tukafan21

To be honest, I think people are putting WAY too much into us being a base 3-4 defense. When in reality, I'm guessing we end up lining up in an actual 3-4 in probably 25-30% of snaps. Most teams run 3 WR sets now in a majority of their snaps, in addition to us having Chinn who is likely going to be considered a DB when he's on the field instead of a LB and have us more in a 3-3-5 most of the time with that 3rd LB being Burns who is really just rushing the passer anyways. 90% of the time (if not even more) when Burns lines up as an OLB, he'll be rushing the passer just as he would be if he was a 4-3 DE. I don't think he's waiting on Bosa because he knows he won't get that much anyways, I just don't think he's in a rush to sign a deal because he knows if he has a monster season and hits FA, we'll then have to make him the highest paid defensive player as someone else on the market would do it to get him. Which is why to me, we need to get deal done before the season starts, I think he's in for a 15+ sack season and if he's not locked up, we'll have to franchise him and/or give him a much bigger contract than whatever he's asking for right now.

The answer to this question will always depend on league format. If you're in a 10 team non-PPR league with standard rosters (i.e. 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 flex), I think Sanders is the only draftable Panther this year, only exception would be a late flyer on Mingo if you are set at WR and can take some lottery tickets that you can let sit for a month or so. But if you're in a league like mine, 12 team PPR with 2 flex spots, then someone like Thielen is 100% someone you should be targeting as your 4th or 5th WR, i.e. your top WR on the bench who becomes your starter during injury and bye week issues. I absolutely LOVE Thielen in that role, hell, in that exact role for me last year he helped me win my championship as I had some injury issues and he ended up starting almost every week for me during the season and then I got lucky and was healthy in the playoffs and he moved to my bench. In this offense, he seems like he's going to be Bryce's safety valve who is all but guaranteed 4-5 catches for 40-50 yards each game, with some where he gets some more than that and then adds around 6 TD's on top. That's a guaranteed 9-10 points per game in a PPR, which is exactly what you'd want from that guy that you use as a filler starter when needed, low ceiling but a high floor. Unfortunately for me, I'm in an auction league with a 11 Lions fans who all would have watched that last game. Before this game I think I was going to be able to get him for $1, now after they all watched Bryce target him in that game, I'm sure some people will bid him up on me after seeing that.

Why? Sure he had a few sacks and a handful of pressures, but with 120+ tackles, he's clearly an off ball LB, not a pass rushing one. We don't need any more of those right now, we already have Shaq and Luvu as starters with Deion and Kamu as backups, not to mention Chinn who will likely play some ILB at times this year too. Just because a solid player gets cut doesn't mean we need to try and sign them if they aren't a fit with our needs. If we're signing any cut players, it needs to be a pass rusher, CB, WR, or backup OL, not positions we already have some quality depth.

I wouldn't be happy if I was them either, I still don't understand trading him for a 4th rounder. Purdy is far from a sure thing and they're banking their future on him, as Darnold clearly isn't meant to be their future starter. I figured they'd keep him, even as as the 3rd stringer for now, to see if they can keep developing him in case Purdy isn't it. They really never gave him much of a shot, he always was going to need a redshirt season, then he gets the absurd rain game to open the season last year, gets hurt in game 2 and never plays for them again.

I'm not saying they don't have knowledge together, but Ickey playing next to BC for a full season and now 2 offseasons makes it tough to use his existing relationship with Zavala as a reason behind putting him in the spot. Their comfortable-ness with each other pales in comparison to what he'd have developed with BC over that time and in NFL offenses.

Do they though? I know this keeps getting brought up, about how they already have this connection on the field due to playing in college together. But I think they only played something like 5 or 6 games together as Zavala was hurt that season I believe and missed half of it. Yes, it's more than not having any familiarity, but I'm not sure 6 games in college 2 years ago really means much at this point.

Seems doubtful that he'll get cut tomorrow now, someone will offer at least a 7th rounder up to the Cowboys after the game he's had tonight, good for him and good on the Cowboys for how they handled this for Grier.

In no world is Johnson a candidate to be cut, traded multiple picks to move up and take him in the 3rd when they knew he'd also be a project, he's not going anywhere that quickly.

What?!?!?! It was a pass to the flats that Thielen then ran for multiple yards before being tackled.

Need to keep Corral, he's essentially our Kirk Cousins just taken a year earlier. Nobody is going to give us anything great for him right now, might as well keep him as an upside project in case Bryce's size causes injury problems. Either Bryce stays healthy, Corral stays on our bench for 2 more years, and we miss out on the 4th or 5th round pick that we MIGHT have been able to get for him now. Or Bryce gets hurt and Corral becomes a legit player for us like Cousins did once RG3 went down. Third option would be like Jimmy G and we end up being able to trade him later for a decent pick because he played a little and looked good. Either way, for what we'd get for him now, I think keeping him for any of the above reasons makes the most sense at the moment.

I wouldn't hate giving Hilton a call. Has a history with Reich and honestly didn't look terrible in his couple games with Dallas last year

I love what Thielen will be to this team and to Bryce, like I said, the second we made the trade, Thielen became my #1 wanted FA at any position. But that doesn't mean he's a #1, because he's just not. He's a slot WR at this point in his career who can make a significant impact in that role, but if we need him to be our #1 playing an outside WR spot, than we're going to be in a lot of trouble this year.

