Seltzer

This. The 2024 Panthers defense is a collection of meh talent for the most part and a bad scheme. The results speak for themselves, and it's beyond putrid. Resign Horn obviously, but the rest can be stripped to the studs and started over. I was at the game this past Sunday as they introduced the defense thinking God I hope the majority of these guys are gone (or at least not starting) next year. Evero needs to go, too. Not allowing Horn to shadow Lamb when he was constantly avoiding Horn and cooking everyone else should be a fireable offense.

9 draft picks, cap to spend, great rookies draft class, and developing 2nd year QB. Exponentially better looking situation vs last year or even earlier this season. Thankful we seem to be trending in the right direction

I hope to God to never see him or Miles Sanders take another rep in a Panthers uniform!

https://x.com/avl_mike/status/1863950938467189041 Incredible job by Brandt Tilis. Maybe Tepper has finally hired the right group and will stay out of the way. For reference, Dead Money for the past few seasons: 2021: $53.9M 2022: $52.4M 2023: $62.1M 2024: $69.3M 2025: $1.9M All that waste and ineptitude for 17 wins over the past 63 games... Fitterer deserves to be extradited back to CLT to stand trial for war crimes against this franchise. The one caveat is we'll never know how much meddling Tepper actually did, but the results speak for themselves... one of the worst GM tenures in NFL history. Look at this nonsense from this season alone in dead money: Von Bell: $9.9M Hayden Hurst: $9.8M Donte Jackson: $9.7M Diontae Johnson: $9.4M Bradley Bozeman: $7.2M Justin Houston: $3.8M DJ Chark: $3.1M Just such organizational dysfunction, from top to bottom. These weren't even good players. That 2025 dead money number will go up some with the probable release of Miles Sanders, Ian Thomas, etc., but nothing even remotely close to the sheer recklessness and stupidity of the Fitterer Era. Hopefully, we will look back in a few years and see this as the moment where we started to reemerge from the abyss... One can hope... Keep Pounding!!

I don't care what anyone has to say, Theilen balled yesterday. Catch what should have been an incredible TD if the refs did their job, and his actual TD catch should have sealed the game with an even remotely competent defense

I honestly don't think Tepper forced that, but I think he was infatuated with the idea bc of his background as Steelers minority owner. Tepper never should have been in the equation period in terms of football operations. I also don't want to get too hung up on 3-4 vs 4-3 bc i know there are so many variations etc that the difference between the two can be overblown, but whatever we are running, we haven't been able to stop pretty much every team gashing us at will. That needs to stop regardless

The sad truth is I believe there are some people on this board who would be cool with that just to have one more thing to bitch about

I was at the home opener against the Chargers... it wasn't the same person. Bryce looked dejected and about 5'5" at the end of the Chargers game. He genuinely looked broken mentally & physically I thought we may had seen the last snap BY9 would take in Carolina. It was that bad. Give Canales credit- whether intentional or not, this may come across as one of the best temporary benching in NFL history. Bryce looks completely different, physically and mentally. BY9 is starting to look like Bama Bryce, the small guy everyone doubts until he dots them up. I felt that was about Drew Brees for 15 damn years... I hope the rest of the NFC South grows to feel that way about Bryce

Nah man, we need all hands on deck. I've been a bigger BY9 supporter than a lot of people, but Panthers fans have had a right to be pissed... I think some of it has been misplaced at Bryce considering all the organizational incompetence of the past 7 years, but fans have a right to be upset at the putrid product on the field. And the truth is, fair or not to Bryce individually (and whether it made sense given where this team was- hint, it didn't), BY9 was still drafted #1 and that comes with a lot of expectations. And those expectations have not really been met until recently, and especially the past 2 weeks. I'm just happy as hell we finally look to be getting off the mat from being a joke franchise. I certainly hope Bryce continues to build on these performances. I think we go into next season hoping he can be the guy, but i also think we need legit competition as well. I want to win the NFC South next year, one way or another. And as a fanbase, we finally have some hope. I personally have both hands out welcoming anyone and everyone to join this ride. After 7 long years in the darkness, hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to show.

