BrianS

I might even go as far as the greatest defensive player in Panthers history. It's him or Peppers.

Disagree. Brady is a problem. We've repeated the same process again. Last year, TB5 looked good for the first few games, then fell off the planet. This year, Darnold looked good the first few games, then fell off the planet. It's almost like as soon as teams get tape on our offense, we get found out. Likewise our red zone offense. Last year, ranked 28th at 50%. This year, ranked 29th at 51%.

So wait. Our line wasn't historically bad? What is this world? I mean, if you don't start those players again - minus Daley - how can you even say performance matters? We haven't seen grades like that for our line since . . . I can't even remember. Not this year.

Full disclosure: I think Cam is done. He's just not good anymore. If anyone thought he had anything left he'd be on a roster. That said, the bridges here are burned on both ends. Cam was treated fairly poorly by the current staff and front office. Cam doesn't want to come back here. We clearly don't want him here. Honestly, I'm not sure Cam really cares about football the way he used to. He seems happy living his life, and good for him. He deserves it. It's very similar to the Steve Smith situation, except Steve was still pretty friggin' good.

You're still missing the point and addressing this as a personal thing. It's not. It's just simple facts. Over 60,000 of the 73,000 (or whatever it is today) seats in BoA are PSL's. On game day, the only way you end up with a stadium overrun with away fans is if the VAST MAJORITY of those PSL owners sell their tickets. There is no other way to put it. It's not Patriots fans purchasing PSL's at our place, that's for sure. If all 60,000 PSL owners put their asses in their seats on Sunday you have a massive Panthers ocean in BoA. Even if all 13,000 of the remaining tickets go to the away team - which they would not. All the hand wringing about Tepper allowing the stadium to be overrun with away fans is silly and misguided. There are 60,000 people who can change that dynamic, and frankly they are the only ones who can. Unfortunately, the way PSL's work actively encourages them to act against the best interests of a team that wants a true home field advantage. If you don't buy the tickets in the first place, you lose your investment. If FOR ANY REASON you can't/won't/don't want to go to a game, you have no recourse but to try to recoup what money you can. And you can't be picky if you want to do that. I GET IT. But that's not David Tepper's fault. The only people to blame for the non-advantage of being at home are the PSL owners. The only people who can fix the non-advantage of being at home are the PSL owners.

Unpopular opinion: This isn't David Tepper's fault. The fact is that if PSL holders actually hung on to their tickets and went to the games, there wouldn't be any opposing fans in the stadium. Unfortunately, PSL holders don't usually do that. They are forced to buy the tickets, even if the product on the field is terrible. Thus they are left with tickets to see a team play that isn't very good, so instead of showing up, they sell the tickets to recoup their money. Yes, it would help if the team was good. What would help more is if PSL holders would stop selling their tickets.

I gotta be honest man, Kyle Trask terrifies me. Dude has the tools, now he's in Tampa soaking up Tom Brady for two years. It's smelling like Aaron Rodgers all over again. I hope for the Panthers sake I'm wrong and he flops, but what a perfect situation for him to fall into.

Well, at least next year he will be our backup . . . at 18 million. Hopefully that's the end. What you want in a backup is a guy who will just run your offense, make the easy plays and not beat you. Alex Smith. Teddy Bridgewater. Etc.

I think for me, I would be far more forgiving for a rookie like Fields than I am for a 3 year vet like Darnold. Seeing him get better and better would be a process I could live with. Watching Darnold be, well, Sam Darnold is just frustrating.

I know it doesn't fit the Huddle narrative, but in order to exercise the 5th year option, you must do so before May 3. That's why we did it before he played for us. If we waited until he played for us, it wouldn't have been available. Now, the stronger argument was that he hadn't shown the NFL anything in three seasons. Letting him play toward free agency after this year would have / could have been a motivator. That's the part I never understood.

What a bullshit answer from him. WTF do you mean you had to look down the field to see the ball? The hell you did. If you thought Burns had the ball (your words Mac), all you had to do was look down and see him writhing in pain after that poo you pulled. If you were really a class act, you would have seen IMMEDIATELY that you injured a great young player and at least made it LOOK like you were regretful about it. Look at it this way Mac, if you don't work out in New England, there will always be a place for you with the Saints.

