KSpan

The SEC took Missouri. They'll take Duke.

I'm not meaning to imply that, more so that he settled back into good-to-very good range in 2015 before the injury but not best in the NFL. I agree completely that Bene was a quality player who had awful injury luck.

He was only credited with 5 targets during that time so my guess is quite a few could pull that off. I'm not downplaying his potential at all, simply saying that the sample size is too small for any kid of rating. Hell, Bene Benwikere and Mike Remmers were among the best at their respective positions at the end of 2014 and we know how that worked out. I can't find the Remmers rank at rhe moment but here's Bene. Only point here, again, is about sample size and drawing conclusions.

95 coverage snaps against bottom-tier (at the time) teams. He has potential for sure, but I don't see how he can really be rated at all based on his season being cut short, let alone underrated.

Yeah, that's not the norm at all.

For a less obvious build: $3 Beuerlein, $4 Stew (assuming this is Double Trouble Stew and not 2018 Stew), $5 Smitty, $1 Samuel, $2 King Beuerlein can make all the throws and drive the ball when needed, Stew and King give a power running element but Stew is still elusive/explosive and a major tackle-breaker and King never drops passes while making some clutch catches, and Smitty and Samuel take the top off and are good for some highlight-reel grabs.

Perhaps its an instance of text on the internet not catching nuance but in this type of communication medium you basically did with your statement, even if you didn't intend to.

I still don't know wtf the announcing crew and/or Fox thought would happen with this. Of course it was an idiotic idea. On topic, RIP Goose.

Yup, if we're randomly throwing blame it couldn't be from the tens and tens of millions of infections of a novel disease that no one has any idea about the long-term effects of, no sir. Gotta be the vaccine that is quickly processed and out of the system. Lolz.

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.