BrianS

So, you prefer Sam Darnold? PJ Walker?

Undisputed used to be a lot better. Skip and Shannon are both too caught up in the "gotcha!" game now.

Just so we're all on the same page here, we're talking about this PJ Walker, right? The guy with a 4:1 INT to TD ratio? Completing 56% of his passes? With 3.4 air yards per attempt? The guy two inches SHORTER than Baker Mayfield? Frankly, nothing could signal "white flag" to the locker room any more clearly than starting PJ Walker.

I posted something similar in another thread, but let me expand on it a little bit. Removing the two TD's our defense has scored, the following quarterbacks lead offenses scoring more points than the Carolina Mayfields: Jared Goff, Jalen Hurts, Jacoby Brissett, Trevor Lawrence, Marcus Mariota, Tua Tagovailoa / Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr, Geno Smith, Jameis Winston / Andy Dalton, Daniel Jones / Tyrod Taylor, Joe Flacco / Zack Wilson, Ryan Tannehill, Mitch Trubisky, Mac Jones / Brian Hoyer, Carson Wentz, Cooper Rush, Jimmy Garrapolo, Matt Stafford. This isn't a list of the top 10 QB's. These guys are "ok", but their offenses score more points. The problem isn't our QB. Mayfield has been poor, yes. But he's good enough to win games for us if we set him up for success. Somehow, our staff fail to make this most logical of connections.

Some terrifying perspective: Those four guys represent nearly half of our cap for next year. At least Robbie and Shaq can be cut. I pray we don't try to restructure / extend either. Just cut bait.

He is . . . but he's not wrong. You cannot play like crap and then tell the fans that you don't care. Or tell the fans that they aren't real fans if they boo. Lot of bad vibes on the offensive side of the ball here. But I'm sure if we just trust the process we'll see 1000% improvement by the end of the season.

This is correct. 5th that can become a 4th based on playing time.

In fairness, Tepper kept his promise. We are no longer mediocre, we're awful. Hooray.

Here we go. The top 10 scoring offenses in the NFL are led by: Jared Goff Patrick Mahomes Lamar Jackson Jalen Hurts Josh Allen Jacoby Brissett Trevor Lawrence Marcus Mariota Tua Tagovailoa Derek Carr QB is not our problem.

The Niners are awful this year. Averaging fewer points per game than we are, pending their game with the Rams. I don't see that as a "get right" game for them.

Statistically, it looks like the Falcons. They will be the first top 10 scoring offense we face since the Browns. If the Rams shake off their little funk, they could open a can on us too.

This is the worst season of Bakers career - and it's not even close. At what point do we finally stop blaming our QB? This is a coaching problem, 1000%. Baker is probably not the answer, but he should be enough for us to score more than 16 points per game. Teddy-two-gloves put up 22 per game with far fewer weapons. Broken Cam and Kyle Allen put up 21.

Historically speaking, this is the worst. Prior to the last three seasons, our worst ever stretch was 2000-2002, where we won 15 games. Might seem like a tie, but 2002 was the first Fox season where Peppers was DROY. There was hope in that, which was backed up with a Super Bowl team the very next year. Less than five wins this year and we will be in the worst four season run in team history. Currently that "record" is 1998-2001, which was the end of the Capers era and the entire Seifert era. Nothing recent about it. This is as bad as it gets unless we reach for new lows.

No, Baker is running for his life, for sure. He is one of the top 5 most blitzed QB's in the league because he hasn't shown that he has the command to beat the blitz. If he starts throwing darts while under pressure, that stat will flip. Pass block win rate just means you blocked your guy. If there are too many guys coming, it's on the scheme and QB to figure out what is being left open and exploiting that.

Put an NFL coach in charge of the O Line, and suddenly they start playing at an NFL level? Really? If only we had known sooner! At least the next staff knows they won't have to worry about that. There are a couple good coaches on this staff now who have a chance of being retained assuming they continue performing. What this does shine a light on is the fact that the players are playing and QB aside, seem to be executing their assignments. The spotlight on scheme is growing ever brighter.

