Sgt Schultz

Now wait a second......are you saying that much of the Huddle went to school with Rhule's kids? That does explain a few things. I feel like I've just had some sort of epiphany.

Unfortunately, you are very likely correct on Young. No matter what he does, and I think he will be fine, it won't be enough for most. Patience is not something in good supply on this board. The idea that the number one cause of disappointment is unrealistic expectations is generally lost here.

It would, and I would normally agree. I just don't see any dramatic improvement from what I walked out of last season with. The Saints may give me the most doubt on that conclusion, and my opinion on Carr is he is a decent-good QB, but I don't know if he is enough to tilt the tables there. Atlanta's offseason has me scratching my head a bit. But, who knows? Both of those situations could yield better results than I expect.

That is my expectation, too. There are some variables that could add to that win total. If the division is as bad as last year, that could open the door. Walking out of last year, I saw Atlanta and us being on some upward trajectory, the Saints flat or worse, and the Bucs falling off the cliff. Atlanta didn't do much in the offseason to increase that upward trajectory. My view of the Saints and Bucs has not changed. If our schedule ends up as soft as it looks now, that opens the door to some wins. Once the games are played, schedules almost never end up as tough or easy as they look in July but it does not look back breaking entering the season. The team could gel together. It happened in 2015. I saw it happen to "my" NHL team in the second half of the 2018-19 season and then Stanley Cup playoffs. Sometimes a group just becomes "special." Part of that is a coaching staff that is a catalyst for that. If so, the team could be better than the sum of its parts. Of those, the only one I expect to pan out is the division. But, you never know. I'd be happy with 9-8 and some tangible results that give rise to better expectations in 2024. Hell, 9-8 might well be good enough to win the division.

The only thing that kept The Process from being the worst NFL coach in the last ten years is Urban Meyer. That said, the family is off limits. But, being boo'd at another sporting event in front of the home fans? That would pretty much be expected. Especially when his response to his own underachievement was to spout more BS and blame others. His critics might not be nearly as harsh if he had owned up to his shortcomings. If Nebraska does not go will, we may see him on Dr. Phil.

This board has always had its share of optimism in offseasons, especially after FA signings. Part of it was underestimating how far away the roster was, especially when coaching limitations were factored in. In fairness, the team was guilty of the same under Hurney. That said, I don't remember wild optimism last year. I think we had a handful of people predicting double-digit wins based on The Process history of breaking out in his third year, but the problem with that reasoning was the second year results were a setback, not a move forward. I remember the majority of people here thinking either the third year was going to be what the second year should have been, at best, and more likely the third year was a re-enactment of "Dead Man Walking." I really didn't have any heartburn with them acquiring Mayfield, because his cost in terms of the salary we paid and the trade was the least of the QB carousel that was part of The Process. At that point it was obvious we were throwing the dung against the wall to see if any of it would stick. He was worth a shot because nothing better was coming our way. Now this year we have what I think is an improved roster and a coaching staff that we expect to have fewer limitations. Last year we were a .500 team after moving from a coach that was an EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale to one that had the same limitations as the guy who preceded the EF5, with the added disadvantage of having a roster the EF5 helped finely craft. I'm not saying Wilks was the answer, but his success does show that perhaps the Enhanced Futjita Scale doesn't have enough levels of damage.

NFL rules require the NFC South to supply a team in the post season. We were a team with definite limitations last year, we got off to a horrible start, and still almost won a disaster of a division. I will be the first to admit that being a dogmeat division one year does not transfer over to the next, but the only two teams that were on any sort of upswing last year were the Panthers and Falcons. Even with the Saints signing an NFL-caliber QB, I don't think the trajectories change. I also don't think the Falcons made any huge moves to accelerate their upswing. Last year was the Bucs last hurrah. All that translates into the division being maybe marginally better than last year. Maybe. That also means the Panthers are a contender for the playoffs, by default. That would be true if Darnold were still the QB and Wilkes still the HC. It's certainly no less true with Young at QB and Reich as HC.

