ncsdawg

As a complete amateur who knows very little about most of these players, I give it a B- based on the first 2 picks. I love Young as a college player, and there is definitely a lot of potential there. But his playing size will be 5'10", 195 lb. As good as the SEC is, it's nowhere near the NFL. He very well could become another Drew Brees, and I hope he does, but statically it's not likely. If he proves me wrong and stays on the field, he'll be the best of the QBs taken. Mingo is another interesting pick. His athleticism is off the charts, but he doesn't have the production to match (not that I would scoff at 861 yds and 5 tds). One reason for this could be that they averaged 47.2 rushing attempts and only 29.8 passing attempts per game. But then you have to question why fellow wr Malik Heath, who has a similar build but is much less athletic, had better production.

Interesting stats, hard to come to a conclusion on any QB when everything is factored in. Richardson is the most intriguing QB in the draft to me, there are glimpses of what he could be capable of. But it could be 3 years before anyone knows how good he could be. Which is challenging when you only get 4 + 1 years on the rookie contract.

You'd have to think that the Panthers are zeroing in on someone. My guess was either Stroud or Richardson. Never would have thought it could be either Young or Richardson.

I'm in the Stroud camp, only because I believe (wrong or right) that height is a massive risk factor and not because I don't like Young. But I think it would be interesting to throw Richardson into the poll. He reminds me a lot of Josh Allen coming out. He's got the most natural tools and he's also the youngest and the most developable. If you were willing to sit and develop him for a year, man, he absolutely has the potential to carry a franchise. For me 1A would be Stroud and 1B would be Richardson, and then Young.

Learn to win.

Definitely, understood. But if you're drafting the top QB you would hope that the passing game would have a little more potency and that opposing defenses would have to respect it more than they currently do. And I would think that the line is only going to get better as they play together more. I just think that by this time next year CMC would have been more valuable to you. Flip side is what value are you really adding next year to your offense with a 2nd and a 3rd. Probably very little unless you get lucky. But this team will have a new coaching staff, new schemes, it's clearly getting burned down and rebuilt.

This is really unfortunate. CMC was exactly the type of running back that makes a real difference, someone you can rely on as a safety valve for a young QB. Run the offense through CMC while the rookie comes up to speed. I don't understand the need to jettison him.

Baker appears broken. His feet have always been a bit sloppy, but he got away with it (mostly) until last season. Watching the pump / pick 6, that was a throw that used to be a big part of his game. But he violently torques his body to generate the velocity for off platform throws, and post injury he doesn't seem to be able to generate that velocity or accuracy. Cleveland clearly rushed him back into service too soon, PT for labrum tears is several weeks otherwise you risk additional damage (which is exactly what happened). But he was also playing with a high ankle sprain which could also have affected that throw. Regardless of the ankle sprain, he has looked broken ever since the initial labrum tear.

More often then not the #1 overall does not end up changing the course of a franchise (just looking back on the last 30 years of #1 overalls). It would be much better if Wilks managed to turn some things around this season and identify core players to build around.

Well.... hmmm... Kaepernick was drafted at 36 in 2011, Brees was drafted at 32 in 2001. So not great odds there, but still possible.

I'm a big fan of building through the draft, but not at all a fan of playing for the #1 overall pick. The percentages are not with you. Since 2000, Payton and Eli Manning are the only QBs drafted 1st overall that actually won a superbowl with the team that originally drafted him (Payton drafted in 1998, Stafford was traded to LA). Other notable #1 overalls that made the superbowl but lost in that time period include Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, and Cam Newton). Of the 28 superbowl QB's since 2000, only 6 were drafted 1st overall. On the other hand, there are 4 superbowl winning QB's in that time frame that are questionable NFL starters at best - Foles, Flacco, Johnson, and Dilfer. Usually what happens is that teams that draft a QB #1 overall aren't very good teams. They rush the rookie into service and things go poorly from there. It looks more like a list of walking woundeds than franchise saviors.

My take away was that Baker played better than my impression watching the game live. Which just means he wasn't horrible, there was competent enough QB play to give the Panthers a chance. CMC single handedly kept the game close. Moton was awful, he's clearly having issues. Ekwonu is inconsistent. Thomas can't be left 1 on 1 on a DE, bad things happen. The line often looked like it just wasn't in sync. Nobody was really to blame by themselves, but everyone was partly to blame. The only player to really elevate the offense was CMC.

Baker used to be an extremely accurate QB. I saw him make throws in season 3 that only a handful of NFL QB's could make. I haven't seen anything like that from him since. Stephen's exactly right. When you're playing that poorly, first you have to acknowledge it, second you got to keep your mouth shut except for apologizing to your teammates AND the fans after a loss that's mostly on you. I would still like to see him turn it around. But that window is almost closed. At some point the coach has to think of the rest of the team and put Walker in if Darnold isn't ready.

I sure hope not. The initial injury was bad enough. But then that second time it came out he suffered a fracture. The Browns should have shut him down, there was no way for him to build enough muscle to protect his shoulder before he finally re-injured it. It's his non-throwing shoulder, but with his throwing motion your concerns are valid. The reason I think it's more psychological than structural is that he looked accurate enough during pre-season.

To respond to the OP, absolutely. The good news is that the defense has been solid, so the offense doesn't need to be lights out. It just needs to improve. IMO Baker is starting to settle down a bit, but he'll have to prove it next week. The line also seems to be getting better, and could be that Baker is starting to trust them more. McCaffrey is healthy, and Shenault was a revelation this week. I expect the Panthers offense to take big steps forward in the next 2 weeks. If they don't, I'll have a completely different answer for you.