BrianS

I'm definitely rooting for him. I think there is a greater chance of Mayfield finally turning into a bona fide franchise guy than there ever was of Darnold doing it. Mayfield can actually point to success at both the college and NFL levels whereas Darnold cannot.

I'm not sure if that's the case, but I'm willing to give him a chance. Remember, people outside the Panthers also had very unflattering opinions of CN1 as well, despite all his teammates saying they liked him. Hopefully that's what we are seeing here as well.

Seeing as our TE's had 45 receptions and 452 yards last year, you're shooting low if you want to see improvements to be optimistic about. Show me 70-80 catches and 800 yards. Then I can get excited about our TE's producing something.

It's utter madness to release Darnold at this point. I don't want to see him play another snap for us, but I also don't want to release him. It's highly unlikely, but we could end up getting something for him. Even getting a 6th rounder for him while we pay his salary is better than releasing him. Hurney would release him.

Wait, what? Baker should be above the guy who just took his team on his shoulders to the Super Bowl, and below the guy who in just two seasons has more game winning drives than Baker has in four? Go watch some football man. Burrow and Herbert are the next generation unless something derails them. Those boys can play. Gimme some of what you're smokin I guess.

That's a pop fly man. The 49ers traded three 1st round picks and a 3rd round pick for Trey Lance and paid JimmyG around $26 million last year. They also gave up a 2nd round pick for JimmyG when he was acquired. Pretty steep.

Actually . . . yes. I would rather know what we have there before the next draft, not left wondering. PJ Walker tho . . . I will lose my (*@#ing mind if he sticks on the roster.

He's Sam Darnold II. Maybe he finally puts it together, he's got all the incentive in the world to do so and a HUGE chip on his shoulder. I will say there is at least more good tape on Baker than on Sam. Full disclosure, I'm not one of those who hold last year against Baker. He should have tapped out, and didn't.

Who do I want it to be? Corral, of course. Who do I think it will be? Horn.

He would make a great coach, but if I was his age and financially set for life, I'm pretty sure the last thing I'd wanna do is throw all my time into my job.

Actually, that's the old thinking. Can you name a QB who has sat a year and then succeeded in recent history? Burrow, Herbert, Murray, Jones all got thrown in immediately and succeeded. I think QB's come to the NFL now better prepared. Either they have it, or they don't. The only QB who sat a year and succeeded in recent memory is Mahomes. I'd argue he could easily have played his rookie year, but the Chiefs had Alex Smith coming off 12-4 and 10-6 seasons where they were top 10 scoring offenses. I think that used to be true, but I'm not convinced it is still true. I'm not saying we throw Corral out there week 1, I'm saying let him compete. If he's our best QB, he plays week 1. If the season is crap by week 8, he plays regardless. The worst case scenario with Corral is we get to the end of the season with a non-playoff team and still don't know what we have. It's Brady Christiansen all over again with the most important position on the team.

You can't second guess against value like that, it's unfair. At the time they made the trade, it wasn't pick 70. It could have been pick 96! At the time, the FO was talking playoffs - right or wrong. They were thinking that pick was going to be mid 80's at best. This is nothing like the Anderson or Darnold deals. Anderson got paid for a career year while Coach 1000 was in full command. Yes, that was a bad deal. Darnold had no consistently good tape on him. Yes, he could make some eye popping plays, but those were both good and horrible plays. That was a bad deal. There was good tape on CJ Henderson, and the appearance was that he had fallen out of favor with the coaching staff. He was highly coveted out of college, and we got him for a steal. You also had to consider we just lost one starting CB for the year - and another left the same game with a foot injury which we didn't really know the extent of. If you want to criticize the Gilmore trade, ok, I can kinda see that. That one didn't make a lot of sense except in bringing a veteran to the room. Great player, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure it was a trade we needed to make.

How do you figure? How could they know at the time they made that trade what Donte might be thinking as far as his value? If CJ turns into a starting CB, we can flip him for better than what we paid. In a league that values passing so much, having three good CB's is never a problem. Teams are playing nickel packages somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of the time. CJ becoming a starter can only benefit us in every way. It's a question of whether he does or not.

If CJ can just turn into an average NFL starter for us, that pick we sent over was as good as gold. He doesn't need to be amazing, just good.

It is very frustrating to a LOT of people how BC was used last year. It's nice to hear that he is looking good now, and surprise, he's being played in the position he excelled at in college. While it would kinda suck because of where we drafted him, at least Ickey has clear talent as a guard. I daresay he won't get walked back to the QB on the regular the way pretty much every guard we had last year did. I don't really care WHO plays LT or LG or whatever. I just want to see our coaches stop trying to impose their idea of where a player should play and instead observe the players and see where they can have the greatest impact on the game.

He had a lot of snaps, but wasn't truly "used". Last season he had 422 offensive snaps but only 30 targets. This with CMC out and not soaking up a bunch of targets. Worse yet, of his 30 targets, 22 of them (and 14 of his 17 receptions) happened in the first six weeks prior to the concussion.

This is wrong thinking. The 2021 Panthers defense was 11th best in 20+ yard pass plays surrendered, allowing a total of 46 such plays. Likewise we were 15th best in 20+ yard run plays surrendered, with a total of 9. The Panthers defense didn't really give up a lot of chunk plays. We simply got ground down because we were too light and fast. We overcompensated, allowing teams to just nickle and dime us to death. We also had the defense with the worst average starting field position in the league, so teams didn't really "need" go gouge us to have a successful drive. On the flip side of this stat, we allowed the second fewest yards in the league per drive at just 26 yards per drive. Obviously, yardage defense isn't super relevant, but with as often as our defense was on the field, and with the field position they were handed, we did ok. Our defense wasn't as good as what Rhule would like to spin it. However, it's was not NEARLY as bad as our record and some of the fan-think would portray it as either.

The other caveat is that you need to have long term vision and planning. Head coaches don't tend to be on board with that because they are evaluated on wins and losses. GM's are evaluated on talent evaluation and acquisition. A GM might evaluate his roster and think "We're not going to be very good this year, so let's take our medicine". It could come in the form of cutting ties with a player to take a big hit. It could come in the form of extending a player with a LOT of money right up front. A coach wants a roster that can win now.

They picked up his option before he even practiced iirc. Wasn't that done in April?

I actually wouldn't mind him here provided we don't wait until training camp. He needs time to learn the offense. My thinking is that he's on a one year audition for everyone, he's going to put his head down and be the best teammate and QB he can be this year in order to secure his future.

Wait, are we letting Matt Rhule go back to Texas? I'm ok with that!

People are still talking about the Browns cutting Baker and it's silly. There is literally zero benefit to doing so. NONE. They will pay him to not report before they do that. It's like us cutting Darnold . . . we know we don't want him, but why would we cut him? No benefit. Best case scenario for the Panthers is that the Browns decide "Hey, Baker has done a lot for the franchise, let's just swap QB's; Mayfield for Darnold". Both teams want their QB out, both teams on the hook for the same money. That swap is the only thing remotely beneficial for both players. Which still doesn't mean it will happen.

I don't think that's a question at all. If Corral doesn't show you he can be THE GUY, you draft one in the first round. You need a QB. Period.

Unless Corral just BALLS THE (&*@ OUT and shows that he is that guy. In which case, fine. Just don't give me another season of Brady Christiansen but with a QB instead of a LT. We need to KNOW by the end of the year if Corral is the guy.