Gapanthersfan

Very encouraging. I said in the first preseason game thread that this defense is going to get a lot of turnovers this year. I loved the way the secondary were actually playing the ball. Bryce showed some good stuff. I hope this trend continues.

Darnold has every tool needed to succeed, except the calm and critical decision making. He’s a big guy who moves relatively well and can make every throw with decent accuracy. I still think he could make one hell of a system QB with a TE who is always open. With his arm, his dump off is a 20 yd laser to a TE.

I absolutely think those drops killed it for him. 2 great throws that would have gone for big first downs.

1. Preseason is supposed to be where you find out, just what you have, and hopefully use the next practices to identify and work on weaknesses. Bryce getting injured… big whop. If his quality of play, lack of evasiveness and leaky line plays out like we all think it will, there is a pretty good stinking chance that he will not finish the season having played every game. It’s probably going to happen no matter what is done. 2. not playing Bryce and the starters so that people don’t see just how unready you are… automatically makes people suspicious of… just how unready you are. What did these guys work on all camp? 3. I’ve heard dawgs culture this offseason, but we don’t want them to get hurt so they just won’t play. But other people in the room I guess are less important so they have to suit up? All should play some. All the other guys are risking injury and their career. Show some sack.

Complete desperation moves and ‘I’m the smartest owner in the NFL… analytics, blah blah blah’ all while giving away valuable draft capital for scrubs. football isn’t a plug a piece here type business. This is the people business. Culture. Getting the right people. Respect. It’s even more important than raw talent. I hope T has gotten that by now.

It’s all good man. I figured so. No worries.

Thank you for seeing my point. I’m glad someone did. It really hurt to see Evans go full on Evans on us… but I feel like it was just so unjust to Steve. Long in tooth or not, this was still Tom Brady to Mike Evans, (HOF’er to HOF’er) with the playoffs on the line. There aren’t many cover corners in the league stopping that connection, under those circumstances . It looked really ugly. It was, and as I watched it, I knew the unfair fate of Steve. Very few have ever been able to stop Tom under those circumstances. Sadly Steve’s fate was doomed from go, a specific instance was needed, and the owner chose to judge him off of Tom Brady to Mike Evans with playoffs on the line. I’m sure others saw it this way too. But yes, bad, bad look T. After ditching Steve, the ‘getting the band back together’ narrative was needed. He needed to hire someone with local roots.

I re-read what I wrote above, and I’d like to clarify. I did not mean to say that he was let go because of his ethnicity. No way. No how. That was not my intention. Is T an obvious racist. Hell no. I’m not saying that at all. I tried to say that the look was just so bad. Here it is, the league, rightfully, wants more minority head coaches. Enough so to make a rule requiring the interview of minority candidates in an HC search. If race is important for you (it’s not for me. I don’t really know what the hell I am anyway) To see Steve, who embodies what the league says they want to see, pull off a damn miracle with this team, and not even get a shot… to get passed over for who was eventually hired? Like, y’all ditched Steve for this dude? ‘what else do we have to do to get a shot’ could be a legitimate feeling for a lot of players. This is not an endorsement for Steve. I was a Steve guy, but that has sailed. I don’t pretend that he was taking us to the SB. But the way it all went down was such a bad look.

Not really sure if serious, and don’t really want to derail the convo, but I’ll say my diddy and move on. My family is Jamaican and mom is black, so, I dunno. Is it ok if I call myself half black or is that racist as well?

Positive: This defense is going to be fun to watch this year. They are going to force a lot of turnovers. speed, aggression and discipline on Thursday. Noticeably faster. Speed + discipline = turnovers. When was the last time this team had >3 pass breakups in a game? The ‘yep, that’s 6’ passes were surprisingly well defended. Guys played in position and made sound tackles. BS runs up the middle didn’t go for 6 more yards after contact. It just felt so weird because I’m not used to seeing it. It felt like we had the other team’s defense. I hope I’m not getting my hopes up too much but it did look the part.

T only hires people that he feels he can buy, control and manipulate.No Harbaugh. No Bill. I have no idea how Evero is actually still here. Matter of fact, we barely see any fluff pieces on him.. ever. Hmmmm. So basically, winners make him uncomfortable. Wilks. Alpha black man attitude adjuster. Our first black head coach, bro. ENORMOUSLY RESPECTED. They’d run through a wall for Steve. Overnight turned them in to winners, thus proving that it was a leadership problem the entire time…. And he was passed over for a perennial loser has been.. old white dude. Sorry, race shouldn’t matter, but it did. Especially then. You think the players want to play for an owner like that? Can you imagine what locker room talk was like? Say what you will about Richardson, but he was respected by the players, for the most part. He played the game, and shared a common bond. He also knew what a football player was supposed to look like. So yeah, T keeps firing coaches because he’s only comfortable around losers. The delicious irony is that T isn’t really comfortable around dawgs.

