BrisbanePanther

I keep seeing people say this, but where would he actually move them to outside the Carolinas? The pickins are slim. St Louis? They still have no stadium, have lost teams twice, and probably not the base to add value. Salt Lake City? No stadium and probably at their limit for teams to split local corporate dollars. Portland? No stadium, unlikely to build one, and probably too close to Seattle. Oakland? A dump of a stadium, soon to lose the A's, already lost the Raiders, and the region has moved on. San Antonio? No stadium, decent market size when combined with Austin, but the Texans AND Cowboys won't let it happen. Orlando? Maybe, but FL may be at it's market max. Louisville? Colts territory likely--and again, no stadium. Toronto? Maybe--definitely better choice than any US option. London? Maybe--same situation as Toronto. So it's Toronto or London--and if we hear of them starting discussions with either place, I wouldn't worry as a fan. The government will and give them new digs, but that's the extent of it.

Weird that this is an even a debate. If there's a chance at bringing the mighty mouse in, you do it and don't think twice. Seems that some here would've said no to Brees too because he had a huge injury and couldn't see over his OL. This franchise has had ONE QB of note in almost three decades. Maybe we just don't know one when we see one. Then again, if you've spent basically your whole existence with Chevettes, maybe you would spend more time dismissing a Porsche because it has no back seat.

Rather they not trade for him, not just because of the accusations but also because he got himself in the situation in the first place. Even if he did none of what he's accused of, I'd (naively) rather he be a risk-averse person who can quickly know that Insta DMs always get outed, so just don't make any. Go to Six Flags for entertainment rather than a nightclub. Be home before midnight. Only get massages at the training facility by your staff because you don't have to pay them. Yep, it's boring and yep, it's a very un-2020s life, but it'll keep you well-paid and well-regarded. Not saying it's fair but it's the price of being a public figure and at least so far people like Mahomes, Jackson, Brady, and Stafford seem to navigate this just fine. I'd remain a fan if he was on the team though, but there'd always be this reservation like if I had won Powerball because I cheated and had intel on the winning numbers. Then again my fandom is limited to more scorekeeping and highlights-watching now, so maybe it's not much different.

Agree with the underlying sentiment, but in that just know that you can and will be called out for making on the basis of having a wife/daughter/sister/mother, etc. I live in Australia. The prime minister was roundly criticized for this in responding to an assault on a female staffer at Parliament House. He actually said, "Jenny (his wife) said (to him), 'what if it were our daughters?'". He got destroyed because he wasn't angry at it happening to a human being, full stop, rather than needing to link it to being a dad to girls. Bottom line, anyone making a stand against this red line is expected to make it regardless rather than qualify it because of who someone is to someone else.

Exactly what I was thinking. And Saban had no connection to Alabama. Rhule is an alum of Penn State. His first job was Penn State. If Penn State is actually open, he will be at Penn State for at least what he gets from Tepper and get to play the savior role of that program. There is no way he says no to them. A Super Bowl for Charlotte probably matters less to him than even a B1G title at Penn State, let alone a College Championship trophy.

Thanks to the rookie pay scale, the league has moved on from the "draft a rookie to sit behind a vet" phase. For the most part, if a drafted rookie has to sit behind a vet now for more than a couple games, they have little chance of being "the guy" in the future--see the questions on Tua and Hurts. Herbert ended up playing early, Lance has already played early and would be now if not for injury, Fields is playing, and Jones is playing. Wilson would be playing if not for injury. Lawrence beat out Minshew. Kyler Murray played early. So did Burrow and Mayfield. Don't draft a QB if you're not ready to roll with him on Day 1, especially if he's drafted early. And don't sign a vet with the intent of allowing your 3rd rounder to "learn". It's a risk not worth taking (see Taylor, Tyrod and Mills, Davis).

Totally agree. Seems that a lot of people think he's the new Jake with all his "moxie". They like Jake.

Bolded section is key. Miami isn't giving up on him because they're some master evaluating team but because they know they can get Watson. They're not giving up Tua for Stafford and they wouldn't be giving up Tua for Cousins. If he was as bad as some of you say, they'd give him away...kinda like Minshew was.

100% on this. Something about being a smaller market team seems to love being alchemists...only to freak out when it's time to pay when they turn from coal to gold.

And all of them were a pleasant surprises, not a the basis of a strategy. Big difference here that makes it questionable if they even have a strategy.

So uhhh, remember when everyone treated draft picks like gold during the Watson pursuit...turns out the brass likes giving them away anyway. Maybe next year when it's time to trade a bunch of picks for whomever we'll remember not to be so precious about picks that they won't use anyway.

I keep seeing this line of "draft a QB and they can learn under x"... That's a toxic dynamic waiting to happen. Favre-Rodgers, Montana-Young, Brady-Garoppolo...this is not ideal. We just saw that this season with Rodgers-Love. Goff can still play--and is expensive. Ryan can still play--and is expensive, and will likely play many more years like Brady, Brees, Ben, etc. DET and ATL drafting QBs is a disaster waiting to happen.

