KSpan

Yeah, but Lance is where Darnold was last year. An equivalent comparison would be Darnold's press/commentary this time last year vs today's comments about Lance. For example, Cam Erving (lolz): https://catcrave.com/2021/08/07/5-major-sam-darnold-observations-week-2-panthers-camp/4/ https://nypost.com/2021/06/16/sam-darnold-has-glowing-charisma-away-from-jets-robby-anderson/ https://www.nfl.com/news/training-camp-buzz-2021-august-8 From CMC: https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/2021/06/20/christian-mccaffrey-sings-the-praise-of-usc-trojans-sam-darnold-with-carolina-panthers/ I'm not saying anything definitive about Lance per se, simply showing that there was plenty of that last year just like there may be for Lance now.

Problem is that, as I said, Rhule has nothing on his side to counter the negatives, and lumping objective realism in with being miserable/negative is as disingenuous as ignoring glaring holes and legitimate questions in favor of irrational optimism. I don't post much on Rhule these days because there's little point since he's clearly here for the immediate future, but it's completely fair to provide counterpoint to blindly optimistic posts; isn't that the idea behind a discussion forum, particularly a thread specifically asking about people's levels of optimism? Echo chambers are annoying on both sides of the spectrum and there is plenty of real-life data supporting a skeptical position vs one of leaping optimism, so until he falls on his face (even more) or starts looking like an actual NFL coach there's no avoiding the differing perspective.

Absolutely nothing Rhule has done supports a team under his command being competent enough to 'make some noise' against actual competition and the staff, while looking improved on paper, is ultimately under his command. Additionally, Snow got better last year but still has not shown the ability to strategize and mitigate a defensive roster that is light on the line and has not made any notable changes in that regard this offseason as well as largely misusing Chinn, arguably the best playmaker on the defense, last season. A QB playing lights out could go a long way but there are other major questions that can only be ignored if wearing some rose-colored glasses.

In these types of stories, one should look at Mayfield as a proxy for "QB who has the potential to be competent and sprinkle in some big plays along the way." Rhule needing a quality year from the QB position in order to help make himself look somewhat competent is not breaking news.

Fully, and I expect nothing less with Rhule at the helm. Doesn't mean I don't acknowledge the possibility of some major turnaround/breakout, as that's always a possibility and would be fantastic to see, but the odds of that are pretty slim IMO even with the NFL-caliber offseason. To summon the essence of John Fox, it is what it is. Let's get to the season and see what happens.

Very little.

Yup. Tepper already showed his colors with the Watson pursuit. Anything else is just lip service at this point.

Or 2027!!!!

They decide he's terrible and yet want to keep him off of division rivals... that would be a Browns-esque decision indeed.

Tillman got hurt and we ended up with Cortland Finnegan and Robert McClain starting as the nickel and #2 corners. Probably safe to include Horn in there. Regarding Harper, he was slow and lacked some athleticism by that point. Chinn might be a push at worst, but with his instincts and Coleman playing center field I think Chinn would be an upgrade in that SS-type role near the LOS that Harper often played.

Of consequence? No, not yesterday.

Plenty of people blamed Richardson the same as Tepper for the same reasons; claiming otherwise is disingenuous. Richardson, however, had early success to gain some credibility and leeway while Tepper has zilch, and in some ways arguably actively made things worse to date (complete control to Rhule, move to artificial turf, etc). When that changes them sentiment will change too, but until then Tepper had earned the criticism he receives.

Boise St. and the blue turf was interesting 20 years ago but just like the uniforms it's long crossed into 'trying too hard to be unique' territory, with the basketball courts being a perfect example.

THE Randy Fasani, back to finish his unfinished Panthers business.

Given how far behind he'd be with the playbook and that the only reason they make such a move is to try to maximize wins this year and that Cleveland will have enough distraction with Watson as it is, that timing doesn't make much sense to me. I'd guess they move him right before camps start. That said, these guys went off the rails for Watson in the first place. Who knows what they'll ultimately do or why.