At least Teddy knew what a first down looked like. Teddy would be more than fine piloting this team, sadly. On the season opener, if we finish the first half with 13 points and 7 first downs, it would feel like a miracle. How sad is that? In 3 games this team has come up with 3 points. I have no hate for Bryce. I don’t think anyone here does. I hate that Tepper took another ride on the hype train (Rhule?) and drug us with it. The offense just can not be judged with Bryce under center. There is no rhythm or confidence. 0. Everyone in the org knows he ain’t it. We should be getting inundated with hype articles. Nope. We get some here and there stuff, but not what we should be seeing. Nothing about an extensive offseason program. Nothing. Sadly, even he knows he’s not cut out for this. He’s not stupid. Eventually he knows that he’s going to get hurt very badly going against dudes that outweigh him by 100 lbs. And all for what? Suck bad enough, get a fake injury in game 2 or 3, have the org name whomever is qb #2 the starter. Then ‘Going to B sit out the rest of the season to develop’ move so the org can save face. B can then fade off in to the sunset with his 8 figure bank account.

I went really long. Manifesto style. Again. If anyone no likey, then whatever. I’ve tried to divorce my feelings on this team but it’s real hard. Carrol was a great coach in his own right, but he hit the mega millions jackpot with that roster. Beast mode. Wilson. The entire LOB. He had a squad of DUDES that didn’t get ready. They STAYED ready. Even in life, people who have the ability and fire to bring it every minute of every single day, needing no external motivation… extremely rare. That squad was full of DUDES who at any moment could completely take the game over. Complete GAMERS. Need a turnover. Boom. Need 35 yards in 14 seconds for a 45 yd FG in the 4th. Cakewalk. Had 2 timeouts? Only needed 1. Aside from some of the recent SF squads and Randy Moss Patriots, I can’t think of any other team since them to have such a complete roster from top to bottom. HC doesn’t need to be an a hole. As a matter of fact, he’ll probably get tuned out even more. He can’t be. Gruden in TB had a very early expiration date after their SB.People lose respect really quickly for douches. I bet he still has Kris Jenkins nightmares. I have yet to hear of a single expectation for this offense. It has not one. Not a single one. They have wants. I hear plenty of wants. They played like there wasn’t a single expectation of them. No true goal or objective. Let’s just play to play. I can tell you what the defense wanted to do from the first possession. Clog the middle, stop the run at the point of contact, swarm, stay focused, don’t give up big runs, tackle with solid fundamentals. as a very pleasant surprise the secondary were in receivers back pockets and I don’t think I saw a single completely busted coverage, but I’m sure there were. There were very few occasions where it took more that 2 defenders to get somebody down. Evero will go down as another McDermott. I 100% admit and acknowledge that I’m being completely unfair after seeing 1 preseason game, but the overall look on offense was just so bad. I’m probably way too high on the defense, but they played like they had some level of respect for their coach and themselves. Ok suck then. Fine. We all knew they would. But to suck, half ass and then laugh about it while appearing completely disinterested? Where was Bryce going over and telling them to squash that noise and pay attention? It’s really hard to fade that look as a fan. The defense is full of dudes with even less raw talent overall than the O. I know offense always lags the D in the preseason, but not like that. Most of the dudes on D looked like guys who are legit backups or fringe starters on other teams. For what they were, my lord they looked good. Evero is going to make a heck of an HC. Offense looked like hungover fringe practice squad scrubs. Same unwatchable bs. There is still hope for the O, but it’s going to have to come from guys in the locker room letting them know that this is not acceptable. If Bryce were interested in the role it would be obvious by now. Does anybody TRULY know what he did in the offseason to REALLY improve on his weaknesses? I’ve seen the ‘worked on some stuff’ articles, but the ‘I just needed to clear my head, bro’ vibe I’ve had is hard to shake. Where’s the ‘dayum, homie ain’t playing this season’ articles every fan deserved to see. Again, I 100% accept that I’m very likely being completely unfair and hope I’m embarrassingly and utterly wrong about this O, but Thursday felt like finally meeting the person you met online…. where your rightful skepticism was again confirmed…. And you went home to your Bangkok Pro machine.

How many of the perinatal contenders would you say are all about the positive energy? Bueller? Bueller? Hint: none. They all have that edge. Like your best friend’s dad growing up. Overall decent guy, but get out of line let him feel like you disrespected him. You think he laughing? I’m done with super positive. Shi*, if anything this team is WAY TOO DAMN POSITIVE. It at the core of what makes F-ing up ok. IT’S NOT OK. This is the C- after a make up test mentality. Accountability? What accountability? We need more, ‘naw, f that. We f-in suck. Bro right there is going to need a bible and a therapist when this game’s over’ type of peeps. A fail this exam and you’re kicked out of school mentality. I almost can’t wait for the 4th and 14, three and outs, just so I can watch some dudes who care. Wasn’t nobody laughing in 2003 or 2015. Drop some wide open passes in ANY game and TRY and go yuck it up with Jake, Agent, Fox, Cam, Greg or Rivera. Miss some easy assignments on d that cost your team 7 at a big juncture… and you see 58 and 59 walking your way as you sit on the bench laughing about it. I almost want to pi$$ myself just thinking about it, and I’m 400 miles from Charlotte. Your a$$ would be in surgery that night, and they may have to fly you out somewhere for one of the 3 people in the country that do that particular surgery. Where is that now? Those teams got along and all was cool, but there was an edge. They celebrated true accomplishments, but rarely was anything funny. Maybe how they would straight clown someone on a particular play, but that was about it. Overreacting? Prossibly, but I don’t think so. We’ve heard attitude and dawg all offseason. Talent is not a prerequisite for dawg. None needed. So where was it? Who was in charge of that s show? This was supposed to be the showing of the ‘new attitude’ Panthers offense. El Oh El. Defense somehow got the memo. Who made laughing at dropping a perfect ball over the middle, wide open that hit you in the chest, ok? We missed 2 big first downs on the drive that could have built some sort of momentum. “Sorry 89, it’s wet and the ball slipped out.” You better not even look at him the rest of the game… probably week… unless you catch at least 2 make up balls after that, but he’d probably still bring it up 3 weeks later if you did it again. These young pups need a trainer with a shock collar and a fetch dummy that looks like Matt Ryan, not a groomer with some oatmeal suds, loofa and a blow dryer.

