tukafan21

Maybe Tapper is just playing some 3D chess right now by not firing Rhule already? He knows this is a lost season without a real QB or Coach, but he also knows we have enough talent on this team to still win enough games to screw up our draft position and instead of getting a top 5 pick we end up around 12 and still can't get our QB of the future. Plus if he fires Rhule now, he owes him a ton of money. I'd like to think he's keeping Rhule around so that it costs us games to keep helping out our draft pick next year to hopefully get our QB, while also hoping Rhule leaves on his own for one of these college jobs and then he gets out of having to pay him a poo ton of money to GTFO.

I don't think we're that far away from being a playoff caliber team, so I wouldn't be trying to trade anyone like that. We have a TERRIBLE coaching staff and an awful QB, you can't win in the NFL today with those two things. If we can get a competent new HC and a top QB in the draft, I see no reason that we can't compete very soon. We have a lot of great pieces, but when you might have both the worst HC and QB in the league, you're not going to stand a chance. Just look at our defense today, they played really well and just got screwed over by Baker and the turnovers. 2 of their 3 TD's were on drives of 5 yards and 31 yards, that's not on the defense in the slightest, take that away and they just held a good offense to 13 points and would have won the game. Draft a QB with our first rounder, a WR with our second rounder (and dump Robby while at it), and spend any cap room on improving both lines, and I think we have a very good team next year with a real NFL coaching staff.

Oh I know, and I can't wait for that, it's going to be glorious I understand things like the UFC cracking down on illegal streams, that's a PPV that anyone can go out and pay for if they want to watch. But the NFL is a different story, they screwed up and agreed to a bad deal years ago. At this point, nobody is signing up for Direct TV solely for the NFL package, they already have it or they don't, so just let streamers stream so fans can watch their teams play if they live out of market. I used to go to the bar every sunday, but once Covid hit that changed things and streaming had been fine the last few years, but this year it's just not working well, it sucks.

Or maybe the NFL shouldn’t have been beyond stupid with their direct tv deal. I would gladly pay for a yearly service to watch the games, but I’m not going to get a terrible tv service just to have the ability to then pay more on top for the NFL package. Same thing as last week too, ended up finding something that worked for the first 3 quarters and now can’t get anything to work in the 4th. This isn’t like avoiding paying for PPV’s, it’s on the NFL for being stupid, in this day and age there should be a service for anyone to buy a season pass regardless of what TV provider you have.

Anyone have good ways to watch the game if you don't live in the area? The steam I used last year was terrible last week and already giving me issues this week again, fearing I'm not going to get to watch us this year at this rate. Can't wait till next year when they have the League Pass option outside of Direct TV customers.

He's a former QB who has long been considered a good QB coach and even in his first year in Tampa, Jameis had his best year of his career (sure, a ton of INTs, but that's Jameis' decision making, he still had career numbers besides that). My question with him is whether he has the rest of the HC skills needed as he's still very young in his coaching career, even these super young guys who are getting HC jobs now have much more coaching experience as they usually start coaching at 22ish where as Byron didn't start until his mid to late 30s.

I'd be good with taking the shot on Byron because even if he doesn't work out as a HC, I think he'd put us on the right track for a franchise QB. It's impossible to figure out if he's really ready for a HC job or if he'll be successful as he obviously has benefited by having Brady and working under Arians. I think those things though will make him successful in identifying and developing a new QB. So even if he doesn't work out as a HC, whether it's strategy, defensive approach, play calling, etc, I think he'd do enough positive work with the QB situation that if he had to fire him after a couple of years for other reasons, the franchise would still be in a better place. And that's all if he's unsuccessful, there is a very solid chance that he's going to end up as a really good HC as well, so all in all, to me it's more than worth the chance on him. Although if I'm being honest, I'd rather us steal an up and coming OC from someone like McVay. I don't even know who their OC is right now, but his coaching tree is already looking really impressive and that's the style of coach I want us to have with how the NFL is playing these days, you need an innovative offensive mind.

