BrianS

Marty, is that you? I remember how you love those athletes and were willing to convert them. I just wish it had worked. Once. Ever.

It's interesting that the SB fumble keeps coming up. I saw an interview recently with one of the Panthers DB's in that SB who said that he felt more responsible than Cam. He apparently dropped what he viewed as an easy pick 6 very early in the game. The guy felt that would have completely changed the game . . . and he's not wrong.

If there was ever a QB who could be rescued by the right coaching and situation, it's Lawrence.

There are actually some realistic(ish) mocks showing Carter falling to us at 8. I'm pretty sure if that happens it's an absolutely ideal situation for the Panthers. The guy is a monster at perhaps our largest position of need.

It's far too early. Bryce could just as easily fold next season. We have real reason for optimism this offseason - and BY's late season performance is a part of that - but let's not get carried away. If we can just get a full season of consistent, quality play from him next year that would be AMAZING.

Except for he started 17 games for the Commanders this year and had a career year.

How about the fact that Saleh is a Packers coach and we can't talk to him due to the Packers still being in the playoffs? We absolutely did not consider our options . . . because we still aren't sure what all the options are given staff turnover around the league. I have no personal beef with Evero, but damn. The guy had exactly one year of DC experience before he came here. That one year of experience in Denver was taking over a defense that was previously 3rd in the league and they became . . . 12th. He has no coordinator level experience turning around a defense or building one from the ground up. I hope it works out, but I suspect we're going to be sitting here next offseason with the same issues.

We need to restructure and extend . . . but we also need to be sure we aren't just kicking the can down the road a couple seasons. Yes, extend him, but do so in a way that keeps the cap hits more consistent so that when it does come time to cut him we can do so without the pain.

Honestly, I cannot believe that we didn't even have a CONVERSATION with Robert Saleh before retaining Evero. The guy took the worst defense in the league and turned them into a borderline top 10, sometimes top 5 defense. They were on course do be the same again this year before he was fired. But nah, we good.

Did he though? Or are we only remembering what he looked like once he had those weapons. Brees threw for 4400 yards his first year in NO . . . with a rookie Marques Colston as his top target. Brees didn't *need* weapons, but yea, he had them. So far, BY has shown the ability to be a marginal starter in the league. That's it. Where we picked him is no longer relevant. Is "marginal starter" our organizational goal? I hope not.

If he is so fragile that one bad game ruins his confidence, then he is not the QB we need.

I'd say it's for sure he sees it worse than BY9. Fields has every single physical tool you could ever want in a franchise QB, and I know that his development hasn't been good. But he just doesn't see things. Sam Darnold at least saw ghosts . . . Fields doesn't even see that. I was high on Fields coming out, but he hasn't done anything yet to justify it and it doesn't look like he will.

A slightly heavier Chinn would have been a GREAT Will LB in a 4-3. Free to chase the ball? He'd be a monster in the run game, and good enough to cover most RB's out of the backfield. I'm glad he's finding success now in Washington, he's a good dude.

We've seen good stuff from Bryce? When? Other than Green Bay last year. We've seen BY display the ability not to beat us by making bonehead errors. We've seen that twice. It's far from good, and far from consistent. And the bottom line is, that capacity - even if it's consistent - is your baseline for a backup in the NFL. It would be far better for the franchise if BY flipped a switch and became what a first overall pick should be. Right now he's looking up at good backups and hoping to get there.

I do agree that our rookies are looking good. They definitely could look even better if the QB play was even average NFL level. Nobody is gonna get a ton of yards when your QB is throwing for 150 per start. Yea, BY is averaging 150 yards per start this year. Which is good for . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . dead last in the NFL! Gardner (*@$ing Minshew is averaging 200 per start!

Unfortunately, yea. A lot of media talking heads are pushing that these last couple games is Bryce figuring it out and becoming an NFL QB. It's ridiculous and I don't understand it, but it's there. It's like all these things that are so carefully picked over when evaluating other QB's are just completely ignored when talking about BY9. It's just beyond me.

Legette body catches too much for my comfort. To the point he will jump to body catch a ball when he could just reach up and grab it. Not sure if that's a fixable trait - legit not sure, I just don't know of any data on it in either direction.

I don't get it either. The Giants were averaging 15 points per game prior to this weekend. Dead last in the league in scoring offense . . . and we managed to let them exceed their average.

You know what backups should do? Don't turn the ball over and let the team carry them. You know what first overall picks should do? Pick up the team and carry them. Everyone must decide which fits BY9.

Something I find interesting is that you are more likely to find successful players as UDFA's than you are to find them with a single pick in any round past 3. Those 3rd round compensatory choices? Largely worthless. Yes, I get it, there are a lot more UDFA's than there are drafted players in later rounds. Basically, if you're fishing for starters you are simply not going to find anything in Rounds 4 - 7 with any regularity.

When they initially lost Collins they still had Diggs to take up the slack. Now all they've got is Dell and he's a FANTASTIC #2, but he's not a true 1. I have no idea what happened to their OLine, but it has been abysmal this year.

I disagree. Our 2015 line was quite good with the exception of Remmers, who was average. He got a bad rap because our staff asked him to single handedly block one of the most dominant defensive players in the league in the biggest game of the year. I do think we could have / should have done more on that front - of course - but he did have a good line at least that year.

DeAndre Hopkins is 100 times the player that Johnson is, even at his age and he was had for a 5th. We'll be lucky to get a 6th for him.

OP does have a point, sort of. But the snowball started down the hill way before a Reich / Darnold decision. Using the 03 season as a guidepost isn't realistic either - the league is completely different now. The inevitable problem is that you do need a really good QB to win a SB these days. At any one time, there are probably only 15-20 good QB's in the league. Thus, the problem the Panthers have. They don't have one.

I would not be upset if we hired Hurney as head of college scouting. He certainly failed at a lot of the duties required of a GM, but man we had a lot of good players come through under his watch.