Icege

The totality of the frustration is understandable: the team hasn't been successful since the 2015 Super Bowl run which is now eight (going on nine) years ago. However, it's not like all of these things are linked by anything other than it happening to a changing organization. I don't know if it's healthy to effectively be processing this the same way as somebody that gets into a new relationship after a divorce and stays mad at the new relationship for things that had happened in the previous one. We just got a new owner in July 2018. He said he was going to focus on the business side of things for that first year and trusted football people to football. Rivera got canned after going 5-7 in 2019, and this next part is where I have nothing but agreement and understanding for the criticism Tepper received here: he didn't fire Hurney. Instead, he consulted with Hurney to pick Rhule in January 2020 only to fire Hurney in December 2020. Then there's the whole not firing Rhule before last season, again valid. At this particular point in Tepper's ownership, I personally feel like this is a point where we can accurately begin to assess folks. Fitterer has had some things happen that he's been blamed for despite Rhule clearly being the shot-caller, but now he has his coach (Reich) and his QB (Young). This is the closest thing to Fitterer's team that he's had since Rhule was let go. Let's enjoy the ride and see where we end up.

I can get hype for this.

QB: Panthers Young & Dalton vs. Ridder & Heinicke. Fairly straight forward here, even if Bryce is a rookie. RB: Falcons That RB room for the Falcons is nuts. Idk how they expect everybody to get their touches, but I don't think there'd be many that would argue for Sanders, Hubbard, and Blackshear over Robinson, Allgeier, and Patterson. WR: Panthers I like Chark, Thielen, Mingo, TMJ, Shenault, and SmithMarsette compared to London, Hollins, Miller, Hodge, Ali, and Hart. TE: Falcons Kyle Pitts, Jonnu Smith, and MyCole Pruitt is an impressive TE1 - TE3. OL: Push The Falcons OL is a lot better than given credit for. The right side of the line is one of the better run-blocking units in the league. Matthews, Bergeron, Hennessy, Lindstrom, and McGary are all in a system that takes advantage of their ability to move opposing defenses off of the spot. I want to say that the Panthers have the better line, and would even go so far as to say it if Austin Corbett was starting, but missing him along with the rough outting we saw during the preseason makes it difficult to continue to give the Panthers' OL the benefit of the doubt. ST: Panthers I like Koo a lot, and Pinion is a solid punter. However, Johnny Hekker is an animal and JJ Jansen's long snapping makes any specialist better. DL: Falcons Grady Jarrett, Calais Campbell, and David Onyemata is gonna suck to have to go up against. Then they've got solid depth as well with Harrison, Graham, and Gaziano? Oof. EDGE: Push Really expected to be able to say that the Falcons were better here but so long as Burns plays the Panthers might have the better pass rushers. Never thought I'd say that this season. LB: Panthers Shaq and Luvu are criminally underrated. Grugier-Hill is solid depth as well. I'd take them over Andersen-Elliss-Davis. CB: Falcons Falcons have more depth at the CB position for sure. AJ Terrell is a beast, but they also recently drafted Mike Hughes. Tre Flowers is solid depth and Dee Alford isn't terrible either. The question mark for them I think will be how Jeff Okudah pans out (if he can stay healthy). The Panthers are one injury away from CJ Henderson starting @ CB1 or CB2. S: Panthers Jessie Bates III was an awesome addition for the Falcons to pair on the defensive backfield with Richie Grant. But... uh... Jeremy Chinn, Vonn Bell, Xavier Woods, and Sam Franklin Jr are all pretty damn good.

In Snow's system Burns notched 22 sacks over 37 games (0.59 sacks per game). In the 11 games under Wilks, he notched 8.5 sacks (0.77). There's an argument to be made that under a real NFL DC as a 3-4 OLB that Burns could have notched 26 sacks over 2 seasons (0.77 sacks per game, 34 games), which would have been 76.5% of what Bosa produced. He's young (6mo younger than Bosa) and hitting his prime with a rising salary cap. He might not see $30M but $26M-$28M seems like a good deal for both sides.

Burns allegedly looking for $26M-$28M doesn't seem so bad now.