Nobody with the easiest prediction yet? Higgins TD (you know Baker wants to get one to him in this game as a huge middle finger to the Browns and they looked like they had a good connection in camp) Panthers 31 Browns 23 Baker is going to be fired up for this game and it's going to bleed into the rest of the team as well, I'm thinking 3 passing TDs to Higgins, DJ, CMC, with another CMC TD on the ground Browns are going to be missing both their starting OT's with Brisett starting and only one decent pass catcher, Burns with 2 sacks and another 2-4 from the rest of the team. Their best chance is to run the ball, but without their starting OT's, they will struggle a bit from there too.

Agreed, that's why I say you wait on Cam and TD. Do Smitty and Luke now, they've earned it and even if we turn into a powerhouse. I think for an expansion team in this era, it's more than fair to retire the best player in that team's first 30 year history. That rate would be retiring 3 numbers every 90 years (I wouldn't count Mills in that calculation, his is different and something any team would do in the same situation, such as Sean Taylor), that's Steelers level stuff right there, and I've already made my Luke argument of course. Wait 10 years, if we're still not looking at a potential dynasty, you can do one more, if after another 5 or so and still in the same place, do the other. If we've turned into a potential dynasty in 10-15 years, then we're sitting at only Mills, Smitty, and Luke and can be more stringent moving forward and those 3 will still always be more than deserving.

Wouldn't that probably favor the Browns then? I know we're going to have a physical defense, but so do they, the difference is their offense is 100% built around the run, and they're very good at it, that would seem to favor them in a rain game against almost any team in the league (in regards to dealing with rain, not about being favored in the game in general lol)

If we had 6 Super Bowls then I'd agree, but we're not, and it's nice to have some history with the team and I think almost 30 years into the franchise, it's okay to retire the best player in franchise history in Smitty and a first ballot HOFer who played his whole career for us. HOF opened in 1963, modern day NFL essentially started in 1967 with the first Super Bowl. 30 years after the first SB, the Steelers had 4 SB titles, all of which they won by Super Bowl 14. Yes, if we won 4 SB's in our first 15 years, the standard for retiring numbers would just have to be different. I'm not even going to argue for someone like Peppers, he's probably the best player to play the majority of their career with us, but spent too many years away to have his number retired here, but put him in the Ring of Honor. If you want to really limit things, do Smitty and Luke and then stop there, but I think Cam and TD should be considered at some point too, pending how things go over the next 10 years. If we don't win a SB and don't have any players at that time who are looking like they'd be future candidates, maybe then you do Cam if he's made the HOF or TD. But in the end, Smitty and Luke are both no brainers to me, even if you want to severely limit them.

That's a fair argument too and one I can't fault. But if we're talking about high standards, how much higher does it get than being a first ballot HOFer? Particularly when they do that after a concussion shortened career? There's only been 86 first ballot HOFers in almost 60 years of the HOF being around. Granted his career was even shorter, but he also won an MVP and 2 SB's, but it took Terrell Davis 11 tries to get into the HOF, says a lot about Luke's career that he'll be a first ballot guy with only played 8 seasons. And Calvin and the Lions I think are good now, it was ugly at first over the fight over his signing bonus, but they've more or less settled that beef and are cool again, just took a few years, kinda like Smitty and the Panthers.

I get what you're saying, and agree, TD while a great player for us, is more about his story and what he meant to the organization. And yes, there needs to be a high standard, but Cam won an MVP and should be a HOFer (I still think his rushing stats alone is why he'll get in), how do you not retire the number of the franchise's only MVP winner who also will be in the HOF (hence why I also said to wait 10 years before looking at it, as if he never gets in, that could change things). But Luke to me has the strongest argument of those other three. His career was only short because of concussions, nothing else, and he's going to be a first ballot HOFer and one of the best MLB in the history of the game. For someone to get into the HOF on the first ballot, after playing their entire career with one team and was only cut short due to injuries, how do you not retire that number? Do you think the Lions won't retire Calvin's number? Basically the same thing, 100% they retire his number. If we just look at the player's standing at their given position over the history of the sport, Luke would have a better argument for getting his number retired than Smitty.

