WhoKnows

It is. Pickett is not good but they are 5-3. It’s like smoke and mirrors but they always keep games close and always seem to have a good enough D. Roethlisberger became a shell of himself and Pickett has not been a top QB but he still hasn’t gone below .500. He’s pretty impressive. The only knock right now is that he doesn’t have the offensive talent, which is why they only have one “good” season in the last 6 years. They did sneak a second time into the playoffs but that was more due to Lamar getting hurt. They haven’t won a playoff game since 2016. They’ve been competitive but that drop at the QB spot (and WR) has kept them from being contenders. It’ll be interesting how long the keep with Pickett.

Trying to do this the nice way, but this is what I hinted at before. Wahle is a former NFL OL and you are disagreeing with him saying the scheme change is overstated because we know you love the coaching staff. This is only believing articles/tweets when it suits you. Our young OL have not exceeded expectations and technique is an issue, which points to needing to improve the coaching unless Iky is uncoachable.

Seeing as how Bozeman, Moton and Corbett have been in the league for years as starters, I’d think the only guys who would need technique work are LG and LT and those are our trouble spots. As of right now, it does seem a problem with the non-vets.

SMH. I post the exact text of the article and it’s wrong. Do you actually think Brown created brand new plays for every page of the playbook? This is not some new story as you put it. If you want an analogy that actually fits, this is more like a movie or TV adaptation of a book. Brown isn’t creating the West Coast offense decades ago using only philosophies. He’s creating a playbook “from the ground up” using plays from his time with McVay, plays from Reich and then, they decided on the language of the common plays. It literally states how they melded the common plays where only the language differed. You can act like you are someone who’s objective but you aren’t. I gave you text from an article that you choose to ignore because it doesn’t fit your argument that we are running a brand new, never seen before offense which helps make Frank’s slow start make more sense. Also, I’m pretty sure those of us who were worried about the start of the season due to how we looked in preseason were correct. It’s funny that you are still stubborn when we start 0-6 and things like the OL protection are still an issue that was highlighted as one of the biggest concerns. Was that part of a plan? It’s funny how playoff contention was talked about all offseason and then during the preseason, which didn’t matter of course, all the same talk became of course we aren’t going to contend when every off-season move sure indicated that plan. Oh well, I think I gave a fairly straightforward reasoning for why both of you could easily be right, but it’s hard to have discussions with you. Your objective posting of news was always appreciated but it’s changed.

Scot, this is also where you get tripped up. I’ve seen it before multiple times where you’ve jumped through hoops to defend your guys and did ignore articles to take the blame off of your guys. You were a huge Fitterer fan, we’ve argued about that before and sorry, he’s been terrible so far, draft, trades and FAs. You are also a huge Reich fan and dude, he said playoffs and we are a worse team than Wilk’s version. We treated preseason terrible as if not showing our offense was more important than getting the team actually ready, leading to an 0-6 start. I have no doubt that Brown was charged with building the playbook as the OC. It’s funny that you linked an article about that but missed in @ForJimmy’s link that they laid out exactly what happened: Brown said he and Reich broke their offensive identities down to their roots when designing the Panthers' playbook, building it back together with unique ideas peppered throughout. Brown once called the playbook split between his philosophy and Reich's "60-40." Reich saw some overlap in how he and Brown wanted to plan the offense from the start. He estimated anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of their systems were already "similar" and that the melding process involved picking from new and old language and bringing it together. You and @CRA might both right. Seems like the playbook is likely 35% Brown/McVay, 25% Reich and 40% overlap. Does it really surprise anyone that while Reich called plays that he likely used more calls from the 65% of the playbook that was what he’s run before? It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the offense still looked like Reich in Indy while he called plays. Doesn’t mean Brown wasn’t in charge of building the playbook either and it wouldn’t surprise me if the offense looks and feels more like watching McVay/Brown while he calls plays.

He did suck, that’s why starting 0-6 in a division of Carr, Mayfield and Ridder was so frustrating when Rhule started 3-2 while our division was Brady, Brees and Ryan. We also were pretty devoid of talent since Cam, Luke, Olsen, Bradberry and others were gone.