Actually, Bridgewater is dealing with similar OLine issues. They've each played nine games and TB5 has been sacked four more times on fewer pass attempts than Sam.

FWIW - Burfict was fine $25k for the incidents with Olsen and Cam. Don't expect any sort of suspension for Jones.

This bit here (after I fixed it) I agree with. However - we have no evidence to suggest that he is capable of calling the right plays. We have no evidence to suggest he is able to work around shortcomings in his team. All we know is that he can create plays, and with excellent players those plays bring success at the college level.

Two offseasons ago we were worried about the wrong coordinator. We were worried Phil Snow wasn't up to the NFL standard. My, my how times change. Turns out, Snow is actually a pretty darn good coordinator and Brady is trending toward the next Adam Gase. Even if Rhule and Snow get fired, I'll follow Phil Snow just to see his defenses play.

Serious A: David Carr had a worse OLine. I know, hard to believe, but that line his rookie year allowed nearly 5 sacks per game on only two thirds of the drop backs that we've given Darnold.

It's actually not a fact. The dude threw 1 TD and 2 INT's in his only start ever. That's very Darnold of him. His games off the bench have been far, far worse.

While I agree to an extent, one thing required of an OC is the ability to assess his team honestly and do what they do best - not necessarily what he does best. It could be that Brady told them this was the likely outcome before the season started, we would never have been privy to that. If he did say something behind closed doors of that nature, well, we could simply be seeing the result. I'm not a Brady fan at this point, by any means. However, I don't know what I don't know. My suspicion is that Brady isn't ready. I believe he parleyed one season of absolute excellence into an NFL OC position.

As frustrating as Teddy was to watch, it definitely wasn't all his fault. It's also not all Darnold's fault either. I think Joe Brady is in over his head. He's just not ready to be an NFL coordinator yet. What he did with LSU was trememdous. But he didn't call the plays. And that LSU team was most definitely stacked. Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase against college competition is just UNFAIR. We've definitely made poor decisions at QB. But it wasn't all them either. We just aren't right on that side of the ball, despite having perhaps the best set of skill position players we've ever had.

I'm not sold on Rhule, but I'm not ready to kick him to the curb just yet. The rest of the season will tell us something about him, that's for sure. However, I would be kinda sad to see Phil Snow leave. That dude has really proven me wrong. He's a good DC. His defense is keeping us in the games when our offense just can't stop killing us.

As well there should be. There is equal blame to share among the personnel and coaching sides of the house.

See, this is what we lost sight of, myself included. You never, ever, EVER pass on drafting a franchise QB. Don't get me wrong, Jaycee Horn is a fantastic player. Likely a 10+ year starter. Between Jaycee and Chinn, our back end looks solid. But if that staff believed Fields was a franchise guy, there is no position more important. Seems like they didn't, time will prove them right or wrong. However, I still maintain that the biggest mistake we made this offseason was not having a legit, veteran backup.

The more I look at what is going down this year, both here and in Denver, the more it starts to look like Teddy may not have been all of the problem. We kept putting it on him that we didn't get it done in the 4th quarter, didn't get it done in the red zone. I was in that campl Not saying there weren't some things on him, but . . . TB5 is trending to finish the season in Denver with over 4000 yards passing, 28 TD's, 10 INT's, 70% completions. While those aren't Brady / Mahommes / Rodgers numbers, those are numbers you can win with given how our defense has played. SB numbers? I dunno. But they get you into a winning mentality. We could use a little of that around here.

This is how I feel about Darnold. However, failing to bring in a veteran backup is the unforgivable part. Yes, the upside was "What if he works out?". What we didn't account for was "Ok, what if he doesn't?" PJ does not count as a "What if he doesn't" plan. I also understand the attraction of Henderson. I liked him coming out. But man, we really need someone in our pro personnel department with a background in psychology. Even I can see the guy is done. I don't know what did him in, but he is clearly not focused on football, regardless of what he may pay lip service to. Both situations are front office failures.

Additionally, not pursuing a Jacoby Brissett / Mitch Trubisky / etc level veteran QB in FA was a crime. These are the type guys who signed in the 5-7 million per year range. Wouldn't have broken the bank by any means. I've said in other places, it's fine if you want to develop PJ, great. Put him on the practice squad. Same would have applied to Grier. But don't go into a season with your only two choices being a developmental prospect and Sam Darnold.