With the new number rules, retiring numbers isn't quite as bad anymore. Someone like Smitty 100% deserves to be retired, greatest player in franchise history and will be in the HOF, and as far as I'm aware, nobody has worn 89 since he left, so it they might as well just make it official by now. Although I could see Tapper having told Smitty that they're going to do it, but wait until he makes the HOF so they can do it all at once and have an amazing pre-game, since I really don't think it will take more than 3 or 4 more years till he gets in. 1, 59, and 58 should all be done too, but I can see the argument of retiring 4 numbers before we're even 30 years of a franchise and without a SB win might be a bit much. So I'd be okay if they stopped after Smitty for now and maybe/hopefully unofficially retire those other numbers with nobody else being able to take them and then revisit in 10 years.

Butker is the easy answer here, we could have had an all pro level kicker for 15 years, but no, just HAAADDDD to keep freaking Gano

Blake Bortles, Sean Mannion, Cooper Rush, Nathan Peterman, AJ McCarron are all guys I'd probably rather roll with as our backup right now over PJ, and that's saying something, as none of those guys are any good either. In reality, I'd like them to IR Darnold, cut PJ, keep Eason on the PS, and just sign Cam as a gadget player who also would be our backup QB if Baker gets hurt. Line up with Baker in the shotgun with Cam and CMC on each side of him, feel like we could run a lot of great plays out of that set, toss it to Cam with multiple eligible receivers running routes on that side of the field and make the defense either stay back to defend the pass or attack Cam expecting him to run.

I haven't really looked at the available QB's out there, but there just HAS to be somebody better than PJ out there, the guy is not good

I'd still rather have PJ on the practice squad right now while signing a better backup. Then if/when Darnold comes back, cut said backup Or if I personally had my choice, just IR Darnold and let that terrible experiment be over, he's of no value to us anymore.

Don't hate it, but was hoping we'd somehow sign a better backup and throw PJ on the practice squad. I like having PJ on the practice squad given his scrambling ability as he can help us prepare against the more mobile QB's, but the guy has proven that he isn't much more than that, he's not a viable NFL QB unfortunately. Rhule's fascination with his former players is not a successful strategy in the NFL, that needs to be stopped.

On top of my CMC blue jersey for reference to the actual blue it should be closer to The picture makes it look a little more grey here than it actually is, it looks a more of a very light baby blue in person, but either way, nothing close to the color of the shirt in the image on the website.

https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/christian-mccaffrey-carolina-panthers-fanatics-branded-player-name-and-number-tri-blend-hoodie-t-shirt-light-blue/o-4638+t-36712491+p-2530342776+z-8-2553461403?_ref=p-SRP:m-GRID:i-r4c1:po-13 It's a cool shirt, but it's NOT the Panthers blue color, it's a light baby blue shirt, pretty frustrated to see that when it showed up.

Also why do we keep trading future draft picks for guys who aren't wanted by their current teams? Anything more than a future conditional 7th rounder and this will be even more frustrating given Shi being a similar role type of player already on the squad, but why do I feel like this is going to end up being a 4th rounder or something

Yes, Laviska is a bigger player, but he plays a similar role as Shi, just not as fast. They're both players that you want to get the ball to in space and let them make players miss, Shi is more likely to make someone miss while Laviska is more likely to break a tackle, but still a similar role on the field.

Sure, but Laviska isn't a 6th WR, he's our #3 right now (well maybe in a few weeks once he gets fully up to speed with the playbook and Baker). My issue isn't with adding Laviska, as I like him as a player, my issue is that we're adding a player that I feel like we already have on the squad. Not so sure Laviska has any more upside than Shi does, so why give up draft capital to add someone we already have and has looked great in camp this year?

Haven't read through the thread, but I really just don't get this move. In general, I like him as a player, but the guys is a possession receiver, get the ball to him and let him go to work. Isn't that basically what Shi is supposed to be for us? That Curtis replacement that we've been looking for? The guy has looked great in camp and pre-season, so why make this trade and now make Shi basically a pointless player for us at the moment? Unless we're trading/cutting Robby, which I'd LOVE, I don't understand this move given how good Shi has looked this year.