No kidding. The excuses for Reich and Fitt are ridiculous. Wilks did go 6-6 with the same folks and we were told by the coach that playoffs are expected. Fitt supposedly rebuilt the OL and offensive weapons and it seems like we have Thielen and nada, especially after giving Moore and CMC for barely nothing. Oh, but Rhule/Tepper made every decision for the poor guy even though the bad trades and drafting seem to look very similar before and after Rhule. Heck, in 2020, Rhule as a rookie coach went 5-11 when we had Teddy and we were in a division with the SB winning Brady, 11-5 Brees led NO and Ryan was still in Atlanta. We also almost beat KC who lost to Brady in the SB and almost beat a 13-3 GB. Now it’s Ok that Reich is 1-6 with a last second win over a rookie QB/rookie coach, an easy schedule and a division with Carr, Ridder and Mayfield?

Last year was the year to do the trades. GB’s 1st for Moore and 2 1sts and a 2nd for Burns. Amazing to me that we could have gotten Chase Young, Sweat and two 1sts for Burns and a 3rd. Damn, we could have fleeced the Rams last year and then the Commanders this year.

Imagine had we traded Burns for two firsts and a second. We could have traded a second and a third for Sweat and Young. We probably wouldn’t have had to pay them much more than we’d pay Burns but we would have two more 1sts in exchange for a 3rd and have 2 edge rushers instead of just one. Man, what a deal we were offered.

We can, our shitty start hurts. We have to beat the Falcons and the Saints, have to otherwise we’d have to make up 4 other games. We all have similarly easy schedules, so making up 4 games in 9 is damn near impossible without a huge winning streak.

My sentiments exactly. Those Rams picks are likely top 10 picks and I think we could have used the 1sts in that trade to get Young while keeping our own and not needing to throw in Moore and CMC’s 2nd. Rams didn’t have all their young guys looking hood with Kupp out, Ramsey, Floyd and Woods gone so 9 and Rams 2024/2025 1st and our 2023 2nd was enough. Considering how little we got in return for CMC and Moore, keeping them would have been best. Then you use pick 36 from the Rams to trade up a few spots for La Porta or Kincaid. 36 and 61 is more than pick 21 and Buffalo got Kincaid at 27. Imagine Young having CMC, Moore, Thielen, La Porta/Kincaid and we have our 2024 and 2025 1sts and 2nds. Oh, we’d also have $30M a year for 2 stud FA starters. As said above and what I’ve said before, if we weren’t going to immediately extend Burns before prices went through the roof to where we can’t seem to agree then you make the fuging game changing trade.

It doesn’t if that’s the best game. I want to see more but I always hoped he would step up because I don’t think TMJ is good. TMJ had a few ok games where the D seemed to lose him for one deep ball a game. Too many people bought that hype and then in his last 6 games where we went 4-2, he did almost nothing. It would be nice to see Mingo keep improving the rest of the year, especially if we get ourselves a handful more wins so we don’t here about the pick we traded every few seconds at the start of the 20/4 draft.

Was just speaking on Iky’s failures. He’s just getting beat one on one. He’s getting beat on other stunts too, but he almost looks un-salvageable. He’s certainly not learning from the mistakes but he also appears to just be plain getting beat. That’s not really fixable.

Sorry, but that’s not true. Houston was just rushing 4 most times. That last sack by Bernard was one on one with no stunts, no delay, no overload, just Mano a Mano. All Bernard did was smack away Iky’s hands and run right over Young. That was just an awful attempt to block Bernard. Iky has regressed this year and has had terrible moments since preseason game 1. He has to improve or he’s not a LT and we whiffed. Garrett Wilson would have been nice for Young.

F’n A Cotton. So glad to be off the snide. A much needed win. Took too long and we still need mucho help for Young but I still don’t want to watch the Bears get MHJr to pair with DJ.

That’s last sack by Bernard was ridiculous. Iky is absolutely a bust at LT. Terrible pick.

And yet, you asked a simple question of when has any team improved trading away a star player. I gave you 4 examples in the past few years where all 4 teams improved getting rid of star players. You then said only good teams improve like that and bad teams never do and I showed how all 4 of those teams were bad teams when they got rid of their stars. Simple as that. Now you are going off on tangents. We had an amazing offer for Burns last year because the Rams saw a small window with Stafford still healthy and SF getting off to a not so good start. We should have taken the offer of 2 1sts and a 2nd and used the $30M a year for two solid/stud FAs and frankly we should have traded Moore to GB for pick 15 instead of throwing him in on the Young deal. That’s it, end of story and we’d be a better team In the near future.

