personnel folks and everyone else. Plus the same influence of Tepper/Rhule/Rhule's staff. A lot of that FO braintrust is still very similar.

I like the defensive talent at the top of the 2nd round.

only fair to note, that Pitts discloses they also happen to be good friends. and Horn didn't really cover Pitts much. But I think Pitts still scored on him.

Them not drafting him didn't mean they didn't think he could succeed. Could simply mean Horn was #1 and Fields as #2. Which is how it sounds. And the guy in charge pulled the trigger on his preferred #1. Guys you don't think can succeed aren't on your board.

It depends on the team though IMO. Our roster is what it is. I simply think their were more impactful positions based on who we are. Don't forget, 5 QBs went in the top half of the draft. It is a QB league. Until you get that right, nothing matters. You simply got to buy lotto tickets to win the lottery. And Fields fell to 8. Which made it perfect. You didn't have to waste capital to buy and scratch that ticket. This was a weird draft. A QB with Fields resume and talent....normally ain't making it that far. Which means if you are an 8-8ish team you got to spend a lot of capital to buy a good lotto ticket in the future.

Yeah, I would expect it likely came from the Joe Brady wing of the organization and Tepper wing. I said coming in I was worried about Fitterer overvaluing DBs that high in the draft.

well, I think it is fair speculation.....that a lot of people in the Carolina organization wanted Fields to be the pick. Verge said a lot of people were very high on him in the building. Which backs up what was said during the live broadcast while they were on the clock by Daniel Jeremiah about what folks inside Carolina had told him. I think it came down to the Fritter's vote having the biggest say. Which is how it generally works. Lot of times the HC or OC or whoever....doesn't get who they want. Who wanted what only comes out when poo hits the fan though.

And Rhule said he looked forward to working with Cam...

I’m glad Tepper didn’t overrule his staff. But there are good odds he was right. No matter how much we needed a DB, in the big picture QB is still the biggest need in Carolina. and just from a positional impact perspective, it’s also easy for Fields to make this decision look really bad. Given he will be playing QB for a very good Chicago team.....and DBs don’t have the same impact on games QBs do.

Players drop all the time. Long list of guys in the first round too where that was proven to be a massive mistake by teams letting them drop. don’t reply if you don’t want to be quoted. Internet ain’t that hard boss.

No, just the clear cut talent and winner people comically over scrutinized while doing the opposite to everyone else in the picture. I mean the Watson comparison of what was going on was made before Watson’s scandal broke too. It’s not some draft day creation.

Well the former NFL scout. With a legit rep. With legit NFL scouting connections.... said it was true. I’m sure Rhule will be asked bluntly about it at some point too.

MoveTheSticks isn’t a vague reference. It’s specific. I named him. He is a NFL scout. With real scouting connections on teams. He said the Panthers had Fields as the #2 QB in this draft. Who you got saying the Panthers had him as the 4th best QB.

and his release motion allowed him to be the overall most accurate QB in this draft who rarely turned it over..... think the Bears learned a lesson after overthinking the obvious when it comes to QBs. Fields is the Watson of this draft.

You can find a TV personality selling every narrative under the sun lol. Fields went undefeated in the regular season over 2 seasons....in a power 5 conference....and outshined Lawrence head to head. Was drafted 12th. Pretty sure he is the talent most think he is. But you and Chris Simms have at it.

Context was MoveTheSticks said Carolina was debating between two players as the Panthers were on the clock. Fields and Horn. And they had Fields as their 2nd rated QB in this draft.

Word was Fields was their 2nd rated QB in this draft. MoveTheSticks said it during the draft. Behind only the generational talent named Trevor. I don’t think it is outlandish to talk about how the Panthers are consistently botching the QB spot....which matters.

I think the argument is that when given the opportunity...you work on the first part first. The it’s a passing league part. If Fields works out vs if Horn works out....Fields is the better and more important/impactful puzzle piece.

I mean, the goal is to build a winning team. QB is most important piece to that goal. Rhule was forced into a position where he simply had to replace a Teddy caliber QB with the same. He did that. I supported kicking the tires on Sam. But that is all we are doing. It likely goes how that generally goes.