d-dave

The most successful: W and he is able to pick apart the Denver D and make plays left and right. Looks like the BY from Alabama. Really successful: W Modestly Successful: keeps us in it, but we lose. He shows signs of things clicking and good decision making but the lack of practice time leaves a lot of rust. What I expect: a big ole L and another poo the bed from Bryce. If he's better than that, great! But otherwise, I expect the same as usual.

I think the lesson learned after Bryce is that you DON'T need the number 1 pick to get a great QB. While there are a fair number of successful #1 pick QBs who have panned out, a lot of the "best" QBs came after the top 5. Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Pat Mahomes, etc weren't #1 over all picks. There's plenty of good that can happen when you draft top 10 so long as you are smart about roster building. Now as far as Dan Morgan - honestly, there's some good and some bad. He was #2 to Scott Fitterer, which can't be forgotten. But he also went out and got two really good guards and drafted some guys who are showing some potential. Got to give him some time really. I know it sucks to have to do that, but that's just the way it is. As far as who has value to trade away: Diante Johnson, AT, JC Horn...Taylor Moton? Chubba? (they doth protest too much for him not to be available...).

Nah, I saw a replay during halftime and you could see his calf ripple as the tendon tore at his ankle and shot up his lower leg. It was gross, but also interesting. Not faking it. But it's time for the NFL, The Browns, everyone to move on from Watson and let him enjoy his $240 million bucks.

Well, as was said when he was hired, he was probably a year too early. So there will be plenty of growing pains for Canales. What's the next option? You really can't fire him. You'll just be more of a laughing stock. Instead, we have to embrace the suck right now. I'd run the ball 30 times a game, even if we're down 50-0. That's our best offensive plan right now. Run the ball. Do that well, then you shorten the game. At a minimum you lower their points from 40 to 30, an improvement =P What's going on with the Defense? That's what I want to know first. I expected a step down after losing Luvu, Burns and then Brown to injury. But this is just embarrassing. I know we're dealing with worse than replacement level players it seems, but these guys just don't have the heart. That's going to be Canales' greatest challenge this season: find the heart of the team. As they say, the strongest steel is forged in the fires of a dumpster. Find those good ingots of steel, purge the rest. I think it's time to sell it off - trade everyone over age 28, sign rookies off the street. I mean, we already suck horribly, how much worse can it get? If guys are making business decisions, go ahead and make some yourself.

Chubba is our only productive player...again. if I'm him, I don't want to spend my prime years in Carolina. We are a dumpster fire right now. Today, we can't do anything at all, on either side of the ball. Heck, I'd demand a trade if I were him. Get me out of here.

Yeah, I saw on the halftime show his calf ripple as the tendon tore. Gross and interesting. Will this close the book on his career? Or was it already closed. He's looked washed all year. He's got a horrible personal record with masseuses. He's got $230 million in contract cash. Time to retire, and figure out how to be a good person.

It's a LONG time until April =P I mean, you never know, Bryce could turn it on! (LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!) That being said, we need defense. We need pass rushers. We need run stuffers. We need TALENT!!! If we end up top 5, Cleveland and NE are working hard to beat us to #1, we need to get the best player on the board, period. If it's a WR, cool. If it's a CB, cool. A top 5 pick needs to be an absolute blue chip player. A QB? Depends on who falls into the 2nd+ rounds...

I'm really over Bryce. Sure, I'd love for him to pan out long term and become the man around here, but let's be realistic: the Panthers are over Bryce. Look, he's a really nice kid. Great person. I bet he'd be a great match for your 20 something daughters. Great! But he's not looked like a real NFL QB except for a few times. In 2023, I squinted SO HARD to find the NFL QB in there, and I convinced myself he could do that. He's not. He's a great practice QB. He looks great during practice, but when the hitting is live he leaves the brown in the bed. We will have to figure out the long term QB plans. Not now. As several have said on page 1, there are grown men playing for jobs, checks, and their families. Either Bryce helps them, or he stays on the bench. I'm fine letting him play in garbage time. That's what it is. No one on the team wants him to start anymore. Will we see him again? Probably. Over 35 QBs have a tendency to get hurt. Dalton is no exception. That's when we'll all be FORCED in to the Bryce Young experience again. Not looking forward to that...

Man, we are the best at being the worst in point differential! We're number 1! Or 32!? This is almost comically bad. Like Dan Dan Orlovsky stepping out of bounds bad... May as well laugh. I keep the games on in the background. I spend the first half washing our cars, and part of the 2nd half cleaning. I still love my team. They are MY team. But man, are the BAD right now! Holy Moley!

