WhoKnows

Really? How many games did you watch Purdy play in college? How many games did Voth watch him play in college? How many games did Fitterer watch him play? Rhule had a front row seat to two games where Purdy beat him and almost beat him again with 600 total yards and 4 total TDs. I don’t care about Rhule but you picked one “lie” where it seems like Rhule actually putting him on the draft board make sense. Also, that was the first draft where you ever said that Fitterer got more control as the GM.

Yep. The team we had last year was by far the worst product we’ve ever had. Fitterer/Reich takes the cake and personally, I think Fitterer had more to do with the losing.

It is funny how this thread got started by Rhule’s top fan and yeah, there’s still posts in here trying to blame Rhule instead of Fitterer as if Fitterer wasn’t truly horrible by himself in 2022/2023. Rhule’s 2018 Baylor team was beat 28-14 by a freshman Purdy who had 2 TDs and was even the leading rusher and Rhule’s 2019 Baylor team squeaked out a 23-21 win against Iowa St with a last minute FG after 2 4th quarter passing TDs by Purdy. Yes, Rhule was absolutely a lot more qualified to know about Purdy’s abilities and yes, it’s not out of the question that he would put him on his draft board but that was 2022 when Rhule was clearly relegated to trying to keep his job. I really didn’t like Rhule as a coach and I wanted him gone but it’s laughable how much space he takes up in the mind of some posters in here.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you say that in 2022’s offseason that Fitterer was in control? Purdy got drafted in 2022 and Rhule was forced to hire experienced coordinators before the 2022 draft and he got fired 5 games into 2022 so he was clearly on the hot seat and not in control. Do you really think it’s impossible for Rhule to have been vetoed in the 2022 draft? Heck, he didn’t even say that he would have drafted him just that he wanted to put him on the board. I wasn’t in the room (neither was Voth), so who knows and frankly I don’t care, dude’s in the corn fields now and I really DGAF about Nebraska. Personally, I don’t think Rhule was in charge of the draft in 2022 so I can’t say he’s lying.

I agree with @Mage and it wasn’t just 1 year. It was absolutely clear and reported in here multiple times (by Rhule’s biggest critics) that Fitterer had more control in 2022’s offseason. Rhule was on the hot seat and was forced to hire NFL experienced coordinators and trade ups like Corral in 2022 were literally identical to 2023 with DJ Johnson. Purdy was drafted in 2022 and based on the hot seat (Rhule fired 5 games in)/assertions about more Fitterer control, it’s not surprising to me that Rhule would be overruled. In 2020/2021, it would surprise me but not in 2022. Fitterer’s decision making was atrocious and pretty consistently bad where we got crushed on trades/no-trades in both 2022 and 2023. Also, who cares about Rhule anyway? He’s gone. The guy really got to some people but it’s pretty easy to say that Rhule and Marty had a better draft together than Fitterer and Rhule/Wilks were far more competitive than our disaster of 2023. Doesn’t mean we want them back but given the choice, I’d go Rhule/Hurney over Reich/Fitterer or heck anyone/Fitterer all day long.

You got it. Pair their solid drafts with our awful drafts that were net negatives since we gained basically nothing while losing CMC and Moore, and Stroud is dead on that Houston was a better team. I know they had a bad game against us but they were obviously a better team overall.

It feels like our analytics formulas accidentally flipped the fractions or something like that because we basically did everything wrong.

With a great WR draft and feeling like we don’t even have our future WB in house, it doesn’t make sense. That said, we are down a 1st round pick in what someone on ESPN just said is a super talented draft, so who knows what we’ll do. It does hurt know long we could have had 3 top 33 picks in an epic draft class full of stud WRs, OTs and CBs.

Yep. Also, why are these threads throwing in trading for WRs? This WR draft class is deep. Just like last year, we traded assets instead of building. We should have gone for a great TE last year (in addition to pick 9 - Carter next to Brown SMH) and QB/WR this year but we try quick fixes and fug them up.

Best thing for us is if there somehow are 5 QBs (Nix and Penix) in the first. The WRs in the later 1st to mid 2nd are all over the place depending on who likes who. Harrison Jr, Odunze and Nabers are all looking like top 10ish guys who won’t be close to 33. After that it’s a guessing game until the combine/workouts. Here’s the WRs that I’ve seen in the first in one or more mocks: Coleman, Legette, Taylor and Franklin. Walker, Mitchell, McConkey and Worthy have all been at 33ish in mocks as well. I don’t foresee all 11 going in the top 35, but it’s a deep class.

Neither have I. You are absolutely correct. Think of 30 as a wall. Younger is on the good/right side and older is on the bad/wrong side. I think he’s confusing stuff like when you tell people who turn 35 that you are closer to 40 or on the downslope/downhill to 40.

This is a decent draft to build around him while also not wasting resources on short term (like the sign Higgins and Evans crews). I don’t think he’ll work out so I’d rather get a couple WRs and maybe a solid G with picks 33, 65 and 100ish (comp picks). TEs were last year unfortunately. 33/65 would be equivalent of a mid to late first and mid 2nd in terms of WRs so I hope we take advantage of the value at a dire position of need/figure out if Young has it.