Serious question--when have the Panthers ever been just 1 piece away? For that matter, "1 piece" is not always equitable. Voltron still has a chance missing the green lion, but he doesn't happen at all without the black lion.

I'm an Alabama fan. I want no part of Jones.

I was on the bandwagon big time before but I'm ready to moving on to the draft. Even if by some miracle he's clear of all this, the mental damage of going through it all--including the public scrutiny, ridicule, heckling at games etc will likely give him the yips (or similar) and he won't be the same player afterwards. His career is basically over.

Never understood this perspective. With that view, I guess all Lance and Fields (and any other non-drafted, non-Panthers player) threads belong in the draft forum. They're no more Panthers than any other player currently not under contract, and everything needs to perfectly fall their way for either of them to have a chance to be on the team--just like any trade. This is connected to the biggest trade pursuit in Panthers history. Speculation and interest here is just as relevant as Fields' 40 time.

They'd chuckle to their detriment. Rusty is THE lawyer that top profile Houstonians go to in these instances. He may be the best lawyer in Texas. That's not to say that Buzbee is no slouch either. He ran for Houston mayor but lost in a runoff, and is a highly successful lawyer in his own right. This will be a legal battle for the ages there.

I think we're overthinking this. Tepper said to his football brain trust, "we need the best QB possible to win". Funny that no one questioned his football acumen when he said Teddy wasn't the answer. Now we question it when he apparently says Watson is? A good guess is Tepper said to his brain trust, "get me Watson at all costs" and they're trying to figure it out. A better guess is that he said so and has bitcoin-mining level computing power behind the analytics to determine what the impacts of that "cost" is, comparing success rates of draft picks, simulating this year's team performance if Watson were subbed in for Teddy, etc. The best guess is that he, Fitts, and Rhule all agree that Watson is the best get--they're just figuring out the roadmaps to get him and how they still build the team, which is more possible than any of us realize.

Hence him pinning his ears back and demand the best QB out there. He's had enough of the process. Let's not forget we're talking about a guy who bought his old manager's house specifically to knock it down and build a bigger better one. The Panthers of old is being given the same treatment...and that's his right. After all, we previously had one of the few owners who actually played in the league. That "football knowledge" led to some bonehead hires and NO consecutive winning seasons in 25 years.

I keep saying that McClain is not trusted by Texans fans. Not sure why Panthers fans should lean on him more than his own city's fans. He also had no clue to JJ Watt was going to AZ (no one did, really). And I think all the talk of #8 needing to deliver them a QB this year is silly talk. With no Watson, they are the worst team in the league and will have the #1 pick in 2022. That's when they get their QB, who at worst will be the 2nd best QB in franchise history after Watson. This team has trotted out the likes of Matt Schaub, Brock Osweiler, and Sage Rosenfels for years. Rattler, Howell or some meteoric rising kid will easily be better than them.

I think you'll find yourself in an increasingly smaller minority. Fair enough. But this is a "when, not if" Watson is traded territory...but he will be traded, whether it's in a manner that favors Houston or favors someone else...the longer they wait, the smaller their pot gets.

They may be separate lists, but like a Venn diagram, they both overlap with "Trade Watson".

Caserio should just make the phone call up the road to Raphael Stone, the fresh new GM of the Rockets--aka the guy who traded James Harden. At least Caserio didn't get the "who"? response when he got his job, unlike Stone. He already has a rep as a Patriots person. Already ahead of Stone. He should ask Stone how the Rockets' owner's ego probably had a role in them getting less for Harden than they initially said. Texans said, "3 1sts to start" for Watson. Rockets said "4+ FRPs, plus player + plus a young all-star to build around". Not quite what they got at all. And Harden went where he wanted in the first place and the narrative on him quickly changed. Watson is gone--they're just delaying the inevitable. Is this the NBA-ization of the NFL? Yep. Some seem to think that Cal will hold out because the owners need him to in order to stop this. 1. He can't stop this, and 2. he owes the owners nothing. Cal will remember that his late father had to overoffer the expansion fee for the Texans in the first place, since the league was so determined to give LA a team and basically ignored the Houston bid. The elder McNair had to blow the offering process up by paying $700m--hundreds of millions more than LA had--for the team...in the 1990s. If the owners want Cal to do their bidding, he may as well extract a Super Bowl for Houston every other year over the next 20.

Why are we setting the standard at championship or bust for grading a trade? We're Panthers fans. If Watson delivers two consecutive winning seasons, then he'd already something never done before--even with all the priceless first rounders drafted in the past. Gotta crawl before we walk.

We armchair people might see it as 4 potential improvements lost over 4 years... But a professional NFL front office should see it as 24 potential improvements over 4 years instead of 28. If they need 28 chances instead of 24 in order to deliver success, then they need a new line of work. Those 4 should not make a difference in a front office where pucks 18-40 are seen as the same guy.