I see absolutely no reason not to return to a 4-3. Clowney, Wonnum, Brown, and Robinson would be a good start for the Dline. I think Trevin Wallace would be a natural 4-3 MLB (and carry on the Panthers proud tradition of elite interior LBs). We've got to do something. Obviously getting someone elite like Derrick Brown back will help, but in general, what we are doing schematically against the run just isn't working. Have Canales call his buddy Saleh and let's fix this thing for next year and win the division

Agreed. In almost any other circumstance I would take Edge Rusher, but Travis Hunter is a rare talent.

Wouldn't mind seeing us go back to a 4-3. Think we have better personnel for it, especially sending the upcoming draft focused on rebuilding & augmenting the Front 7. And obviously getting Derrick Brown back.

I don't think should be seen as an insult, legitimately. Teddy's floor was consistently a good game manager to his ceiling of border-line top 10 QB who's arm strength didn't blow you away but could make all the throws and generally made good decisions and had some sneaky athleticism. Teddy started on quite a few teams. He had a good start to his career, had a horrific injury that could have ended his career, came back and played himself into being a starter, got a contract here (and subsequently became another victim of Tepper's impetuousness), and then started games for a few other teams. Teddy could have been a franchise QB had he not suffered a freak injury, and then he just never ended up in another stable situation. He still had a good NFL career that could have been great without that injury. Teddy before that injury did look like a franchise QB, and I dont think that's a bad comp for Young nor an insult in terms of what his career could be based on that comparison.

I honestly didn't know that. Best news I've read all day. A healthy Wonnum, Clowney, Brown, and high Edge draft pick might actually be something to get excited about. I looked it up- A'Shawn Robinson is under contract as well. I wouldn't mind seeing us go back to a 4-3. Extend Jaycee as well. A Dline with Clowney, Brown, Robinson, and Wonnum is pretty good on paper. Our linebackers still need work. And i support the churn to find other CBs besides Horn. If we can continue to get good QB play from BY9 (or elsewhere), and Dan Morgan can continue to build the team, especially on defense, as well as he did this season on offense, we could legitimately compete for the division next year. Considering how we started this season, this is as promising as i could hope for right now.

The art of playing QB is to throw the ball hard enough to get there and as soft/catchable as possible for the receiver. NFL history is littered with insanely strong-armed passers that coaches were hoping they could teach to be accurate and throw a catchable ball. Almost all ended in failure. Turns out it's a lot harder to teach a QB to be accurate than to have the proper technique to get enough zip on the ball to make the pass. The NFL isn't Madden. Very, very few games have a lot of opportunities for throwing the ball 40+ yards in the air unless there is a coverage bust. BY9 has been the least accurate throwing deep (vs short or intermediate), but most of his misses have been long, not short. I would love for an actual example where Bryce couldnt get the ball there. There are quite a few examples where BY9s mechanics were bad and the ball lacked zip bc of that. Young needs to stick to good footwork to generate the power needed for some throws. That certainly doesnt mean he cant do it, but like someone like Brees, he needs to throw the ball in rhythm and with good footwork. Young doesn't have an arm that pops like a Josh Allen or Cam, but to act like he can't put zip on the ball is insane and objectively just wrong. I'm personally pumped as hell to see BY9 develop chemistry, especially with someone like JT Sanders he can trust on jump balls. Elite QBs have to make throws from the pocket in synch with the play design, but sometimes the play breaks down and you need a guy you can trust to get a jump ball one-on-one to keep the chains moving and the defense honest. As mentioned, Delhomme somewhat made a living here throwing YOLO balls up to Smitty. I'm personally excited to see what BY9 can do the rest of the season along with the defense hopefully doing somewhat better. Given the entire body of work so far, I don't see a scenario where BY9 should be anointed the starter next season (and we need to bring in legit competition), but Young has shown enough since he came back from his benching to play the rest of the season and be back to compete for the starting job next season IMHO. I'm open to any reasonable debate about that fact. Just like everyone else here, I want to see the Panthers win first & foremost. With or without BY9. Sunday was the first game (maybe GB last year), where Young looked like a guy worthy of the #1 pick. I think that is objectively true, even as someone who has been more pro-Young than a lot of this board. There's a long ways to go before even committing to him as the long-term QB, but these last few weeks have shown the first real signs of promise. That should be encouraging to everyone who cares about this team.

