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.

Maybe interpret it as at the start of the game Baker was awful, then after he got clobbered the one time he was a little less awful. From watching him last year I think that second shoulder separation was big psychologically. But, he has to overcome it and start slinging it again and soon or his NFL career is done.

Actually thought he showed some improvement this game, though not enough. He's still too happy with his feet which leads to inaccurate throws. And early on he went into panic mode way too quickly. But it seemed like after taking a pretty big hit in the 3rd quarter that he calmed down. There were a couple of times after that when he evaded the rush and kept his eyes down field and made a throw, or found his release valve instead of panicking. Will see if he can continue to progress week to week and finally put the injury behind him.

I think it's also coaching. He had a great year with Ken Zampese and then two years later with Stefanski. He actually looked like a top 6 QB before the injury last season, but there were certainly issues. Either way, he now has a very small window to get it figured out. I liked Matt Corral coming out, but he looked like he needed to hold a clipboard for a season, which to me makes it a strange pick. The injury is unfortunate, it's very likely that the panthers are drafting a QB in round 1 of the draft, and that doesn't leave room for another inexperienced rookie.

Both get up to speed in a hurry. Both can take any play to the house. Barkley was clocked at 21.91 mph on a 78 yd TD against the Redskins in 2018. Chubb was clocked at 21.95 mph on an 88 yd TD against Baltimore in 2019. That puts them on par with McCaffrey's 21.95 mph on an 84 yd TD run against Jacksonville in 2020. Which makes for pretty exciting football. In the first 2 games you get to watch 3 of the top 5 RBs in the NFL. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of the three in the HOF one day.

I've watched Baker a lot. He's gone through some pretty amazing stretches of football, and then gone through some awful stretches. His inconsistency probably has a lot to do with the myriad of different systems in his short career as well as suffering through what should have been season ending injuries last year. My sense is that he looks like a promising (old) young QB who just hasn't taken it to that next level yet. I think having passes batted down and comfort in the pocket is all part of that. And I have no idea what kind of progress we'll get from him this season. Ideally he would get 2 healthy seasons in the same system at some point in his career. Carolina probably does not have the short term stability or patience to go through the growing pains and get to a 2nd season either.

I don't think anyone will really stop either Chubb or Barkley, they're going to get their yards. For me, the secondary has to play better. There were too many plays where they just looked lost.

Well, as an ex Browns fan I can tell you all about coping with bad teams. From the QB T-Shirt, to 1-31, to firing 2 different head coaches after 1 season.... and Panthers ownership has nothing on Jimmy Haslam (who will even stoop to overcharging Pilot/FlyingJ customers just to make balance). I spent a lot of Sundays fishing, or listening to the broadcast while I was doing other things. In the end it's just entertainment, my level of investment over the course of the season is determined by the value of that entertainment (at least once I started to keep a better eye on my blood pressure). One thing I will say, nothing compared to losing the team for 3 years when Model moved the Browns after the mafia came looking for their money. Not even 1-31.

Good game by the Panthers. Ekwonu has to pay his dues, good to get the worst he'll see out of the way in week 1. The Browns running game is the best the Panthers will see this year, but they couldn't run out the 4th quarter on the Panthers Defense. The offense showed fortitude, shaking off early challenges and getting things moving, taking the lead with a minute and change left in the game. McCaffrey looked good and heads into week 2 healthy. In the end a blown call and a 58 yd fg lost this game, it happens in the NFL unfortunately. There's a lot of positives to take away. The real test is how the Panthers play next week vs the Giants. You can't let 1 tough loss turn into 2. Hopefully the Panthers offense gets things going earlier.

If it's the game I'm thinking about, I was there with my family. That was the year that the Browns FO insisted in trotting out Johnny Foosball because they couldn't come to grips with the fact that they had drafted a complete dud. The Browns offense was putrid through most of the game and the Panthers were up, when all of a sudden Manziel was injured trying to roll out. In came Hoyer and immediate the offense started to move the ball. I think a Panthers defender was quoted as saying that they now had to deal with a real NFL QB. In the end the rally fell short. Cam scored a late 4th quarter TD to win it for the home team.

Go Panthers!