You mean, this: https://pantherswire.usatoday.com/2023/04/28/2023-nfl-draft-panthers-owner-david-tepper-bryce-young-day-2-picks/ https://www.si.com/nfl/panthers/gm-report/tepper-talks-trading-up-to-one-drafting-young-more Did you read what I posted? I said that Tepper used all the point guard lingo but he did it right before the draft on April 27th. What I also posted was links about Thomas Brown’s interview with Balboni in February. He lays out his QB as a point guard philosophy. I’m not saying Tepper is a great owner who’s made good decisions. I’m saying that all through February, March and April the coaches and Fitt said a ton about their process and agreeing on Young with no Tepper mentioned at all on the decision or point guard mentality. Tepper started talking all his BS about point guard mentality and getting FA WRs/TEs with Frank and spending money on Defense (Burns, hence the trade rejection) well after the coaches and Fitt. Why would Tepper be so mad and meeting with Frank if he made all these decisions by himself? It really amazes me that Tepper paraphrases stuff that Fitt/coaches say/do and people can’t fathom that he was told 1) we don’t need superstar WRs because Young is a point guard so we should include Moore in the trade up and 2) we shouldn’t trade Burns because we need to spend money on D since we don’t need to on offense. Anyway, I blame Tepper for the FO/coaching hires. He’s the big cheese so he shoulders the blame at the top. I just don’t get trying to make it look like Tepper made every decision to take heat off of Reich and Fitterer.

Pretty typical response. You were wrong and for some reason you can’t let go and walk away. You have to get a last response in and act all high and mighty. If you are going to post that another person is wrong and ask for proof, be Ok when the other party replies with information that invalidates your argument. I’m too old, but I like to argue and discuss stuff and I’m not the one saying “puff our your chest” and “aw you’re cute” and stuff like that. That’s you not being able to handle an actual discussion where you’re incorrect. Oh well, this will be my last post and I’m sure it won’t be yours.

SMH. Tepper has absolutely done the wrong stuff. That doesn’t mean he forced Young on Reich and Fitt.

Tepper is the new scapegoat. He’s involved but the February/March/April pre-draft articles were all from Fitt and the coaches and never mentioned Tepper. When Frank and Fitt described their “proposal” and agreeing before and after evaluations, they never mentioned anything about Tepper.

That was only reported after we looked awful in preseason and started off 0-4. Amazing that people think Tepper came up with the point guard analogy. Here’s an article on Thomas Brown in March (it summarizes an interview in February): https://carolinablitz.com/2023/03/30/change-the-math-which-quarterback-would-best-fit-thomas-browns-offense/amp/ Tepper’s point guard reference was 1-2 months after that article/original interview and right before the draft. Tepper did not create the point guard analogy.

Yes. It’s only been since Young and the team struggled that the CYA started. Same thing for Fitt excuses that it was all Rhule, now it’s all Tepper. I’ve linked plenty of articles where Reich and Fitt talked about their love of Young and how they both came to the same conclusion. Now it’s well, they really liked Stroud (it was Richardson before he got hurt) and Tepper forced their hand. People keep posting Tepper’s description of a point guard so not needing stud WRs when I found an article from Brown talking about Young as a point guard. Again, people that think Tepper came up with the analogy are guys who told us Fitt just needed a chance without Rhule and that Reich was an amazing coach with a stud cast around him. Seems to me from all the pre-draft articles from Fitt, Reich and Brown that the point guard stuff is what they told Tepper to sell him on both the trade up and the inclusion of Moore and Tepper was just regurgitating but Tepper is the new Rhule because he texts Reich all the play calls and made every draft move.

We need a few more. I just want to get through the draft knowing we didn’t give up a top 3 pick.

I completely forgot about Cohen. We’ve got a guy who hasn’t played since 2020, a guy who’s last meaningful snaps were in 2018 and we’re checking out a guy who’s coming back to football because he was caught running a Pokémon scam for millions of dollars. Damn. Oh and before we get the it’s only practice squad, the problem is we don’t even have enough young players to fill out the PS. If Gettleman was dumpster diving, we are full on living in the dump now. We’ve trading away so many draft picks in the Fitts era that we’ve got zero depth and can’t even find enough young players with any potential to fill out the roster.