Icege

There's criticism and then there's chronic invalidation. I can't think of any reasonable person that didn't acknowledge that Bryce's size was an area of concern going into the draft. The mention of narcissism comes from the fact that there are other data points such as his game film that address some of the criticisms but those rebuttals are willfully dismissed/ignored. When called out on their behavior, as has been done here, narcissists will appeal to emotion and avoid responsibility for their own chosen actions. For example: Bryce's deep ball. There's plenty of tape from his final college season showing him hitting WRs downfield 40+ yards accurately. That's still something that he can do. However, we've got a bunch of posters that claim Bryce's arm suddenly can't make that same throw in the NFL? You yourself are on the record here claiming his arm strength is "bottom-tier" in the NFL and that "Bryce doesn't have the arm strength to make throws any longer than they absolutely need to be." Most reasonable folks will agree that he doesn't have elite arm strength but they will acknowledge that he has an average NFL arm (at the least, NFL coaches and players do). Are you being honest about your actions, or are you exaggerating victimhood?

For folks not wanting to click the tweet:

The weirdest part is how a lot of those folks will say in one thread that Bryce is too small to play QB in the NFL, can't make throws that an NFL QB is supposed to make, and that the team will continue to suck until they replace him... only to claim in another thread where they've been called out that they want him to succeed? It's giving narcissism.

Summary! McCoy talked about how they had wanted to see Bryce play so they can see if he had improved and not only did they get to see him play, but he played well. They weren't saying that he sucked, he's not good. They were saying that Canales was the perfect coach for Bryce but how would we know if we don't see him play? Now we have and we can talk about it. Van Noy says you can already see Canales' leadership with Bryce in the way that he calls game. The OL looked a lot better and the team got Bryce out on the move. The short time he was in the game, he was standing in the pocket comfortably. Looks a lot more confident, which Gerald cosigned. There's pressure on Bryce because of the price to go up and get him instead of Stroud but from what Kyle saw in the drive there was a lot of confidence which he likes. Gerald pointed out how Geno and Baker were pro bowl QBs (with Baker almost winning comeback player of the year) after Canales had them, so what will they get to see after he's with a Heisman-winning QB that went #1 overall? We need to buy stock in Bryce Young. Kyle says the Panthers which Gerald quickly emphasizes not yet, but he is buying stock in the QB. Started talking about the 49ers-Raiders finish after that and then talked more about defensive approach.