Okay then, who was the team planning on having as their #1 WR this year then? I'm not saying what your saying here is dumb, because I clearly agree that signing someone with his injury history to be our #1 was a bad idea. But it's clear that it was their plan as he was the best WR on the roster, health aside, hence why I was never happy with the signing as I thought it was a stupid plan. And as bad as a plan as it was to have someone with his injury history be the #1, having TMJ or Mingo be the planned #1 WR is an even worse plan.

How? In what way? Just think it through logically Thielen, while I love what he will be for this offense and he was my #1 wanted FA once we made the trade for the #1 pick because he'll be perfect for a rookie QB, is unequivocally NOT a #1 WR at this point in his career, he's a possession/slot WR who will make his value most apparent on short 3rd downs. Mingo isn't a #1 WR to start his career, if he was, he wouldn't have been a 2nd round pick. Shenault? Byrd? Smith? All clearly not even starting WRs, let alone a #1. So again, the plan was clearly for it to be Chark or hope for a prayer that TMJ would make a massive leap this offseason and be the #1, which in itself never seemed likely to start the year anyways.

It 100% was their plan to have him be the #1, nobody else on the team made any sense as a #1 (not that Chark did either, but he's closer to a #1 than anyone else on the team right now). MAYBE they were hoping that TMJ would show out and take it over, but that certainly wasn't what they would have been planning for.

And this is exactly why I was against signing him, making your rookie QB’s #1 WR a guy with his injury history was never a good idea.

If we went through the entire offseason process, FA, draft, training camp, preseason, working on a base 3-4 and then switched to a base 4-3 because we couldn't find the right DT, then I'll have lost all faith in this staff before the preseason is even over. It almost doesn't even matter anyways though, in today's NFL, most teams are running 3 or 4 WR on most snaps, thus needing an extra DB or 2 anyways, nobody plays base defenses much anymore unless their base has 5 DBs. If we're not already there, within a few more years, the NFL will mostly have base defense packages that are 3-3-5, 4-2-5, or even 2-4-5, with the LB's in the non 4-2-5 defenses being pass rushers, like we have with Burns. This is why having Chinn be successful this year and signing him to an extension is so important, I think his versatility is what's needed in today's game.

So... your solution to our RB injury concerns is to sign someone who has only been able to play in 42 of a possible 82 games in his career due to injury issues? I'd like to see us go and get Hunt

That one is on Mingo and he’ll learn from it, he slowed WAY down there for no reason, if he kept running it would have been a perfect pass to let him keep going. Frustrating to see, but at least the rookie QB made the right play, moved in the pocket and made a good pass

We don't have to make the playoffs, but anything short of finishing outside the Top 10 in next year's draft order will be an utter failure of a season on multiple levels. First, as others have noted, we had a 7 win team last season and have improved at literally every position on the field except for #1 WR, and even then, our WR room as a group is much better than last years. And sure, you could make the argument that it's a new staff, but this "new staff" is so much better than the garbage staff we had last year, especially seeing as our winning streak came after we fired out HC and DC. If we finish with what would have been a Top 10 pick in next year's draft, imagine how much better that pick would have been if we were playing Corral at QB this year instead of Young, would have been all but guaranteed to be a Top 3 pick, if not #1 outright. I don't care how much of a Bryce supporter you are, I don't think anyone is going to say he's a better prospect than Caleb Williams and maybe not even Drake Maye. If we're so bad of a team with that we'd have been in a position to draft one of them next year without trading away Moore and all the other draft pick assets, then we'll be in a much worse place moving forward than if we had just not made that trade. And that more than anything is why we have to have a successful season, giving up next year's pick in such a good QB draft will look like a terrible mistake given what else we'd have been able to keep to build around that Top pick in next year's draft.

Seriously NFL Network? Still showing the final 30 seconds of a preseason game instead of cutting to the first snaps of the #1 pick of the draft? This is gonna make me so angry if they don’t cut to it in time

2 drives in game 1, halfway into the second quarter in game 2, not dressed for game 3. Between that and the Jets practices, he'll get what he needs to be ready for Week 1, no need to risk him anymore than that.

This is an outstanding signing, basically the equivalent of Thielen on offense. Thielen will be a rotational guy who can't play every snap at this age but will be an effective vet when on the field. Plus, Thielen is a pro's pro and part of his job is to take the young WRs under his wing and teach them how to do things. Houston has 111.5 career sacks and according to the ESPN article on him, has earned the nickname "Yoda" and "Sensei" due to him staying after practice to work on pash rushing moves with young players. He's here to give us situational pass rush (which he had 9.5 sacks doing last year) and to help mentor all our other pass rushers. Can't wait to see how much he's going to help Burns take his game to a whole new level.

Except he'd be a project who also would be an instant contributor, that's rare to find, I wasn't happy that we didn't take him when we could. His blocking will put him on the field immediately as essentially an extra OL, they've said he's absolutely dominated the Steelers defense in camp in the run game already and he always was talked about that way in the pre-draft process. I think his upside at how much of a mismatch he could end up in the passing game was way too great to pass on him when we did, seeing as he'd have immediately got on the field both as a run blocker and as an extra blocker in the passing game to help ensure Bryce stays upright.