Just got to go BPA. This is a deep and solid WR/CB/OT class so just get the best guys you can and hopefully it’s in positions of strength. We should be able to get a WR at 33 that last year might have gone 15-20 many years. Reminds me of the Evans/OBJ draft. That said a really good CB or OT/IOL could slip to 33. We did stupid ass drafting the past 3 years (which worries me about Morgan) like going Mingo instead of securing a TE. We could have used one of the DJ Johnson picks to move up to 33 and leap frog Detroit for La Porta. Instead we take a WR that this year is easily a 3rd rounder+. We need to stop poo like that. Take a TE in a strong TE/weak WR draft and take WRs in a strong WR/weak TE draft.

We still have a big deficit in draft picks this year and next. The last thing we need is to give away more 1sts/2nds to prove that Young isn’t the guy. If Young isn’t it, we are wasting the chance at getting better in the draft. We have to build through the draft, period.

Rams didn’t have a first in the last draft and may have had the best draft outside of Houston who had multiple 1sts. We need to get two above average starters at 33 and 65. It’s the only way we have a chance to improve. If we get a Mingo at 33 we are in trouble again. Morgan was the assistant GM so he helped handicap himself and he has to now get out of it. It really sucks looking at the talent in this draft. It would be hella nice to have 1st overall and the Rams 1st as well as 33 and 65 (and Jalen Carter next to Brown, ugh). Williams, Powers-Johnson at C/G, best WR at 33 and best CB/WR/OL at 65. Oh well, Danny boy needs to lead us out of the darkness or again, no matter how good Canales is, we’ll be a bottom dweller.

SMH. Sure, I’m emotional and angry. It’s called disbelief. Go find some pictures of Stroud with Nicole since he called her mama Tepp. You said this too: I have a feeling that Nicole may have made the pick From your responses, I’m leaning towards you believing that. Everyone on the Panthers staff and ownership had comments and meetings with all of the top QBs. It’s silly to try and use some picture or snippet to prove anything. I’ll repeat what I said to make it clear. Nicole did not make the pick. I can guarantee that. No reason for you to get upset about my disbelief that someone thinks she did.

It really doesn’t matter if Morgan can’t put together way better drafts than he took part in with Fitterer. If the drafts don’t get better, this team won’t be competitive even if Canales is a great coach.

Do you actually believe that Nicole Tepper made a pick that we traded away two firsts, two second and DJ Moore for? I mean, really, how in the world could you really think she made the pick. Stroud called her mama Tepp, maybe she was the only person that actually said draft Stroud. I get the Tepper hate, he’s hired seriously terrible people so far but it’s truly comical that with ex-NFL QBs, ex-coaches who coached HOF/pro-bowl QBs and tons of NFL experience on staff before the draft that people actually believe Nicole Tepper made that pick. We fuged up the pick and many other picks/trades/non-trades the past few years but I personally guarantee that Nicole Tepper did not draft Young.

Exactly. How many NFL QBs have a perfect pocket where they can take a slow drop back and then wind up to get their entire body in the throw and launch it without worrying about a rusher getting there before the release. Someone above mentioned having to anticipate more than say an Allen because of the lack of velocity. That takes a lot of potential plays off the table. Without good velocity, you can’t make quick reads so every WR has to have separation for as long as the anticipation takes. A TE sitting in an opening can’t be hit before a defender can catch up.

How is Hubbard off limits? He’s a JAG. Just because he was the hardest working guy on offense doesn’t mean we can’t do better. That said, trading him is silly as we’d get nothing for him. A 3.8 ypc RB isn’t worth anything to other teams. Remember that we were the only idiots out there that threw big money at FA RBs.

If you think like that we’ll never be a good team again. We suck now and the only legitimate way we can get better is by starting to draft well. Fitterer is gone and while I’m not ecstatic that his right hand man is the new GM, it’s a change that I hope works. At this point, getting just a first for Burns is really risky because we have one pick plus the cap savings for 2 top FAs. The Rams offer would have been perfect as Fitterer wouldn’t be wasting the 2 firsts and there’s a high likelihood we would have thrown the Rams picks to Chicago (they were worth more pre-draft) and maybe kept DJ and our 1st overall. I’m torn but I’d lean towards getting a 1st and cap space because I feel like we are far from contending so I’d rather have a cheaper asset and save space now to rollover to when we are better.

Yes, they have done that. Moton was a draft pick from three GMs ago. Using a 2nd in 2017, a 3rd in 2021 and a 1st in 2022 is not drafting depth/more OL every year. Iky, Bozeman and Corbett were are because we had ignored OL, except a couple bad picks, from 2018 to 2021. We finally changed in 2022 a bit because our 2020-2021 OLs were so bad (2023 was as well). The point is not to let it get so bad A) you need to replace 4 bad starters and B) when you can’t handle injuries. We should have drafted more OL from 2018-2021. Most of us draft followers were screaming to pick OL, especially in 2021 but we took CBs who don’t play, WRs that suck and long snappers.

Huh? Did you forget Olsen? He was the first TE with 3 straight 1000 yard seasons before Kelce broke that record. I will say Kelce is better but Cam had a great TE for his playoff run. WRs are another story.

I’ve said it more than once. The only way some other GM could have done as bad a job as Fitterer was if they purposely tried to make the Panthers worse. It’s scary how bad he actually was and how much talent he drained in just 3 years.

Yep, especially when Sweat and Young went for 2nd and 3rd round picks. Could have had Sweat for slightly less $$$ and swapped a 2nd for 2 1sts. I’d much rather have Sweat and 2 1sts over Burns, $5M less cap per year and a 2nd. Fitterer literally couldn’t have been more wrong about everything.