d-dave

And now the chicken littles have a rallying cry! While I am more than a little concerned about Oher considering his history...Got to trust Dave. I mean the things he said make sense. I'm not a football evaluator, just a fan who likes watching football and cheering on my home team no matter how terrilbe they have been in the past. Here's to hoping our coaches can do some magic with Oher!

It's a good thing it's still 1999! Nothing has happened to change the landscape of how public perception affects brand value! Hindsight is 20/20 so it's really easy to be very selective in the cases you support. Remember when that guy for the Rams literally killed someone (vehicular manslaughter I think), but played the next week? How would that work in 2015? Might a bad boy be a better player? Maybe, but how much production are you going to see? What is the success rate on players with great ability and terrible backgrounds? How did that Lawrence Phillips guy workout again? Character is important, and it's very important to the Panthers. If you disagree, you can be angry (not productive or healthy), you can accept it (much better), or you can find a team that takes the good with the bad and see how often that works out, then come back in 10 years with proof of the success in the form of HoFers, Super Bowl Rings, and awards. It does happen, but more often than not, guys with character concerns continue to have character concerns in their career which is not good when you're a millionaire...

DGB is a very polarizing players. You can't deny that he has the tools to become an elite level player, BUT this is a very different NFL from even a couple of years ago. Has he been humbled and humiliated to the point where he's going to be a boy scout the rest of his NFL career? Maybe, BUT the off the field stuff has almost become more important in the eyes of the NFL for players with these kinds of issues. The Moss story, the Rae Carruth stuff, Steve Smith's play "issues" and of course our "bad boy" of the year: Greg Hardy. I'm pretty sure the Panthers are going to steer very, very clear of players with these kinds of issues. Our owner has a very personal investment in the NFL, and it looks like he's going to do what he can to protect that as best he can. You have to wonder if he feels wrong for continuing to put up with Smith's antics as that gets compared to what happened to Hardy? If it was on talent alone, it's a no brainer. But in the current NFL, I just don't see the Panthers signing up for another possible media circus the first time DGB get's a speeding ticket, or if his prior issues resurface once he's got a few million in hand and unsupervised freedom. That's a sticky slope. Absolutely correct TANTRIC-NINJA

Is Ginn an upgrade over Bersin? Yes. Would you pay 4x more for Torrey Smith? And after you signed Smith for the $9 million a year that he ended up getting, where would the money come from for the $7 million a year for Balugia? He who has trouble staying healthy and is considered more of a OG than OT? Do you want to go for any of the other FA OL flops who got cut this year? We're doing what we can while still remembering we have the contracts for Cam, Luke, Star, JNorman, etc... I disagree with your assessment of facts over opinions. Ginn has his best year here. Oher had his best years under our current OL coach. Those are opinions as well, but tend to be backed up by facts. And stuff respected folks (not just trolls like me) have to say on the situations.

BBBBBbbbbbBBbbbBBbbuuuuuuuUUuuuUUuutttTTTtTTttTTttt..... We need to spend all of our money! We needs all da FAz?!!!! We haz n0 F@Z so we de worste! Sorry, most of the negative folks have broken my language centers in my brain. It's a long off season which just started. I'll put my trust in Dave because since he's gotten here, we've gotten better. Tell me, in Seattle's SB season, how many marque FAs did they bring in? Bennett? And he came super cheap I believe. Trust in Dave since we're not NFL decision makers.

I think we can all agree that Jake Long was a great player. He's not been healthy lately, and he's not a spring chicken of a lineman. It could be that Jake Long thinks he should be paid like Jake Long four years ago.. He's going to need to prove that he's healthy AND that he can still play. I'd love it if we took a good look at him, but if he doesn't pass the physical or expects premier money.... Well, we're not going to overpay someone who hasn't been healthy. I could see Jake Long as a guy who will wait and see what happens before he makes a choice of where to go. If he could be healthy and play at his high level prior to injury, every team in the NFL would love to have him.

It's really sweet that Smitty still has an interest in our players, but I have no doubts that part of the reason we aren't going ape-feces crazy in FA is to ensure that Cam and Luke are going to get paid. It's just a theory I have; it might be crazy!

This has been a really shocking day as far as Huddle response... Even for the Huddle! Too many here are too upset that names got picked up by "not us."

Xbox, I'll add you (I'm dionysusfiend). I'm not going to be on much right now with my work schedule.