What you want to see: OL keep Bryce protected A pass rusher that isn't Brian Burns or Justin Houston make an impact WRs getting separation What you don't want to see: Predictable, vanilla offense The defense get0ingt bullied at the LOS Injuries

NFL had Steve Smith Sr go out and learn how to be a referee at Seattle Seahawks practice. Fun (and interesting) watch! Will have to open YouTube in another tab unfortunately since NFL doesn't like their videos being embedded.

He must have held the edge vs the Giants and Lions because he most definitely didn't hold the edge vs. the Jets. He was often stonewalled too on passing downs (his second snap though he showed great speed-to-power and notched a pressure). It was like seeing a faster YGM for a moment. I did notice some things though when re-watching him vs. the Jets. He's got a great motor, always high effort (that was the part of his game that reminded me most of YGM). Run plays that go away from him? He's going to run them down on the backend. He's also a lot better against the run that expected despite not consistently setting the edge. He did display the play strength to do it though, and he very much looked like somebody that was thinking rather than playing as you mentioned. His pass rush repertoire looked to be lacking severely. He's got a bull rush but I'd like to see him develop more violence in his hands. I'm in the same boat as you in regards to his development: hope it is quick and intended to get him going this season. He's got the physical skillset to at least rotate in on passing downs so hopefully the staff is going to come as advertised.

Big oof Haynes was a dependable EDGE3 in an already thin group. DJ Johnson showed damn near nothing in preseason. That leaves YGM and Barno... the former lacking any burst while the latter flashed during preseason. We'll see who steps up I suppose.

Woo boi do those hit dogs holler quickly. If that's what you want to assume that was what was posted, by all means go right ahead. I'd argue that willfully misrepresenting what was stated is wildly dishonest, but if you don't understand the difference between insulting the man's intelligence vs. criticizing his coaching decisions then it's not like you're going to after a back-and-forth on the internet.

Would be huge if another guy on the line or one of the other pass rushers steps up this season. Brown, Burns, and that player would make things a lot easier for the secondary. Though I do have my eye on Kris Jenkins out of Michigan this season in college ball. His pops was fun to watch as a Panther.

I don't think he's going to mind. In the end, as long as he's getting his market value he's going to be happy. If that means leaving a place that has crazy people thinking he's only worth $20M/yr, so be it.

I could see the trade paying off if the Panthers were able to trade up in 2024 to select Jared Verse to put on the edge (and he panned out) but that isn't possible with the trade up for Bryce. That would also require going this season with Houston-YGM as the #1 & #2 pass rushers though, which means that are 1st that got traded away for Bryce would just be better for the Bears. As much as folks want to dump on Burns, they're ignoring the truth in that he hasn't been at his natural position (3-4 OLB) until last season when he put up 12.5 sacks in Phil Snow's defense without Haason Reddick across from him like the year before. I'll be honest: I'll take the people who might not be considering those details all day over folks that can't read a spreadsheet but think they can discuss an NFL salary cap. At least the former is open to facts, the latter thinks they already know them.

Alright armchair scouts, let's hear who's got y'all excited! Speaking for myself, I watch the college season with the intention of having a good time but then always go back at the end in order to do the "deep dive" scouting. That means for my list, I'm not exactly listing the prospects that I think are the best. I'm watching who I think is going to be fun to focus on during the games. QB: Joe Milton III (Tennessee) RB: Braelon Allen (Wisconsin) WR: Marvin Harrison Jr (Ohio State) TE: Brock Bowers (Georgia) OT: Patrick Paul (Houston) iOL: Donovan Jackson (Ohio State) DL: Leonard Taylor III (Miami) EDGE: Jared Verse (Florida State) LB: Smael Mondon Jr (Georgia) CB: Nate Wiggens (Clemson) S: Rod Moore (Michigan)

It was a 2023 2nd, 2024 1st, and 2025 1st. Folks are hyper focused on the 2024 1st round selection because they're assuming that the Rams are going to have a tremendous falling off (which they might, but I believe it's due to their difficult schedule rather than it being a talent deficiency which is what most folks seem to believe). The Rams 2nd would have given the Panthers a pick just 3 spots before they selected Mingo. Sure, they could have replaced Brian Burns with BJ Ojulari but anybody that believes BJ is anywhere near the prospect that Burns was they are smoking the finest of crack.