And he said... nothing.

Teams that lose, lose because they don't know why they lost. Duh.

The A80J does just fine in typical room lighting, so I don't mean to imply that it's dim. It gets squintingly-bright at times with the lights off and no complaints with the lights on. The direct sunlight question had as much to do with direct sun being hard on OLED panels as it does the brightness. I found this video to be a helpful perspective when making my decisions. Our living room gets direct afternoon/evening sun and is a huge light box, so while an OLED would probably be visible it just didn't make a ton of sense. I'm still very pleased with the X95J and have no complaints, having bought it knowing the weaknesses of LED panels (there is some blooming at times but it's better than I expected). It also gets eye-searingly bright even at 16ft and the colors can leap off the screen at times with a bit more vibrancy than the OLED due to this brightness, but the A 80CJ just has a depth and 3D feel to it at times that an LED can't match. Its all about what's most important to you at this point.

With respect to your choice, how bright is your room/is the TV in direct sunlight and what do you value most in a TV (brightness, deep blacks, etc)? We bought a Sony X95J LED for the living room and A80CJ (the Costco version, but exactly the same as the A80J) for the basement, and while I give the nod to the OLED overall they both have their strengths that made them the best choice for the rooms they're in. I primarily game on mine (Rocket League, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Madden, Minecraft w/ the kids) and it's fantastic, an appreciable step up from the X900E it replaced (which was very good in its own right). Gets plenty bright, though not as bright as the X95J, and the contrast is exquisite. I'm partial to Sony's processing but looked hard at the C1 vs the A80J due to the 'C1 for gaming' gospel. The C1 does offer more 2.1 ports and some other minor features, but overall the A80J just had the edge in picture quality and that's what matters most to me. I'm pretty sure I'd have been happy with the C1 but I have zero regrets in getting the Sony. Keep in mind also that the 65" A80J has a matte coating and not the semi-gloss, which does slightly reduce perceived contrast in high-lighting situations but isn't a major factor in the dark.

The irony of the Jets situation is that, per the reporting, they feared he'd bring college people with him and not hire an NFL-level staff. Years later here we stand, with Carolina and David Tepper having been outsmarted by the Jets...

Gotcha - I partially misunderstood. Him just flat out calling it out, calling out the experience, and saying it wasn't covered enough in the press was just funny. It was clearly on his mind... dude's too prideful not to have made it a point with Rhule if only because of the press angle. It's only a very small step from there for Rhule to have beem voluntold what type of coaches he needed to bring in. But I'm just speculating like everyone else. I wish we could see this staff under someone other than Rhule but that won't be the case this year.

Where did I say anything about a conspiracy? It was a very odd comment to make, acknowledging the prior lack of NFL experience on Rhule's prior staff totally unprompted and as the second or third thing he said. Tepper's a prideful guy and him getting that specific with the comments makes it pretty easy to see that such a thing was bothering him, and Rhule sure didn't think he needed NFL experience around him up to this point until magically changing his mind. No conspiracy necessary to connect some glaring dots.

He sounded like a hot air-filled clown then too, with classics like "we'll keep running practices like we did in college" and "green means go, so QBs will wear green jersey" nonsense along with starting a public spat with/publicly moving on from his starting QB (who is also a clown in his own right and who was rightfully dumped, but doesn't change Rhule's mismanagement). Rhule just hadn't confirmed it on the field like we've seen for 2 years now. I am quite down on Rhule at this point so acknowledge a potential bias, but I agree that there was at least some degree of voluntold-ness to him hiring actual NFL-level people this time around. This was confirmed for me when one of the very first things Tepper said in his press conference this offseason was to thank Rhule for hiring people with NFL experience. Like... seriously? Why even call that out publicly unless you're trying to make a point? As I've said a few times before also, even if things do improve this year how much credit can actually be given to Rhule and how much goes to the NFL knowledge now around him? What does Rhule singularly bring to the table? Moot at this point since he's here through 2022, so nothing to do now but sit back and watch.