I'm still waiting to find the time to die repeadedly meleeing Cursed Thralls... On a different note, I FINALLY beat Crota's End (Normal)! It was really fun! I got arms and the HMG (Song of Ir Yut). Did my usual Destiny LFG thing and got a great group. Had to replace some people but we beat it, and it was nice! A guy who was added late got the Hunger of Crota and was like: "Should I shard this?" It was his first time too! Oh, and I finally saw an exotic drop in the Roc play list. We two manned Rocket Man. I got blue engrams and he got the Suros Regime! Alas =/ But that's the way the RNG works =)

So I'm pretty active on the b.net forums (I know, I'm a sad person), but I'm curious to what my fellow huddlers are experiencing in Destiny. 1. Do you end up grouping with folks either via MM or LFG that are offensive jerk-faces? 2. Do you have a LOT of people who skip out on strikes or go AFK for entire strikes? 3. In the Crucible, do you end up with a lot of people who quit early or really play that stupidly on objectives? I see a lot of 3 when I do play. I have a few AFKers, but I've not had any really terrible human beings through MM or LFG.

Good grief, you sound like the bungie forums! There are several of us who still enjoy the game. It's not a game for everyone. Personally, I'm looking forward to "trying" the match made weekly heroic. When I get that done, I'll have enough coins for buy two things from Xur (if he has anything good). I'm not hardcore at all... I had a funny thought though while driving to work. What if he sold the Ruin Wings and Ghorn again...personally I'd be thrilled =) But imagine the out cry from the forums and internet about it! =)

If it comes down to listening to folk complain about value versus getting the best guy to become our starting LT, which choice do you make? 10/10, I take the starting LT. I don't want to wait until someone picks him up mid round two. The Cowboys "over drafted" that C from Wisconson (Fredricks), got blasted early on, but have what is considered on of the best OLines in the NFL. Everyone's an expert, but if you love a prospect and you think he can slot right in day 1 as a starter, do you gamble and wait? Or do you pull the trigger? Good thing I'm not a GM, but I think you take the best player who makes your team better.

I really doubt it. When push comes to shove, Cam is going to get a huge contract. Gettleman may hate it, but Cam gives us the best chance to win a superbowl. You have to pay your Franchise QB. Otherwise, you're back to square one. Who wants to break in another rookie QB in a year or two? Nope, Cam's going to stay a Panther. It's going to be a huge number, but that's the way the NFL works. The Panthers and Cam are going to see what Seattle and Indy do for their QBs and work from there. This is all just dancing right now. (Now that I say that, Cam's contract with the Panthers will be announced in 10 minutes...)

Does he use Mayock's or Kiper's ratings to determine BPA? I think we get caught up in what determines the "Best" player available. The reality of the situation is that every team creates it's big board based on what they need. If Mariota or Winston fell to 25, would they be at the top of our draft board as the BPA? Nope. In the 4th round? Why not! Every year this kind of stuff get's people worked up into thinking that for some reason Gettleman would draft someone who would not fit in the team at all. He won't. It's his job and reputation to build the best team. Do you bring the best team together by drafting 3 QBs in a row because they are the BPA? No, let's not be silly. If a team looks at getting the best football players at every pick, they are going to get better. There will be misses here and there, but you can make plans to get your best guys on the field regardless.

Yes, this can't be stated enough. To me it's also where things got a lot more flexible regarding time/rewards as well. Up to 20 you're just trying to get 20. Once you're there, it's like a new game (sort of). You have to play with others a lot more in order to get the better gear. I just ground out my gear doing the daily story, public events, and the occasional strike. That got me to 28 on the old vendor gear pretty quickly and easily. Now I really enjoy hitting the Roc list for 2-3 strikes at a time. I just did my first weekly heroic (sad right? Thanks x1stMexicianx!), and attempted CE for the first time (we got carried by a 32, but was a really good learning experience!). I look forward to the next time I can go take a crack at the raid. I might try to LFG it this afternoon after I get out of this workshop! As I've said before, Destiny really plays to a specific audience. If you are into investment games, then you'll love this game. You get new toys, you level them, then you fight harder stuff, get more new toys, ect. Then it peters out, you play something else for a while, then the next content drops and you do it again. SOJA said it best when it was like Gambling! Like with Xur's engrams when he has them... I still love playing. As soon as I get my 25 Strikes for Bad Juju done, I hope I can get my Thorn PVP stuff done as well.

I'd happily take Ted Ginn back! I would think that so long as he still has the wheels to be a return guy, and catch 30 balls a year, we'd all be thrilled! He had a great year for us, maybe he could do it again? Lighting in a bottle?