I can't say that he sucks, but I can say that he's been his own limitation for a long while. Hiring Bienemy was something that I'd have never expected out of Ron. Can't help but wonder if he's looking at this season as potentially his last one if things don't go well. Surviving cancer, making it to the ranks of head coach, and making it to the Super Bowl is a successful career by any stretch (let alone earning x2 COTY awards). He belonged in the NFL as a head coach and I'm happy to have seen him achieve it. At this point, the only folks that hold any type of ill will towards him from what I seen are people that were fans of specific players on the roster rather than the team itself. It'll be interesting to say the least. That Washington roster is a lot stronger than folks might realize.

holy poo, Mat Rhule IS the new Rich Rod I'm mad that I didn't see it until you mentioned it.

Apologies, I didn't actually answer the what I think they should do part specifically. For starters, the mandatory reporting process needs to be reviewed and fixed. To say that the ball was dropped there is an understatement. The process in which classes are canceled and a shooting on campus is responded to is in need of a major overhaul. Providing access to mental health services instead of a half ass checkbox would be nice as well. I'm not sure what they're providing the students but for the faculty that just lost a teammate they've done fug all.

Speaking for myself (he's still processing as you can imagine), I believe that they need to provide something a bit more impactful than an hour long group discussion along with an email chain "checking in." The most damning issue for the college right now, and why they are in save their ass mode, is because the advisor/professor that was murdered had emailed the department and relevant parties expressing concern for the shooter's mental health. They had prior notice of this and did nothing. Also, when the shooting occurred, there are three levels for which the college categorizes an incident. I don't remember the exact naming conventions, but the breakdown he gave me was that cat1 is everything goes on as normal, cat2 is that school is done for the day but everything resumes as normal the next day, and cat3 is for anything that requires more than that. UNC originally classified this as cat2 instead of a cat3. As a result, students were left wondering how they were going to finish an assignment while processing a traumatic event until enough backlash forced the college to correct course. I saw the news blurb about an hour after it had occurred and legitimatley paused for an entire minute trying to figure out how to contact him. I ultimately opted to DM him on Discord since to my knowledge his Discord notifications are always turned off. After he had been evacuated (~3:30pm the day of, more than 2.5hrs after the shooting occurred above him), he told me that a co-worker called his office phone twice trying to check on him so he ended up having to rip it out of the wall to avoid having it bring attention to him.

I'll be up to visit my in-laws at the end of December in Frederick. There's nothing out that way, but I've heard that the Tin Roof as well as the Gin Mill in Baltimore are Panthers-friendly bars (or at least consistently have the games on).

lmao I never followed him during his time at Baylor nor Temple, but this has to be a recurring theme with Rhule. "We chose to put the player with ball security issues in the game. He has to do a better job." Nebraska deserves that chode.

I hope so. They haven't done poo for the faculty. A friend of mine that teaches at UNC has been telling me what they've done so far and it's just a bunch of CYA being done by the school. The extent of the counseling he was offered was basically a group session and an email chain where they discussed what they were thinking while hiding. His office was on the first floor of the building where the shooting took place. He heard all 5 shots and immediately had to barricade his door with his desk, chair, and a few other things he had.

The salary cap is expected to increase by $30M next season and then over $25M in 2025. Burns can literally get $30M next season and the team would still have the $16M they're paying him currently to go out and sign more talent with. We had folks thinking they could go sign a pass rusher and extra players with that $16M if Burns was traded, but now there's suddenly no money? The team is currently sitting on $18M in extra cap space this season with a projected remaining cap of $55.5M for next season. Even if the team shells out another $8M this season for whatever reason there's still gonna be an extra $10M to rollover to add to that $55.5M. TJ Watt got $28M/yr when the salary cap was $208M. I dont understand why anyone would be concerned/worried about paying Burns $2M more than that when the salary cap is expected to be $256M. He would not be getting the same percentage of the team's salary cap as Watt did.

The consistent panic made it easy to move on from him. Also makes it less of a distraction. Now the focus is solely on development of BY. The kid looks the part and I couldn't be more excited for both his and Corral's chances in the pros with their current/new circumstances.