Ricky Spanish

This is a public service announcement for you all: Chill the fug out chicken littles. They aren't playing these games to win. They aren't even calling plays to necessarily score or get first downs. They are calling plays to see certain players in certain situations. Players will always play to win because that is how they are wired. Coaches don't coach to win in the preseason. They spend 20-30 hours making a list of things they want to bring out in a player/play. They will call plays with the purpose of getting a heatmap of offensive linemen's footwork in order to correlate number of vertical steps with sacks, hurries, or tips. They will call plays to track a specific WR's release/separation against certain defensive looks. They will call run plays to the Left against a stacked box that have no chance of success just so they can see how the RG moves laterally and compare it to another guard who played a different set of downs. They will call plays that put the safety at the line of scrimmage in order to track how much ground he can cover in x seconds if the WR in the slot on the opposite side of the line runs a go route. The preseason, in general, is for data collection purposes. The only game that has any relevant correlation to regular season success used to be week 3 of the preseason where the starters would play the entire first half and run a half game plan with vanilla looks across the board. I don't know which game is considered the "preseason week 3" game anymore because there are only 3 preseason games now, because it's the preseason and it doesn't matter. There is absolutely zero reason to get as aggro as many of you are about the preseason. Chill out. My god. Chill. If we are at week 8 and still look like Matt Rhule's team, then by all means, panic but I'm not sweating any of this poo in the slightest because we all have WAY more important stuff to worry about in our lives than preseason football.

Bro... like, chill. It's only the preseason. I am expecting a playoff push for this team myself but I'm not anticipating anything clicking until at LEAST a month into the season. This is a new staff, a new offense, and a completely new set of skill players ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE BOARD. New top 3 WRs, new RB, new TE, new QB, who is also a rookie no matter how smart he is. I would not be surprised if we are the Jags of last year where we start off like 3-6 then things start to click halfway through the year and we threaten the playoffs. Just chill my guy. Deep breaths.

This thread is full of insecurity. It's the preseason. Stuff just happens.

The 0-16 lions were undefeated in the preseason. Preseason doesn't mean anything.

I think he's dying. Poor kid.

I think we can all agree on one think. We need to move on from Jordan.

I was just happy to see Bryce take two big shots and bounce up like nothing

It is standard procedure to hit the gym after a bad breakup.

top half of the league. Defense shouldn't have been as bad as it was last season, and we only seem to have gotten better on paper.

I had the exact opposite view of him. Seems like they drafted him simply for his athletic profile and they felt they could coach him up. Last staff showed how incompetent they were at the whole developing talent thing, but even so, the biggest knock against him in the draft was he just didn't have the instincts to play LBer. It's why I don't like drafting based on athletic profile alone, something Rhule seemed to love doing.

It really is such an underrated ability for QBs. One of the reasons that Tom Brady was able to play so long and at such a high level was his pocket awareness. He isn't mobile by any means, but he was the GOAT for a reason. Look at highlights of his and just watch him maneuver in the pocket. Small steps to the side, quick shuffle up, find the lane, throw. It looks effortless. He could sense where the defense was as they were bearing down on him. One of the reasons he rarely, if ever, took huge hits. Hopefully Bryce has some of those similar traits.

How are you all forgetting about The multi-threat QB/WR/Gunner Joe Webb?

Concerning. Not worried though

Don't worry man, the Cardinals exist. The bucs are in a race to 2, but they still have a shot to be better than a few other teams.

I'd expect him to miss at least the first month of the season.

Nash even got his own little hype piece on panthers.com a few days back. Him or McCray might be closer to starting than we originally thought.

Can we all take a step back and appreciate the HUGE uptick in coverage compared to the past two weeks? We are at page 19 and it's been filled with updates throughout. Kudos to all that posted the tweets/updates.

they didn't really exist, he scared them away.

There's a solid chance we get extra eyes on the squad what with the NY Media and rest of the circus that follows Rodgers around, so hopefully we get some good insight all around.

He also had an inside track with Indy and Reich was their coach, so it isn't a stretch to say he still maintains some contact with parts of the Reich regime/staff.

Dude has more insight into this franchise than probably anyone, honestly. He's been through 4 coaching regime changes, 3 GMs, and 2 owners. Plus he's a long snapper so he just kind of gets to observe things without really being bothered. I'd love to sit and pick his brain about everything he's seen over the past 16 years. I'm sure it'd be informative.

I really have grown to love JJ and his personality over the years. He's the longest tenured Panther ever and he's still really damn good at his job, even if it's just long snapping. Hope he sticks around in some way shape or form after he eventually retires, I'm not ready for him to do so yet.

Last team practice before joint practices against the Jets on Wednesday and Thursday. Post em if you got em.