Bear Hands

If Bryce doesn’t work out (not that I’m by any means hoping for that), it very well could be and not hyperbole. I tried to avoid offering my own revisionist history scenarios…but the other possibilities between coaching hires and different draft scenarios is infinitely frustrating. Draft wise, so many different routes without the #1 trade up… Richardson-Tuli-Dell-Kraft or a Stroud-Brents-Downs type one. Hell, at this point I’m honestly wondering what a Jalen Carter-Jayden Reed-Hendon Hooker-YaYa draft could’ve been like. Anyhoo, we aren’t changing the past haha

Fitt's new role if he sticks around (for LOTR fans): Grima

And one final bit of analysis That's 16 picks used in 2 years that turned into: 8 players! And Icky, Bryce, & Mingo are the only real guys left with long term potential (and that's a stretch to say). So, no mid-to-late round finds, maybe 4 guys left (from 16 picks) that are weighing more on the bust than success side of the spectrum. The other 4 aren't long for being Panthers. The book is not written, but holy hell. We've also used 1 future pick on Smith-Marsette (2025s 7th) In a league where so much of the draft is guesswork or dependent on building depth, everything, the worst thing you can do is limit your chances and don't balance out your risks. That is a grand total of 17 picks used in 2 seasons/since the CMC & Anderson trades. I'd dare say this is the worst managed 2-year stretch for any franchise in some time. What a way to waste the capital gained from the CMC and Robbie trades...that was 6 added picks in total. And I think there's a good argument we didn't get enough out of CMC's deal. Teams wanted him and it didn't seem like we played hardball enough between SB contender/division rivals (LA & SF).

I'm still undecided on which of 39/Mingo vs. 80/DJJ makes me more frustrated, but just want to reiterate this point again: We used 9 picks, including a future 1st and 2nd (and DJ Moore) on these 5 players. Last year, we used 5 picks on 3 guys ALREADY OFF THE TEAM (Matt Corral, Brandon Smith, & Kalon Barnes). Icky, Barno, & Mays are all that remains. That's how you become the worst roster in football folks.

