Peon Awesome

Before I saw the projected contract, my immediate thought was "heck no". But 2 years, $50 million? I mean the top edge rushers are getting over $40 million per year. You're talking about a steep discount because the guy is past the typical prime and coming off an injured year. And the commitment is minimal. Based on typical contract structures, we could likely get out after 1 year in a worst case scenario. But if he's even 80% of the guy who led the league in sacks 2 years in a row? It'll be a bargain and would transform our defense. We could finally have a decent pass rush with Hendrickson, DBrown, Wharton, and Scourton. I can't envision another single free agent that could have as big of a potential impact.

I actually don't mind Evero; he's got his ups and downs like just about anybody. I'm ok with him still being our coordinator because a) I think continuity is underrated and b) I hope he grows from some of his shortcomings and only gets better. But he's particularly bad in late game prevent defense, which he's been fortunate to this point because we're rarely in position of holding a late lead in his tenure and the few times we have been, he's either exposed or bailed out by a turnover. If we've actually forced a stop, i.e. turnover on downs, I can hardly remember it. But at the same time, he's kept us competitive against some good offenses especially when our offense doesn't set the other team up with multiple bad turnovers.

Trading away home grown talent before paying them a massive raise on a new contract is a perfectly valid way to build a team. The reason it turned out so bad for us is that Fitterer was such a horrific evaluator of talent, so we got crap out of those picks. Just look at the difference between the Vikings trading Stefon Diggs and the Titans trading AJ Brown, both for 1st round picks. Vikings draft Jefferson and Titans draft, hell I can barely remember his name. Burkes?

What kind of ridiculously dumb take is this? Now Evero may or may not be happy with his situation in Carolina, I have literally no clue. But his willingness to accept interest in a massive promotion to one of the most prestigious jobs in the entire country doesn't signal proof towards his feelings on the Panther in one way or another. I don't care if he's loving his time in Carolina; you don't pass up an opportunity like that. Not to mention, Evero is lucky to even be sniffing interviews. He's the coordinator for a middling defense that was historically bad under his watch just 1 year ago. He can't afford to turn down anything. And the Raiders with the #1 pick in the draft, is a better landing spot than at least a few of the openings regardless.

Nice to see the Panthers at #5. 3 NFC South teams in the top 6, with Saints actually at #1 and Falcons #6. Bucs were 16th. 5. Carolina Panthers The Panthers were the only team other than the Saints to have five rookies with 10 or more total points. But there was one real star: wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, the favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. He finished the season with 70 catches for 1,104 yards and seven touchdowns. The Panthers used their second- and third-round picks on edge rushers, Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen. Scourton finished the season with 5.0 sacks, and Umanmielen had 1.5 sacks. Fourth-round safety Lathan Ransom was also an important part of the Carolina defense, starting six games with 51 combined tackles, plus an interception, a sack and a forced fumble. Other top rookies on offense included fifth-round tight end Mitchell Evans, fourth-round running back Trevor Etienne and sixth-round wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. Undrafted kicker Ryan Fitzgerald finished 24-of-29 on field goals and ranked third in my gross kickoff values.

The Panthers like their young talent on defense, but this would be about finding more significant solutions for some of their veterans on short-term, low-cost contracts. Ironically, two are former Rams in safety Nick Scott and linebacker Christian Rozeboom, both of whom were targeted by L.A. in coverage Sunday. No Carolina defender managed more than five sacks, so finding a veteran (or a first-round pick) on the edge who can create more pass pressure alongside Scourton and Princely Umanmielen would be a welcome addition. It's important to be realistic about where the Panthers are and what they've shown. This team finished 25th in DVOA and ESPN's Football Power Index. It was 8-9 against one of the league's easier schedules, the same performance that led the Falcons to fire Raheem Morris after two seasons in Atlanta. And after no-showing a win-and-in game against the Buccaneers last week, the Panthers needed Morris and his Falcons to beat the Saints, something Carolina wasn't able to do with two chances, to push coach Dave Canales' team into the postseason. And yet, there are meaningful signs of growth. The Panthers finished 21st in weighted DVOA, and while that's not going to push Canales into the Hall of Fame, it's a sign that they were improving as the season went along. They beat the Packers and Rams and came within a defensive stop of beating what might be the league's best team a second time. If they can stack a second effective offseason in a row, the Panthers might be in position to take over Tampa Bay's spot as the presumptive favorite in the NFC South in the years to come.