Completely fair stance. I just can't indulge people crapping on Bryce when he went toe-to-toe with Mahomes and the 2-time defending champs with Adam Theilen and David Moore. Give the man his due at least for this week. It was impressive. And, yes, we all want to see it more and more consistent!

Thank you! The lack of knowledge about what actually constitutes real ball is appalling these days. I genuinely don't know if it is the fantasy football effect or the general hot-take and instant-gratification culture we live in, but it's almost impossible to have any sort of reasonable discourse with some "fans," especially those that think their reputation for being "right" somehow means something in the grand scheme of things. Even after Sunday you got the same blowhards with their agenda even after former all-Pros and SB winners (you know, people who have actually done it elitely at the pro level and know what it takes) talk about how impressive it is. It's our society in a nutshell. Social media has empowered people who have never come close to doing anything somehow feeling like they are experts. As someone who can actually remember a time before the internet and social media, while it wasn't perfect by any means, people did actually defer for the most part to people who actually knew what they were talking about. In short, people were simply more aware of their cognitive limitations. I think this is abundantly clear to anyone over the age of 40. Now, people have access to more information than people a generation ago could have hoped for, but with little to zero ability to actually process what they consume or apply any sort of context or analysis to it. It is what it is I guess. And I know I'm showing my age, but I think discourse on general has devolved in every facet of our lives. Anyway, great post with objective fact! I have grown to appreciate these posts exponentially more in the last 5+ years.

Wonnum has added so much to the pass rush. Would be nice to see him with a healthy Derrick Brown. Dan Morgan deserves a lot of credit for his work so far. This team looked hopeless to start the season and now took the 2-time defending SB champs to the wire. Hopefully things continue to look up.

JT Sanders might end up being the best draft pick from this class, which really speaks to just how good it has been. He could be a special player, and already looks like the most consistent receiving TE we've had since Olsen

Appreciate you posting this!

10000%

He was playing with 3 rookies, too. Do people honestly think we are playing with a full deck on offense??? Context matters Every win this team can get is beautiful We need another good draft, FA, and getting Brown, etc healthy. Maybe then we can be legitimately competitive next year, even against the top teams

I'm not naive. We are going to lose more games, and almost certainly blown out against the Chiefs. This defense is still awful. We got lucky that Daniel Jones is playing awful. We still dont know whether Bryce can be the long term QB (probably not). But even taking Bryce completely out of the equation, there is a lot more to be excited about this year than last. And while Bryce didn't look like the #1 pick today, he was efficient and smart with the ball playing with 3 rookies starting. None of these guys were considered starters when the season started (except maybe XL). It wasn't a bad day overall across the board. I'm proud of this team hanging in there bc we've lost almost every other similar game for as long as I can remember

Dan Morgan looks better & better as the season progresses. His draft class has been incredible, and trading Burns to sign Hunt & Lewis was absolutely the right move. We still need another good draft and FA to pull out of the hole Fitterer left, but this feels so much better than last year

I'm happy bc this the the type of game we overwhelmingly lost over the past 7 seasons. It doesn't have to be anything more than that. We are still a bottom dwelling team, but we are fighting hard and showing progress. That is all I think any rational Panthers fan can have with the overall talent level of this team and starting so many rookies and young guys.