BlitzMonster

The pattern of trades is clear evidence that Rhule was not rebuilding but was trying to win right now. He was trading away future picks for players who will help this season. It's the total opposite strategy of trying to build up the team for the future, which is what he should have been doing.

I'll bet Fitterer trades back from our high first and picks up and additional 2nd or 3rd, if not more. That's his modus operandi. If it were up to me, I'd stand pat in the first and take a blue-chip LT. Just permanently fix a serious problem on the OL. The Houston 4th will be top of that round so a C or G should be available. Last season the Falcons drafted a C at 4-9 and he's currently competing to start. So you can find good interior linemen at that point of the draft.

according to Wikipedia, here are the 2022 picks right now: 1 - Carolina 4 - Houston 5 - Jacksonville 5 - Carolina 6 - Las Vegas 7 - Miami 2022 draft trades

This should be pretty easy to confirm. Somebody on the Huddle has to be in real estate and could check this.

Thanks for your info. It's really interesting given the current discussion of whether Rhule stays or goes . . .

So much for one of our possible off-season QB's: 49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo has torn thumb ligament, fracture article

the media reminds me of vultures circling around a wounded animal when they smell that it's dying . . .

too funny !

Panthers coach Matt Rhule compares himself to Jay-Z amid 'fire Rhule' chants, blowout loss to Bucs link to article

From a rookie on his first start. With virtually no playing time this season at that position. I'd call that a pretty respectable score. He's only going to get better with more reps.

The grade is INCOMPLETE for everybody. Just not enough playing time to evaluate any of them fairly. That's on the coaching staff for not developing the rookies. It's a huge failure given the team is supposed to be rebuilding right now.

Somebody please tell analytics wonder Matt Rhule about QB taken after the 1st round. Other than 2 or 3 guys who fell for stupid reasons (Russel Wilson was "too short", Derrick Carr's brother was a bust), basically there are no starters. And it's even worse than that. Starting QB usually come from the top 15 picks. And often they are from the top 2 or 3 selections. So yeah, maybe there are lots of busts as first round QB. But the alternative of picking one later has an abysmal success rate. The more Rhule opens his mouth, the more he seems like a stupid frat boy type.

I'm quickly coming to that opinion as well. Rhule is just spouting such ridiculous sh*t in the pressers. The comments are so stupid they make the Panthers look really bad. But the key for me is "does Rhule actually believe this stuff himself?" Or is it just some type of recruiting smoke screen bs that is his default setting from his college days. If Rhule actually believes the drivel that's coming out of his mouth, he's a complete idiot and needs to be gone as soon as possible.

I understand taking a risk on a player your staff thinks they can coach up. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But with Rhule & Darnold, I see a coach who's really out of his element in player evaluation. It was Rhule's overconfidence (bordering on hubris) that convinced him Darnold would be a good player in Carolina. Darnold's stats for the Panthers are almost exactly what they were for the Jets. And after 4 years, I think he is what he is. And that's a not-very-good QB. Maybe behind a "great wall of China" OL and a smash-mouth rushing game, Darnold could be OK. But most Huddle members as QB wouldn't actually look that bad with such support. So it's a pretty low bar for QB ability.

The Panthers definitely have some good young talent on the team. That's not in question. The problems with this team are due to the lack of playing time for the rookies and the poor game schemes. Those have combined to severely hinder player development. And that's 100% on the coaching staff.

That's exactly what I'd do. Teams can get a starting interior OL as late as the 3rd or 4th round. And with a good OL and running game, Darnold would be fine as a game manager for 1 season. Then go all in on the QB in 2023, which is supposed to be a pretty decent draft class.

I'm torn about Pitt QB Kenny Pickett. He looks like a good (but not great) prospect. And the Panthers desperately need a competent starter at that position. But the LT talent at the top of this draft is just exceptional. Not only would the team get a good starter there (which is crucial) but that would also push Christensen (and his stubby arms) to LG - which the team has been saying all along was his best pro position. So a double win.

This sums it up perfectly. The college game is won by having the best players so a rah rah culture works. The coach is a salesman who brings in the top guys and can coast for most of his wins. With the draft & salary cap, the NFL is very balanced so coaches have to out think / out work their opponents with the X/O's. Here's where Rhule is out of his element and is obviously struggling. Rhule is going to have to either completely transform how he does his job (unlikely) or be honest with himself and realize he's just a good college coach and nothing more.

I'll tell you what's working: poor QB play poor OL play overuse of your star player CMC to the point of injury little to no development of the rookies regression of young, promising players like Jeremy Chinn & Derrick Brown poor game planning poor in-game adjustments poor in-season adjustments questionable player evaluations (Darnold, Erving, Elflein)

The Panthers won't write a check to Paradis next season but he will definitely impact our salary cap. His contract included signing and restructure bonuses that carry across the entire term of the deal: a $9,000,000 signing bonus a restructure bonus of $7,040,000 There are some other bonuses as well like workout but I don't think they impact 2022. So in the "kick the can down the road" version of being a GM, we'll have our salary cap dinged by Paradis this year and next. Spotrac has the hit at 8M for 2022 and 4M for 2023. I understand the 2023 charges but not why the number is so much bigger in 2022. In any case his salary will continue to haunt the team for the next two seasons.

I think the recent contracts are clear evidence that Rhule & Co aren't very good at evaluating talent. Anderson, Elfein and Erving (30M total) could all be gone and replaced with cheap rookies with no loss of production. Actually, maybe the rookies would be even better. They sure couldn't be worse. That doesn't even begin to address the Darnold mistake (19M).

Knowing the cap space was going to ease in 2022 (due to lots of dead money going away) the team decided to sign a bunch of high priced contracts: PLAYER POS. 2022 CAP HIT Taylor Moton RT $19,200,000 Sam Darnold QB $18,858,000 Shaq Thompson OLB $18,263,333 Robby Anderson WR $16,836,666 Christian McCaffrey RB $14,309,500 D.J. Moore WR $11,116,000 Matt Paradis C $8,293,332 (dead cap) Pat Elflein G $7,030,000 Cameron Erving LT $6,510,000 Moton, Shaq and probably DJ are well deserved. The rest, not so much

the bed head comments about Rhule are too funny !

I guess the biggest risk for drafting Pickett is that every other NFL team would know that's a very likely choice for the Panthers. And it's especially true given Rhule's recruiting of him in college (assuming Rhule is still here). Which means some QB needy team would pay a king's ransom to jump ahead of us to one of the two pick teams (Jets, Giants). Which, I guess, I'd be OK with. Because it would make it more likely that some stud LT would fall to us. There are three awesome LT who are all discussed at the very top of the draft. And if we got one of them, that would be fine by me.

Great read. Thanks for posting. I want the Panthers to go OL OL OL in the upcoming draft to address our needs. But I do wonder if Pitt QB Kenny Pickett falls to us, should he be the choice ? I've seen several drafts mock that he should be available right around where the Panthers pick. But choosing Pickett would go against Pederson's advice "put [the rookie QB] in a position to be successful right when he steps on the field. You don’t want your guy to fail early." With a swiss cheese OL, success would not be likely for Pickett. So I'm really torn between going after a QB who I think could be a solid NFL starter or building up the OL and waiting on the QB position until the next season.