The media narrative is based on big splash FA signings. We did not really have any "OMG" signings. Don't get me wrong, the FA and draft classes look good on paper, but the closest thing we had to a big splash was drafting Young, and there are a lot of skeptics looking at him and I would not call their concerns nonsense. As far as the coaching staff, it is impressive but again, not a huge splash in the media's eyes. The biggest splash in the media's eyes was probably Evero, not Reich. This is a roster and coaching staff that, by design, is based on the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That does not get the media's attention. There are some analysts that dive into that deep enough to recognize it, but overall, not very many. I see a couple of things that lean in our favor. First, Reich is coming into a situation that was not at rock bottom and has no need to go there. About the only slack I ever cut The Process was that in his first year, the team was jettisoning salary cap mistakes (while creating some new ones), and had very little NFL-level talent. 5-11 was actually a good outcome for that team. Reich and company had to replace a lot of pieces, but they also have some established talent (not past talent that is over the hill, guys that should be in the sweet spots of their careers). So, he is not sentenced to hard labor in year one, but it will not be easy, either. Second, for the first time (maybe ever) we have a coaching staff that has the potential to steal some wins. I don't remember Fox ever stealing a win. Nor Rivera. I remember The Process stealing a few losses. If this team is around a 7 or 8 win team based solely on talent, IF "the whole being greater than the sum of the parts" plays out and the coaching staff is able to steal a win or two from the jaws of defeat, that could push us over the .500 line and maybe into double digit wins. I'm not listing that as an expectation, but I also would not be surprised to see that play out. In this division, 9-8 could carry it even with the changes elsewhere. None of that stuff is glitzy enough to get the media's attention until it happens a few times. By then, if it happens, the glitz will be fading from the Cowboys and maybe Jets, and suddenly it will dawn on them that something is happening in Carolina.

Most likely, they would get a nickname like "Cardiac Panthers" and probably become media darlings to some degree. That is, provided their close or last-second wins are not all against doormats. Sprinkle in some last-minute/second wins against good teams, and the media generally eats that stuff up. Especially if one is against Dallas. In 1974 the then St. Louis Cardinals had a season where they went 10-4, including 6-3 in one-score games, many come from behind (and several on FGs as time expired). St. Louis was not exactly a football hotbed, but they got the national nickname "Cardiac Cardinals." A few years later, in 1980, it was the Cleveland Browns emerging as the "Kardiac Kids." They went 11-5, and 9-3 in one score games.

Eh, preseason rankings are all speculation. They should all carry the following disclaimers: They are based on the limitations of what we know Past performance is not an indicator of future results All other things being equal Some players that are expected to be in the top echelon of their positions will not. Some that are not expected to be will. Some teams will develop a chemistry and prove that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Some talent-laden teams may implode due to no chemistry, refuting what the previous group proved. Injuries will take out players or dash entire teams' hopes. Some teams may magically avoid the injury bug. It is possible some coach will implode. Or one that is a "dead man walking" will suddenly spring to life. There are just too many variables to get hung up on preseason rankings. They serve their purpose, and give us something to talk about when there is not much else to talk about.

I take it he just got his last check from Tepper. If so, I would agree.

I'm certainly not the most optimistic person on this forum. My expectations every year have usually been around .500, except in years when they have been worse. Obviously, there are a few years that expectations were higher, but not many. That said, hearing the QB is ahead of the curve mentally in handling the playbook can not be seen as a negative. It can't even be seen as "so what." Sure, mental processing does not equate to physical ability to execute what his mind recognizes, but we have nothing to say he can't. Also, if he is ahead of the curve mentally, that will be that many fewer things he needs to actively think about on the field. The more things that are automatic for him, the quicker he will execute. It is hard to see that as anything but positive. Do I expect Young to be Joe Montana in terms of processing, execution, and poise? No, that is an unfairly high bar. But I also don't expect him to be Sam Darnold or Pickles.

Tough one. This is like comparing an EF5 wedge tornado to a magnitude 8.5 earthquake. I just saw this on Schiano, though: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/digital-marketing/hospital-unit-named-for-injured-football-player-after-coachs-250k-donation.html That does not make him an EF4 or magnitude 7, but it at least demonstrates some humanity. Something I may not be able to say about Meyer.

Meyer was a race horse that ran out of the gate in the wrong direction. It is hard to imagine doing worse from day one than he did. He is one of two head coaches that I honestly thought should have been fired before they coached their first regular season game. The other was McDaniels in Denver.

The only guy on that list other than Meyer that I think was probably worse is Schiano. Like Rhule, he was a legend in his own mind. Problem was he didn't even know NFL rules. He pulled some stunts with plays that drew penalty flags, and then wanted to argue with the officials when it was pretty black and white. The Process may not have known NFL rules, either. But unless I am forgetting something (possible, I am trying to forget the whole episode), he never did anything that broadcast that he didn't know the rules. Who knows, he may have tried but his dad (Snow) , Brady, or McAdoo put the kibosh on it. Otherwise, when you add in the stuff he tried to dictate in the organization, he sinks even more rapidly.