Had two morning meetings canceled so I'm doing Panthers-related summaries instead of being a good monkey. Mina thinks that it was interesting and had been dying to see the one drive Bryce put out because the offense for her has the most interesting questions of the 2024 NFL season. Not just because of the importance of developing/evaluating Bryce and giving him a shot; she finds Canales to be a little bit of a sypher coming from a lot of different offensive systems/coordinators in Seattle, Russell Wilson, different eras of different types of football and then going to Tampa where what he did with Baker was very different than what they did in Seattle at points. All of that leads to her wondering, "What is it going to look like?" and the way Canales sets Bryce up for success. She can't repeat enough that it was just once drive, but it also looked a hell of a lot better than last year. Started with the "nice stuff:" thought Bryce looked more decisive which was pretty significant because he seemed flabbergasted last year but also more comfortable/belief in the structure of the offense. He could trust that somebody will catch the ball when he throws it which was not a thing for him last year due to the skill players the team surrounded him with. Thought it was interesting that they kept him in the gun with a cpl attempts out of pistol while getting into play action out of both. Saw the offense pushing the ball downfield but felt that the offense was more condensed than she thought it would be. There was a lot of "Rams-y" DNA without the motions and what not. The Canales side worries Lenny. Young he thought was impressive but there isn't a jump-off-the-screen, secret sauce thing like he had at Bama. He thought he looked more confident and comfortable as well which is the #1 goal after his confidence was rocked following a Josh Rosen-level bad season last year. Canales may not be the philosopher, the play designer, or the play caller (all of the ingredients that go into running a quality offensive staff) but he's always been renowned as a guy that builds confidence as a good teacher/communicator almost like a glorified QBs coach. Lenny is worried with how hands on it appears that Canales is with building the offense and didn't love a lot of what he saw in that one drive. Reiterates Mina's mantra of "one drive, one game" and acknowledges that they're likely saving a bunch of stuff. Even with the making of what they're trying to run he felt like it was antithetical to putting Bryce in the best position to succeed. What is the "right" fit/best possible set-up for Bryce? Mina thinks that what makes this tricky is whether or not the team has the skill players to execute. What would Lenny do with those skill players and this QB? He thinks that things have to be as spread and wide open as possible #1 because Bryce is not a typical QB so he does not believe a typical system should be ran. Everything the team has said in the run-up to the season about running the ball and being a play-action heavy shot team is all well in good when you have an elite deep ball thrower with Wilson or Mayfield who they wanted to limit what he did with slants and catch-on-collisions and leaning on Mike Evans. Doesn't believe Bryce is going to win in the NFL with that style. Believes that he has to be given every opportunity to sit in the pocket and play Drew Brees football and then taking off when it isn't there. Brought up the PA shot play out of the diamond pistol formation (a staple of the Greg Roman era for Lamar Jackson). Thinks that those formations are wonderful in theory but that they're not great for Bryce because he thinks the QB has to be a true running threat for the numbers to work on it. Tampa ran more slants than anybody else in the NFL last season and Bryce was above average targeting slants so the team is likely building the offense around that. Lenny's problem isn't with the what but rather the how. Early in the game there was a throw to the slant that was combined with another target running to the flat. Perfect! But for the most part it was all at the sticks: slant/stick, slant/flat, static formations, 2x2, 3x1. That's Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning football. If the slant isn't there, Bryce is there to be a playmaker in the backfield that can move around and create. So what's the end goal if that's not there? They're scheming concept vs coverage like you would with Jared Goff, which is not what Lenny believes should be done when trying to evaluate whether or not a guy can be a special difference maker. Thinks that if a QB is traded up for at #1 that he should be able to win games on his own. Doesn't think the offense is going to allow Bryce to drop back 40 times a game in the gun to pick apart the defenses and create when the coverage beats the concept like he's good at, but instead is going to drop back 20 times or so and be forced to make 3 - 4 special plays. Mina emphasizes that the Drew Brees comparison isn't because they're both considered to be short QBs. One of the things that Brees did well was utilize the middle of the field which is something that a lot of short QBs struggle with, and Bryce despite being the shortest of the short QBs he still very capable of doing that as well. While at Bama he was able to put the ball in places over the middle of the field that would allow his receivers to get YAC because they were spreading it out and creating throwing lanes for him. She thinks that that should be the bread and butter with the offense and with Johnson and possibly Legette they might not have an explosive offense but a pretty damn efficient one. Doesn't want it to sound like she's damning Bryce with faint praise because a lot of QBs can't do that or struggle with (ie: Russel WIlson). If she's Canales and the staff, they don't want to build this entire thing off of play action shot plays like they do with Jared Goff. She also thinks that Bryce is aware of his arm strength and she thinks he opted to not take the throw to Johnson because that's not a club in his bag. She thinks that the goal again is not to be explosive but to be ruthlessly efficient and to hopefully run the ball well on top of that. She thinks that how they get there and whether they get there will determine whether this is a successful season for Bryce. Lenny gets in debates all of the time about the use of empty with young QBs. The Panthers were 24th in the NFL with Bryce Young as their QB last year in running plays out of empty formations and to Lenny that is, "complete coaching malpractice." Thinks that the team should be #1 by a good distance this season because it gives him the most options possible. Thinks that limiting the options and adding to the protection doesn't allow the team to find out whether or not he's a Baker Mayfield or something more special than that. If he's Baker, Lenny guesses that's good but that's not what they're going for. Thinks that they have to just expose him and find out where he'll be best playing in the NFL. He's good at attacking the middle of the field, setting up run after the catch, is a precise deep ball thrower but not a bomber. If he's not a bomber and they only have one person running deep that's an Anthony Richardson throw, not a Bryce Young throw. At Bama they had interconnecting switch routes down the field, two guys go safety freezes. It's about placement and timing, hitting the guy in stride down the field. It's not just this uncorking a back shoulder throw on a go ball like Aaron Rodgers, that's just not who Bryce is going to be. Mina likes the distinction between precise deep ball vs. a bomber because she doesn't want people listening to think Bryce has sub-par arm strength. She thinks he has enough arm strength to push the ball down the field but her point was that he's going to be discriminate about it (she adds that that's good that he's not going to turn the ball over a lot nor make ill-advised throws into too tight windows). They have to set him up to succeed and they need the young WRs + Diontae Johnson to be better than what the team had last season. Mina wrapping it up by being encouraged with the confidence he played with. That might sound lame, but she's talking confidence in the structure of the offense. Does he believe what he sees? Is he throwing the ball on time? Is he playing with the belief that a WR was going to break open? She saw all that, and we didn't see that last year which should be very encouraging for Panthers fans. Lenny points out that Bryce checked nearly every single play and was rattling through 3 - 4 plays every time at the LOS and resetting protections which he didn't do last season. Doing that is a confidence builder nor is it a normal thing that a new staff comes in with a QB (uses Goff again as a reference and how the Lions have approached making him just a cog in the machine).

I wouldn't be mad at taking a look at KJ Henry.

Ok, so they might bring him back in some capacity.

Maybe a situation similar to Mike Boone's where they might bring him back after doing some roster magic? I was pulling for JMatt

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Is that a tire that needs some kicking?

Surprised that the Panthers couldn't fenagle a 7th out of Buffalo to reunite him with Joe Brady. Thought they could use a little help in their WR room. If he goes to KC I'm punching a nun.

Injuries

Boone being cut so that Dane Jackson can be IR-R'd maybe?

Welp, looks like I was wrong there. Hubbard, Sanders, and Blackshear it is!

Surprised by that one.

Tae Davis is still on the roster, but if he gets cut as well today then you're looking at those four as the ILBs.