Honestly, I'd be willing to have conversations about anyone on an expiring contract. Get value while you can. That being said, how easy is it to find an upgrade/replacement for them? The two that jump out for me are Diante Johnson and Chubba Hubbard - our two best offensive players right now. They have some value based on their performance. Brooks is going to come back and take carries away from Hubbard so I could see that move. Diante is our best WR by a long shot. But he's 29 and wanting to get paid. Don't blame him there. Ideally, I'd prefer to keep my best players. Reward the work, build the culture. But this team is so bad, how long before Chubba wears out? Diante loses a step? How long until we're decent? It's all a gamble.

Here's a cool story about the Rivian truck that survived being washed out in Asheville, and then used it's battery to help feed people. Pretty cool story. https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-vs-rivian-r1t-owner-hurricane-helene-survived-convert-2024-10

Let's go back to the immortal words of Mel Kiper Jr: "They should ban the cover 2!" Why? It's limiting explosive passing plays. It makes it harder for young QBs to play well because it forces everything in to condensed fields. Agree, disagree, it doesn't matter. The NFL won't do that (will it???). So let's look at what real NFL defenses do? They have a base D for the depth chart, but they have a variety of packages and looks: for short yardage, blitzing, prevent, intermediate, 2 deep, single high, man, etc... What it comes down to in the modern NFL is you need guys who can occupy and get past the OL. You need guys who can rush the passer from the outside in. You need guys who can guard behind the DL until the DBs take over. You need guys who can cover. You need guys who can tackle. You need good communication. Right now, we have guys who get pushed around, guys who don't do a great job filling gaps, guys who can't get past OL, guys who don't communicate well, and guys who make bone headed decisions. How do you scheme them into getting better at playing football? I think Evero is trying to do too much with these guys. There are too many new pieces on a weekly basis. They can't play fast because their heads are spinning. Evero is a smart, serious dude. I like him a lot. But this is not working. Time to go back to the basics, and let the players play fast. Sure, we'll continue to get beat by better players and schemes, but we can look competent, make some stops, and give some hope...

My rambling thoughts: Canales is going to get two more years after this. You've got to show patience to stop being the laughing stock of the NFL. Canales may have been a year early in the HC gig, so I'm more inclined to give him some time to figure it out. As for the Defense - I'm split on Evero. He's working with cast offs. His only Blue Chip player is JC Horn. The rest are replacement level or rookies. The past two seasons, he's had a good defense that was let down by the offense putting them out there all the time. On the flip side, it's looks like his scheme isn't very good at anything. There are definitely DCs who are able to make something resembling chicken salad from chicken poo. Can we improve on 3rd down? Can we start to tackle better? Can we take away something from an offense with some level of success? If we don't see that, I'm fine to let him walk. The scheme 34 or 43 doesn't matter to me too much. We just need better players before we can really assess the scheme. Outside of Horn, we have Xavier Woods (generally good, but has issues), Trevin Wallace (rookie, but there's something there!), and...Clowney? Tuttle? As for the offense - I'm going to let Canales cook. Bring Dalton back as a bridge QB. If I can, I trade away Young. If not, he's going to stick around and "develop." I'd have no problem looking at another QB in the draft or a younger FA/vet to see what life Canales can bring out of them. Player Acquisitions: Get talented athletes, dawgs, and producers in that order of importance. We just need talent. I don't care where or how, but we need to get more talented players across the board. Pass Rush? Good question. Draft is probably the most affordable thing. Get more DL. Pitch Tuttle (this was a bad fit, can't blame him for getting paid) and find big, angry men who can push other dudes around. DBs - find good dudes who play good football and stuff. These are my random ruminations...

That's a LOT of drinks to spill... For me, I'm still a fan. I just bought a new Panthers hat on Saturday. This has been my team long before Tepper bought it, and it will continue to be my team after he's dust. It does suck that the team is so bad that my son is not interested in football at all. But he's 12 so we all know his interests will change over time. I didn't get rabid until I was 16 or so...

Nah, I don't think it's over as much as the complete dearth of talent on our team is so apparent it's causing everyone to look like poo. As others have said, our OL had a BAD game. The Bears have a good defense. The beat up on us. While we ran effectively, they were able to score points on offense. My biggest concern was how little in the passing game we were generating. Like at one point, Andy had more attempts than yards, and it didn't get a lot better. We just got dunked on. It happens. The injuries suck, but it's going to allow other guys to make a case for their spots. Like Coker looked pretty good at the end. Does that mean he's stolen a spot? No, but he's made a case for more reps. Please replace Mingo. I like Mingo as a blocker, but he's just not a great WR.