The only thing that saved him from being thought of among the very worst was the fact his reign of terror (or incompetence) overlapped with one Urban Meyer. His competition is Meyer, Schiano, Petrino, Kiffin, Hue Jackson, Nathaniel Hackett, Cam Cameron, Jim Tomsula, Mornhinweg, David Shula, Spurrier, Marinelli, and Richie Kotite. I would personally add McDaniels to that list. Some, like Tomsula, were just incompetent. What sets some of these guys apart was that they were not only incompetent, they believed it was the NFL's fault that they looked like 6 feet of man in 13 feet of water. The NFL is guilty of a lot of things that damage the game, but making The Process, Schiano, and Meyer look clueless is not one of them. I don't know what McDaniels' excuse will be. He'll want another NFL coaching job somewhere, so he will probably slink quietly away.

McDipstick tends to have that effect on people. He's the NFL equivalent of Niedermeyer on Animal House.

FieldTurf Stadium. It would then be nice for that relationship to end and it be renamed Scott's Turf Builder Stadium.

Good point, although I don't know that The Process was ever leading a program good enough to breathe that air. Then again, it is not as much how good his programs were against all other competition, just against the ones he faced consistently. Regardless, he never showed any competency or interest in doing that here. The NFL is not generally about motivating players to be their best, it's about devising schemes that put them in a position to be their best. In my 17 years as a Panther fan, I have not seen our staffs do that. Hopefully until this season.

Over the last ten years (actually longer when you factor in Fox and Rivera were the same style coach), we've gone from a coaching philosophy where the everybody knew what the game plan was going to be, and wins or losses were determined by raw talent, execution, the opponent's ability to develop a game plan to neutralize it, and some breaks (penalties, turnovers) to one where the game plan usually made little sense and did not factor in what our own players did well or poorly (trying to prove they were smarter than everybody else), back to the predictable and dependent on talent, execution, and breaks, to what we hope are game plans and tactics built around our talent with wrinkles thrown in based on what the opponent does well or poorly. Who knows, maybe it will even have us thinking the staff stole a win or two during the season, something I don't ever remember thinking? The Fox/Rivera/Wilks style will consistently produce mediocrity with some success and failure sprinkled in to keep fans interested from time to time. If the team has enough talent, it can produce a championship on some odd year. The Process style produces frustration among the team and fans, and chuckles from the rest of the league. We'll see how the ride in the Reich era goes, but at least it offers hope and coaches that have done it successfully have produced a lot of wins. In short, there is hope based on the team and not just a small handful of players.

No doubt. By their logic, Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl (watched from the sidelines while the Cowboys won despite him is more accurate), so he should have been a hot item. Babcock was just about run out of the league a few years ago, and reportedly he will get a new lease on life in Columbus. What's the worst that can happen? Oh, never mind.

I had to look that one up. It was the Ravens-Niners game.

Ah yes, the people who are going to die trying to disprove this: Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt.

Trying to determine who won the trade right now is like trying to figure out if the stock you just bought was a good deal, even though the market hasn't opened since you bought it. From the limited perspective of getting a good deal for the #1 overall pick, I think we can declare it a win. I think da Bears can probably say the same thing since they were starved for WRs. Both teams got what they wanted. But there is a lot of football between now and a sweeping declaration of victory or defeat for either team.

You have to forgive some people. There are lot of folks these days whose motto is either "I'm not happy unless I'm not happy" or worse "I'm not happy unless you aren't happy." He didn't suddenly become worse because he hit a year in his contract that priced himself himself out of the picture, and everybody saw that year coming from day one. He may not have been worth the number, but he wasn't suddenly worthless, either. But, people have to go to extremes these days, it seems. I like Shaq (and did before his new contract), but what I didn't like was his old contract. People say that isn't his fault, but at some point it becomes a value issue against the cap, regardless of whose fault the contract is. That's the point where it becomes a business decision, even with the leadership he provides. The irony was I posted on some random thread about him out here that he almost needs to play a year for free to make his contract worth it, and that is kinda what he agreed to do. That speaks volumes about him, IMO. I have no idea what he would have gotten from somebody else had he been released, and that probably factored into his decision, but it never came to that. That usually only happens for teams that have proven success. If people need to spray venom, his old contract was a Hurney special: if we pay him like he is elite, he will become elite. If that ever worked, I don't remember it.