It's been a decade since that stuff happened. Fox and Hurney were willing to put up with the drama to go with the production and were rewarded. Gettleman and Rivera have a different perspective. For all the folks crying foul with the owner, he has input, but the reason he has a GM is to make the final call. Considering the climate between now and then, domestic violence is a MUCH BIGGER issue than beating up a teammate. Don't we still celebrate when a football player hits another football player really hard? Don't we love to watch these guys get in training camp fights about competitiveness. When was the last time we celebrated a big man hitting a woman? What a lot of people here fail to see is the Grey Area. This is still very uncharted water for everyone. Everyone is treated differently. Sucks but it's true. Fans might love to see Hardy come back from a better team scenario, but the NFL is much bigger than the teams. It's ingrained as part of American Culture, and they have to answer to the court of public opinion more so than we did 10 years ago.

I know how much we all love Peter King around here, but I still do find myself reading MMQB. Here's what he said about the Hardy and how the league is going to be watching his trial: From: http://mmqb.si.com/2015/02/09/tom-brady-super-bowl-49-nfl/5/ I think it's pretty spot on. The real trepidation is the likelihood of the problems surfacing again. Greg has a history of questionable behavior from his days at Ole Miss, to the motocycle wreck, and he did take a picture of his speedometer doing 100 in his Bently... On their own, it looks like a young guy making dumb young guy mistakes from which he will learn and grow. Then add in the domestic violence charges and conviction... Considering his very off kilter personality, then teams have plenty of reason to pause in their pursuit of Hardy.

Has anyone talked about why anyone would pay $10+ million a year for a guy who sat out a year? Or is that no longer an issue in 2015? I'd think in such a physical position, I'd be very wary of someone who has had that much time out of football.

The Josh Gordan situation is going to really affect how teams think of him. It's all up to the background and psych evaluations. If he's on our radar, and he passes the numerous non-football tests, and he's at the right place...Why not? We are going to have to trust Gettleman. He's done well for us, and hopefully he continues to do so. If Gettleman feels like DGB is the best pick for us at whatever spot, we take him, then we have to trust that he's passed the test. I don't think Gettleman is going to take a bad gamble. The combo of him and KB is super enticing, but it has to work together.

If you like Shooters with RPG elements, and you don't mind scraping weapons and armor about every three months, then Destiny is a great game. Destiny is a GRINDER game though. You'll be doing things over and over, but I still enjoy the crap out of it. I love the moment to moment. The PVP is fun to me, even though I am TERRIBLE. Shooting the heads of enemies is so much fun. Heck, last night I actually had a few minutes to play so I hopped on and did the daily story, a higher level version of a mission you do much earlier. It seems in the 8 days or so that I hadn't played, I forgot how to aim. I died several times because I was aiming and shooting at the ground and rocks! But it was still fun. Hilarious when a Thrall would sneak up on me! I was so sloppy but I managed it! Oh, and I would skip the Bungie.net forums. They are mostly a cespool (where I post too much!) of negativity...I need to stay way but I can't!

Would it be great to have 2013 Greg Hardy back? Absolutely! Hardy didn't play but one game, and has basically been on his own. In 2015, will Hardy be the best he has been? Or will all that time away from the game hurt him? The article is click bait to me. Hardy has no intention of giving any money back to the Panthers. He put our team in the conversation about domestic violence, and JR doesn't want that kind of attention brought to his team. Hardy can say one thing, but he will easily do what's best for him. Football is a business, and he'd be foolish to settle on a home-team discount. He wasn't formally suspended or punished by the league, that was the team. That was their call while they waited for his day in court. He has nothing to gain by giving money back other than some fan goodwill. If Hardy goes out (for whichever team) and gets 10+ sacks and makes some plays, then that's all the goodwill most fans require. Hardy is going to probably have to do one more rental year for someone, but he's going to have to really produce at a high level in order to get the contract he would have gotten this off season. I don't think the Panthers need him as much as some fans. Does he make our team better? If he's in shape. Is it worth it for one more year only to have him snapped up by someone with tons of cap room next season? Yeah, not sure if that money wouldn't be better spent elsewhere. I don't see Gettleman doing that again unless Hardy takes a one million dollar deal or something. I don't see Greg doing that.

Ivan, get the one where your friends go and that had the games you want. I want halo and for a so my choice is pretty easy. While ps4 can do a bit more work, both systems are great machines that will bring you hours of enjoyment. Just make sure you have friends. Most games are becoming very social compared to last gen.

Sweet! Nice haul there! I haven't done VoG yet. My main problem has been time, which is something I continue to fight. If this weeks weeklies weren't Omnigul, I'd be down for them. Frankly, I kind of hate that strike. It's fun the first time, but when it pops up 3/5 strike runs....yeah...not a fan. I need a break there. It's not that hard, but it's a long strike.