I think Barnwell is one of the best NFL analysts and clearly knows his stuff. Here's what he had to say after the wildcard game, shared in its entirety. Thought Bryce played really well under a lot of pressure (but acknowledges his general limitations) and wasn't so flattering to Nijman. Also says with a good offseason, the Panthers can be the NFC south favorites for years to come. Carolina Panthers Lost 34-31 vs. Rams There are no moral victories in the playoffs, but for the Panthers, this might have been the closest thing to one imaginable. They were massive underdogs at home even after beating the Rams in Carolina this season, and expectations of repeating that feat in the rematch were low. When the Panthers quickly went down 14-0 after a failed fourth-down conversion and a Bryce Young interception handed the Rams a pair of short fields, a blowout victory for Los Angeles coach Sean McVay appeared to be on the horizon. Instead, the Panthers came all the way back to take the lead with 2:39 to go before the defense allowed a winning touchdown drive to Matthew Stafford. The veteran quarterback reportedly told receiver Davante Adams he was going to "snatch [the Panthers'] hearts'" on the final drive. A cold line, no doubt, but one you save for the Super Bowl when you know the NFL Films microphones are on the sideline, right? Stafford had to pull out his best material late in the wild-card round, both on and off the field, to get the Rams to the next round. I'm weirdly more optimistic about the Panthers after the playoff loss than I was after the regular-season win. The November win was obviously more satisfying, but the factors that led to it were unsustainable. The Panthers converted all three of their fourth-down tries, including two for long touchdown passes. With a Mike Jackson pick-six leading the way, the Panthers posted a plus-three turnover margin in the win; the last time that happened was in the Matt Rhule era with Baker Mayfield at quarterback, more than three years ago. Those plays matter and are meaningful, of course, but I'm not sure they're particularly sustainable as a formula for beating the Rams. And in those same spots Sunday, the Panthers' timing wasn't quite as impeccable. They went 0-for-3 on fourth down. Young threw an early pick to the Rams on a play in which Panthers receiver Jalen Coker, who otherwise had a breakout game, seemed to be on the wrong page after some pre-snap adjustments and stopped his route. Carolina rookie Trevor Etienne muffed a punt to give the Rams another short field, and while the Panthers got another Jackson interception and blocked a punt in the fourth quarter, the turnover margin for this game went down in Los Angeles' favor. (Should blocked punts count as turnovers?) Instead, this Panthers performance shined through the full 60 minutes, as they went toe-to-toe with the Rams on a down-by-down basis. They struggled early on defense, with Rams receiver Puka Nacua moving around the formation and flummoxing Carolina's zone coverage looks, but defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and his cornerbacks held up against Nacua and Adams and forced Stafford into what seemed like an endless run of contested throws to either sideline. They rode their luck a bit when Nacua dropped a would-be touchdown just before halftime, but the Panthers were able to limit explosive rushing plays and didn't allow a single drive over 50 yards before the fourth quarter. And on a day when Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle combined for 55 yards on 18 carries and the Panthers trailed by 14 points midway through the first quarter, so much of the game fell on Young's shoulders. His offensive line was a mess. Guard Robert Hunt tried to return early from a pectoral injury and clearly wasn't his usual self. The third-year pro lost left tackle Ikem Ekwonu to a ruptured patellar tendon early in the game, and replacement Yosh Nijman allowed four of the 14 quick pressures generated by the Rams, per NFL Next Gen Stats. That's tied for the fifth-most quick pressures by any defense in any game all season. Under the circumstances, I thought Young was excellent. The raw numbers aren't going to wow anyone, with the 2023 No. 1 draft pick completing 52.5% of his passes and averaging 6.6 yards per attempt, but Young's 74.4 Total QBR attests to how well he played given the pressure rate. He was repeatedly able to buy time and create out of structure, looking almost Tony Romo-esque as he spun his way out of interior pressure and got out of the pocket to find receivers. When Young wasn't pressured, he went 17-of-24 for 223 yards with a touchdown and that pick. He threw with anticipation to set up two chunk plays to Coker, who finished with nine catches for 134 yards and the touchdown that gave the Panthers their fourth-quarter lead. Young is never going to have the strongest arm, so he needs to anticipate voids before they come open, throw accurate passes to create YAC and alternately create out of structure. He did all three Saturday. I'm not suggesting that Young's fifth-year option was on the line in this game, because the indications were already that the Panthers were going to pick up the $26.5 million guarantee for Young to be on the roster in 2027. If Young had suffered through a disastrous game (think Sam Darnold's final start with the Vikings), though, that pickup might have come through gritted teeth. This was Young's most important start in a Panthers uniform, and he came through impressively. This is the first offseason in many years in which the Panthers won't have to make fixing the offense their primary focus. Acquiring a quarterback was problem No. 1, of course, and they've spent the past two offseasons desperately trying to get the right players around Young. Some of those moves haven't hit, but enough have to leave the offense in solid shape. Coker and presumptive Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan are the two young wideouts the Panthers have been hoping to find. They'll also have Jonathon Brooks as the second back alongside Hubbard to replace Dowdle next season. There's still work to be done, of course. Ekwonu is likely out six to 12 months, and the Panthers are on the hook for his $17.6 million fifth-year option in 2026. Nijman, a pending free agent, was a turnstile when forced into the lineup at left tackle. The Panthers probably need a short-term stopgap at left tackle if Ekwonu is not ready to go. Adding a tight end might also be on the docket if the Panthers weren't impressed by Ja'Tavion Sanders' second season. But really, this should be an offseason finally devoted toward adding defense. The Panthers signed Tershawn Wharton and Tre'von Moehrig in free agency, but when they used a second-round pick on edge Nic Scourton, it was the first time Carolina had used a first- or second-round pick on a defensive player since selecting Jaycee Horn in 2021.