This is not correct. The effect of a blitz is to stop the deep pass, and force things quick and short. Not saying that opponents necessarily fear our deep game, but both Baker and Darnold do have cannons. I suspect that they can make the deep ball work. It's the opposite of Bridgewater. You play coverage on Bridgewater because his deep arm doesn't scare you at all. When he has to dink/dunk his way downfield, eventually a mistake will turn the chains against him.

The second worst thing that happened in our entire offseason was Matt Corral getting injured. I dunno if he's the answer or not, but I sure would have liked to have found out. After Baker, he's the only QB on the roster we don't know enough about.

I do not know what to call this offense, the formations do look very Coryell'esque. But we don't play that way. Particularly frustrating is the lack of pre-snap motion. I don't understand how you don't do this. When you have a QB who is struggling, you have to help him. When there are concerns about him reading the field, the best thing you can do is use motion pre-snap to help him see what the defense is doing. Honestly, it feels like McAdoo is sabotaging Baker to an extent. Yes, Baker needs to do better, 100%. But McAdoo needs to help him also. Our offensive incompetence is going to be the proverbial straw.

I did a quick scan back on the Browns game, and it's not *every* single play. It is however such a high percentage it can't help but be noticed by anyone looking for these kinds of things. I guess it seems pretty obvious to me, but one would think that an NFL team needs to show multiple plays and play types out of their formation in order to keep a defense guessing. Something like this seems super simple to fix as well. Just change CMC's alignment slightly in either direction to obfuscate.

I'd prefer to say that our fans are HONEST. I remember how loud BoA can get when the team is giving it their all. I'm not talking about 2015 when things were just completely off the hook. I'm talking years like 2011 when we had a rookie QB giving it everything he had every week. We ended up 6-10, but we didn't feel cheated or let down by our team. They gave us everything they had and we loved them. Show the fans how much it means to you by not making stupid mistakes. Show me players that care the way Jake Delhomme, Mike Rucker, Muhsin Muhammed, Julius Peppers, Kevin Greene, Lamar Lathon, Nick Goings, Brad Hoover, Mike Minter, Sam Mills, Jonathan Stewart, Cam Newton, Steve Smith, Ricky Proehl, Dan Morgan, Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis, Richard Gross . . . so many former Panthers who we KNEW were giving it all for us. The only players on this team I really get those vibes from are CMC and Chinn. Luvu is making strides. Robby, the fans know. We KNOW when you are really giving us everything. And for those teams and players, we will have their backs. For this mostly lame bunch, I have nothing but contempt. And I blame Rhule for all of it. He purged too many veteran leaders who could have taught these guys what it meant, how to do it. I'm not saying we didn't need to trim some fat - we did. But we cut too deep and the team lost it's identity. You can see it in Chinn. He wants to be another Thomas Davis. Luke Kuechly. Mike Minter. It's there. Unfortunately, we have no one on the team to show him how.

As long as by the end of the year D. Brown becomes consistently good or better, he is not a bust. A DT who can occupy two OL makes the rest of your DL look fantastic. It's ok if it takes a little longer, as long as there is good progress. With the team as a whole, I'm convinced we have pretty good talent on the roster and that we just don't have coaches who know how to use it.

He's 44 actually.

This is the real problem. Whether Rhule has or had a plan is irrelevant. He's had three offseasons now to stamp his brand on this team and we still have no identity.

No he doesn't. He has a bit of a head start, that's all. QB is not our problem. It never was. It's an excuse for the team having no identity.

Quarterback is not our problem. Teams with lesser QB's are finding ways to win. The Falcons put up 27 on the Rams with Marcus Mariota at QB. The Cowboys score 20 with Cooper Rush. The Browns scored 30 with Brissett. Honestly tired of the excuse that QB is our problem. Rivera won five games with Kyle freaking Allen as his starting QB. I'm not saying we're going deep in the playoffs with Baker as our QB. I'm not sure Baker is the guy. But he's not the reason we are where we are.