TL,DR: Our draft was terrible But for those interested, let's DIVE IN through 16 games. I'm skipping the Bryce vs. rookie QBs chat because that's had plenty of discussion. We had pick 39 & chose Jonathan Mingo: Jonathan Mingo: 43 rec (85 targets) | 418 yards | 0 TDs | 9.7 avg Drafted Receivers (TE & WR): Jaxon S-N: 60 rec (88 targ) | 614 yards | 4 TDs | 10.2 avg Jordan Addison: 66 rec (100 targ) | 854 yards | 9 TDs | 12.9 avg Zay Flowers: 77 rec (108 targ) | 858 yards | 5 TDs (6 total) | 11.1 avg Dalton Kincaid: 66 rec (83 targ) | 589 yards | 2 TDs | 8.9 avg Sam LaPorta: 81 rec (113 targ) | 860 yards | 9 TDs | 10.6 avg notable after pick 39... Jayden Reed: 60 rec (90 targ) | 681 yards | 8 TDs (10 total) | 11.4 avg Rashee Rice: 79 rec (102 targ) | 938 yards | 7 TDs | 11.9 avg Tank Dell: 45 rec (75 targ) | 709 yards | 7 TDs | 15.1 avg (in 11 games!) Josh Downs: 65 rec (95 targ) | 723 yards | 2 TDs | 11.1 avg Puka Nacua: 101 rec (154 targ) | 1,445 yards | 5 TDs | 14.3 avg More Notes: Demario Douglas, Michael Wilson, & Donta Wicks all had more receiving yards than Mingo. Marvin Mims has shown explosion/big play ability for Denver, and both Trey Palmer and Jalin Hyatt have come on at the end of the season for TB and NYG respectively. Luke Musgrave was having a very strong year but got injured. Tucker Kraft (another rookie) has stepped in and played GREAT at TE. Mingo is the ONLY rookie WR with substantial receptions to have a sub 10.0 YPR avg Q Johnston seems like the only one struggling as much as Mingo. -- Okay then..onto the other big position need we tried to fill...we spent a packaged 93rd & 132nd pick on: DJ Johnson: 6 tackles (16 comb) | 1 TFL Comparing Rookie Pass Rushers: Will Anderson: 29 tackles (44 comb) | 7 sacks | 10 TFL Jalen Carter: 18 tackles (30 comb) | 6 sacks | 2 FF | 8 TFL | 1 Def TD Calijah Kancey: 18 tackles (25 comb) | 4 sacks | 10 TFL Tuli Tuipulotu: 35 tackles (48 comb) | 4.5 sacks | 2 FF | 8 TFL Byron Young: 41 tackles (60 comb) | 7 sacks | 2 FF | 7 TFL BJ Ojulari: 19 tackle (35 comb) | 4 sacks | 4 TFL after pick 80... YaYa Diaby: 22 tackles (33 comb) | 6.5 sacks | 1 FF | 11 TFL *pick at 82, 2 after DJJ Kobie Turner: 29 tackles (57 comb) | 9 sacks | 8 TFL *pick 89 The 132nd pick we traded: Nick Herbig: 19 tackles (27 comb) | 3 sacks | 5 TFL | 2 FF Karl Brooks: 10 tackles (18 comb) | 3 sacks | 4 TFL | 1 FF *pick 179 Notes: Van Ness, McDonald, and a few others were behind talented edge rushers but still managed some nice work when they've gone in. KJ Henry (pick 137) has had snaps since the Sweat and Young trades and look aight as well in WAS. -- REVIEW TIME! D+ (I'm being kind) We chose Mingo over some high performing rookies. Luke Musgrave (TE), JuJu Brents (DB), Jayden Reed (WR), Tuli (EDGE), Brian Branch (DB), Rashee Rice (WR), Tyrique Stevenson (DB), & DJ Turner (DB) to name just a few, were selected shortly after. I'm not calling Mingo a certified bust, but it was NOT a good campaign. He also didn't fit what we desperately needed at WR (quickness and route running). He has a lot he needs to work on, isn't a big hands-catcher either. I'll give leniency on mid 3rd-7th rounders that bloomed because every team passed on them for a round after 39. However, it should be noted that we gave up pick 61 in the Bryce trade, a pick just ahead of Marvin Mims, Tank Dell, Byron Young, & Josh Downs. Moving on, we traded up for DJJ at pick 80 (Using 93 & 132). That's up 13 spots...and 3 of the next 4 picks after ours were impact rookies (Tyjae Spears, YaYa Diaby, Devon Achane). DJJ wasn't ready (age 25) and we needed to bring in an elder-Houston to help before the season began. Henley (LB), Ji'Ayir Brown (DB), Kobie Turner (DL) were right there as well all before pick 93 who could've warranted some argument in that trade up. It's not an F because Robinson has played ST and hasn't looked terrible..but he's not an NFL starter. It looks like Zavala may not even be suited for a backup role. -- A RECAP: Going into draft season, we had 7 picks: 1-9 (shipped) 2-39 2-61 (shipped) 3-93 (shipped) 4-114 4-132 (shipped) 5-145 We ended up with 5 players selected, none have given us any comfort or any sense of security at their positions. QB, WR, EDGE, OG, & DB. Not a single one. In total, we used 9 draft picks (2 future 1-2024, 2-2025) and (1) DJ Moore on this 5 player draft class. Let that soak in. 9 picks and DJ Moore for Bryce, Mingo, DJJ, Zavala, and Robinson The grade on this draft is hinging on Bryce, but if he doesn't work out, this could end up being one of the worst drafts in NFL history. This is on the scouting team and Fitterer's drafting as much as the players/situation they're in. The GM put the struggling talent in said position. Thanks for reading. Happy New Year!

I'll be honest, if I was a billionaire I'd still be about 51% selfish, 29% wealth management, 20% spread the wealth. Massive generalizations, but you get the drift. I'm more around 84-15-1 at this point haha

"Billionaires shouldn't exist but if I was one, I'd be the very bestest most caring one ever!"

If we win, we help make the Saints/Falcons winner the winner of the south. Tricky predicament bc I dislike those squads wayyyyyy more than TB

Following up on this, there was an updated Prospects to Pros pod and Brugler reiterated a lot of this again. He no doubt made NFL caliber throws in the semifinal but he still doesn’t throw in the middle of the field sub 20 yarders. Has greatly improved his accuracy but there’s stuff that he simply doesn’t do that are question marks. I sense him 2nd rounder absolute highest, just don’t see a 1st. 1. Maye 2. Williams 3. Daniels Tier Drop 4. JJ Tier Drop 5. Penix 6. Nix 7. Pratt 8. Ward - The rest aren’t meh (Assuming Ewers returns)

Justin Mad is getting re-signed by BAL no doubt. He's become one of the best DL in the league this year. Unreal season.

I don't expect to get a top-2 FA in any position group.