Coker is an exclusive rights free agent. That means the Panthers can resign him for the league minimum and he has no choice but to take it or just sit out and refuse to play football.

Stupid that the Niners didn't go for 2. You'd force the Eagles to make the extra point to win it. They've already missed one today. Being up 5 instead of 4 doesn't move the needle, especially with less than 3 minutes left.

Kind of a oversimplification, don't you think? The Rams are significantly better at pretty much every single position minus the secondary, and once Horn left, even that became a toss up. Stafford was also just named 1st team all pro. I wouldn't exactly act like him having a C game being better than Bryce's A game is some major indictment. But yeah, Stafford is head and shoulders better than Bryce, that's not up for debate.

Also a little nitpicky but I think the initial wording for 3 vs 4 should be flip-flopped. Bad is worse than "not good".

He's clearly a 4-5 right now. The question is obviously not "Do we give him $50+ million per year or cut him?" even though that seems to be how half of the people seem to present it. The reality is that it's nonsensical to just cut Bryce and completely give up now. We're paying him either way. Bare minimum he gets 1 more year. I would give him the 5th year because it would make him one of the cheapest starters in the NFL and unless you're incredibly biased, you have to acknowledge Bryce is at minimum an above average backup even if he gets no better. So worst case, he doesn't improve and you have a pricy backup/below average bridge starter, perhaps for another rookie qb, on a contract that won't remotely cripple your team and still give you a chance to build a strong roster around your next QB. I don't think you can assume Bryce can't get better either. Darnold is proof of that. And his Jets years weren't any better/arguably worse than Bryce's 3 years here.

He played the last drive as though the Rams had 30 seconds and no timeouts. Hell, they kept throwing it inbounds and still didn't use a single timeout. He calls that pretty much whenever we need a game sealing defensive stop. We've been lucky to win the couple games we did in those situations, only thanks to forcing turnovers (e.g. Brown's sack fumble in the first Rams game and the Ransom interception in the first Bucs game).

The number of people with > 1000 posts who have never been to a home Panthers game has to be miniscule. Unless you're an out of town Panthers fan, but in that case, what are the chances you can drop everything and travel down to Charlotte with < 24 hours notice? I didn't realize I easily cleared the 1000 post mark. But I've been to at least a dozen Panthers games, including the Seahawks and Cardinals playoff games in 2015 which were two of the greatest experiences of my life. Anyway, awesome thing you're doing BigKat.

The Panthers are the ultimate "Nobody believes in us!" team this year. Unfortunately I'm not sure the Panthers even believe in themselves at this point, especially the offense/Bryce.