What's sad is yesterday was a HUGE display of what we gave up for Bryce, and that return has not been very good right now. From the moment that Tepper came in and tossed out Ron and Cam, this team has been lost. We actually downgraded from Hurney in the GM department. We have been a model of impatience and ineptitude since Tepper took over. Who remembers those halcyon days of Teddy two gloves? Or the run until they bleed Steve Wilks? Just so many bad decisions made, and the buck stops with Tepper. Now is there an overnight solution? I don't think so. Basically, we need to gather as much talent as we can. We need to be sellers at he trade deadline. As much as I hate to lose a guy like Chubba, RBs are almost never worth their 2nd contract. Any expiring contract should be up for sale. This year is going to be a crap show no matter which way you cut it up. What is it cross fitters say? Embrace the suck?

Being a little bit of an EV fanboy, there's a couple of interesting tidbits that I'm seeing on social media: https://insideevs.com/news/735934/rivian-r1t-flood-hurrican-helene/ This Rivian truck had a pretty rough encounter, but started up, and ran and has been supplying power from it's battery. That's pretty dope. I've read where many people with EVs have been using them power their important appliances. For the larger trucks with the huge batteries, they have been really helpful. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/hurricane-helene-electric-vehicle-power-outage/680106/ As far as EVs catching fire, I've seen the issue with salt water, not so much the fresh water. https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-electric-vehicles-fire-flooding-0284e2eb2accc0570361def4e963eda0 I've read some antidotes on reddit about people with solar systems in the mountains helping out their neighbors so that's cool. It doesn't change the devastation and loss of life experienced in this extreme weather event.

He's not the shortest NFL to find success. The biggest issue Bryce faces is the mental aspect of it. That was supposed to be his strength. He was supposed to be a super processor. He's not doing that. He had moments his rookie year, but the offensive dysfunction/sacks of year 1 could have ruined him. I don't know if Bryce will bounce back. I figure we'll see it at some point this year when Andy gets hurt. He could be down to pick up his newspaper and be out 3-4 weeks with back spasms (been there!). I hope not, I do like the Andy Dalton experience right now. I'm also not in a hurry to see Bryce come out there and poop the bed repeatedly. But there's a high likelihood of him having to play at some point this season. I really do like Bryce as a person. Seems super accountable. But he's lost his mojo. Got the yips. Whatever you want to call it. He's got to have some confidence in himself. He's got to grab his nuts and man up. He can have his faith, but it's meaningless until BRYCE does something about things he can control.

Does the patch matter? I think it does/doesn't matter. Rather it only matters when it matters. The guys in the locker room know who the leaders are. They don't need a patch. Honestly, when Canales benched Bryce, it was a major shake up to the locker room. No excuses, no BS. Play good football or even the #1 pick will get benched. You can color it however you want to, but the reality is that the team has a sense of urgency now. I wasn't sure Canales would be a good coach year one. We're still too early to make that determination, but Dave has certainly done the job better than anyone since Steve Wilkes. The team knows they have a good coach, and they play for him. He wants to help them WIN, not just develop Bryce. Heck of a motivational tool, that's for sure.

I've heard some folks say this isn't a strong QB draft. Is it because no one has the traits the TV scouts like? Look, I don't watch a lot of college football, I just see the highlights sometimes. I also have zero faith in my ability to judge a football player... Seems like there are lot f interesting players though.

I don't know. I wouldn't trade him yet. Heck, I wouldn't trade anyone until the trade deadline. Our offensive players are only going to get more valuable as performance improves. If Diante balls out the next few weeks before the deadline, and since he's an expiring contract AND we have a lot of money tied up elsewhere... Then I can absolutely see us trading him and recouping some other value for him.

I think with Canales, his short comings are going to be minimized as much as possible. He doesn't have overwhelming physicality like a Cam. He's not an elite athlete like a Lamar or Allen. He's got a good enough arm with enough zip on the intermediate passes. He's not the playmaker that Mahomes is. What's helping Andy right now is that Canales' offense has created so many answers for him. Bryce didn't have answers, yet Andy does. Andy has the experience to run a NFL offense. He's hungry AF because he didn't think he'd have a chance to be a start again, which is helping him play lose. So at the end of the day, Andy is a good, steady QB. He's still going to need the support of a strong running game and help on the defensive side. In some arbitrary rankings, I can see him in the top half of starters in the league.

I just finished the 3rd episode, and wanted to see if any of y'all checked it out yet? Kathryn Hahn is still delightful as Agatha from WandaVision. I just like the show. It has a pretty narrow focus and sticks to these characters that the show presents as real characters. Very cool. I love the visual stylings of the production. Just a cool show.

Yeah, I started digging in that hole. Man, I have been ruined by the algorithm! Made me lazier! Time to fix that!

I'm not a QB guru. What I saw of him in one Miami game (against Florida) was pretty nice. I have no idea if he'll be a good NFL QB, but we'll just have to see what happens when whoever drafts him. He's got a LOT of experience. Is he maxed out? Or will he be better? We'll just have to wait and see. There's my nice and vague answer.