The organization is Fisker. We have all this money coming in to back it, desperately want to be some grand sensation, become trendsetters, be at the forefront, but keep tripping before we can even launch. Fail after fail after fail.

There's one baseline desire as a fan: winning. And we aren't doing that. Haven't even been relevant since 2017. It's as simple as that.

Yeah it appears he willingly walking into the same situation yet again. I swear, if that happens, I don't know how much longer I'm hanging on haha.

A balanced build is key. Every major blunder-move has had one common theme: the powers that be are too reactive, not responsive, and don’t take what comes. Funny thing is coming into the season, people were thinking this was the best line we have had since Gross and Kalil were out there. Now we’re back to saying it’s the worst ever. Which is a funny thing… Outside of maybe 5 teams, “the OL is the worst ever” is the common refrain by most fanbases. Just stay level-headed and keep building it all with a distinct vision in mind.

Another fun factoid, the two teams that were sharing our company in rebuild mode (Colts and Texans)...well, they're playing each other to get into the playoffs this next weekend. First year coaches, have had their fair share of injuries, poor OL play, nonexistent running games at times, and injured QBs. Coaching coaching coaching.

The biggest difference between the others coming out of Ole Miss was his catching style and movement when the ball was in the air. He never showed to be much of seeker/aggressor for the ball. He's just not a hands-catcher -- he does from time to time but it's not second nature. Overall, I didn't like what I saw this year. We needed a guy who could come in and make an impact, yet we took a guy with a big learning curve at route running. We needed quickness and guys that get open quickly. Doesn't mean he can't pan out, but his skills weren't complimentary so he was easy for defenders to shut down. And overall, we've had mediocre WRs still produce out of the gate and eventually descend into mediocrity (see LaFell, Funchess, Colbert, etc.). This didn't even feel like it was at that level. Better than TMJ but it was rough.

That's always been my suspicion. About 4-5 games into Rhule, you could see the weird disconnect and I've always figured he wanted out. Rhule barely even spoke about him and you saw very little interaction between the two. And they never even spoke of eachother in interviews much. And this was when he should have been the centerpiece of the team. I just wish we got a bit more, value received just never checked out for me.

Not to mention, Bears had a huge need at pass rusher (as we all saw when they traded for Sweat). And the report was they wanted Burns (one of him, Moore, or DB)...and Burns at his highest value in his career, at the 2nd most valuable position in football. Hell, could've kept 2025's 2nd if Burns was included and probably added an extra late-round pick from the Bears into the mix. To that last point, still don't know why Fitterer didn't try to add some late round flyers from Chicago. The teams on our end of these mega trades always tend to hedge their bets by getting some of that back-end change.

He clearly has a good report with Tepper, so as some said, I can see him retained in some capacity to many's dismay. It's unfortunate given the team assembled, but it's the reality. Not to give him too much credit, but Tepper clearly recognizes the team built is one of the league-wide worst in the past 10-15 years. In large part his doing, sure, but this is not an idle ship and have never been. He may just having like Scott around.

This would all hurt less if we turned what we got into some talent. But we kept thinning our margin for error with more trade ups and less draft picks. No legit WR, no true replacement RB, no new strs on defense, and after all of that, still a gigantic question mark at QB.

You beat me to it haha

CMC and DJ have a combined 3300 yards (2800+ pass/receiving) and 29 touchdowns For comparison, the Panthers have 2672 pass/receiving yards and 23 total touchdowns. It is absolutely bananas what we’ve turned the value received into for two franchise cornerstones.

A multitude of bad decisions led to the self inflicted tear down of our post-Cam rebuild around CMC..we could easily be where the 49ers are now. First off, we kept Rivera (& Hurney) too long Hired Rhule and gave him Belicheck level control. And he obviously had no idea how to utilize CMC and build around him and DJ. We had the parts…then hired people that didn’t know how to build with them. They made it an endless, frantic, needy QB search instead and countless reaches for RAS stars..not who worked best for the team with a distinct vision in mind. It’s been endless chaos all trying to force a QB rather than build a team.

Brugler spoke on him on Prospect to Pros some weeks back. The interest seems lukewarm on the scouting front but some teams do like him. Personally, I've been a fan and have followed him, but think he's more in the Bo Nix/Cameron Ward tier than JJ McCarthy. The arm strength is just good, not great. The injury history is there. Age is up there (although that seems to be about every QB these days being 23+). His accuracy has greatly improved but he still has to work on timed & layered throws. He's got some gamer in him though and is a fun dude to root for.