Pete, Belicheck and Reid are proven winners. Canales hasn’t proven a damn thing. He could be the next Pete, who knows. The words of the aforementioned 3 carry much more power than Canales at this point in time. Young coach on a young team may not be such a good combination. Perhaps discipline and direction needed to have come before detail. If the D does what I think it can do this season, Evero is as good as gone. I think he wanted 1 more year as DC here before signing up to be a head coach somewhere. This is his figurative contract year. I’m sure he wants out. And he’s going to be good. Did y’all see the focus and energy our second, third and fourth string d players played with? If Evero can get his 3rd and 4th stringers to look like that… then where Canales at? Evero doesn’t strike me as the ‘it’s ok, it’ll be better next time’ type of guy. Results. Top 10 D this year? That’s a big reach, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see it. They’re still going to give up a lot of big plays and will take their share of grandma whoppins (don’t get grandma so mad that she has to put hands on you), but at least they won’t be laughing about it.

I’ve paid for NFL Sunday ticket for 14 straight years. I just don’t know this year. Probably will again. That whole self loathing thing. I swear this team has a winning allergy. Maybe I’ll just invent a machine that kicks you in the nuts 18 times instead. Call it the Bangkok. Sell it for $349. It’ll let you select individual players which will in turn determine how bad things are about to go for you. If you turn it to the owner setting, a combat boot filled with concrete will be your fate, but that feature is only available on the Bangkok Pro version. it plays concert music from different popular artists. It also lets you plug in dates for monumental demoralizing franchise losses. Mike Vick levitating. Julio going off for 300 (that was a great one to see in person). PJ to Dj on the Moore Miracle catch (that place got quiet as a church).

It had virgin on prom night vibes 100%. Long read. Getting back to this and what you said earlier… the laughing. The ** laughing (I’ve really tried to stop swearing). These losers haven’t earned the right to laugh. Fire? Dawgs? It comes from the top. Think Tomlin’s players would laugh in similar circumstances? Belicheck? Harbaugh? ….. Wilks? So far, no Dawgs, Dan. I want so badly to be wrong, and I really do like Canales, but this team is not ready for a rah rah, we’ll get em with some gumption and try harder, next time guys. This team needs discipline and accountability. We need a “messing up is not ok because there is no next time.” Problem is, that kind of leadership is not the yes man type. Yes, we’re lacking talent, but this team’s bigger issue is attitude. Is Canales a good dawg trainer, or a just a groomer? Does he have the sack to get in a grown ass man’s face and tell him what’s up when he’s screwing up or half assing? We’re the 1998 Honda Accord that’s been parked on under a crape myrtle for 10 years. We need some cutting compound on a 6” orbital buffer with a wool pad. Canales, I fear, is polishing compound. Needed, eventually, but just not right now. To me, it wasn’t about the results, really. It was how it looked. Defense had heart last night. They stopped the run, mostly, and broke up a lot of passing attempts. Form tackles. They swarmed. Runs didn’t go for 8 more yards after initial contact. Rushers were getting there, almost. But I do see that actually improving with more time. This is an overall attitude that creates turnovers. They moved with purpose. Inside screens continue to haunt us to this day, but that’s just Panther tradition dating back to the Brees era. The gulf between offense and defense is immense. The offense looked completely lost, like they’ve never practiced a single play and pretty much unwatchable. Just like last year. All I wanted to see was a set your feet laser over the middle 25 yd attempt. Just an attempt. A try. Nope. I miss it so damn bad. It was dink Bryce ball, only worse. Yup, just keep on laughing. Flame away and tell me where I’m wrong.

Yeah, we had a guy like that. Amazing what happens when a group of men rally behind a strong leader that they respect. I’m actually flabbergasted that we still have Evero, honestly. His competency and confidence stick out like a sore thumb around here.

100%. They look like they’ve been practicing ‘Bryce Safe’ type plays all camp. Seeing this funeral makes the attitude turnaround that Wilks enacted, overnight, even more miraculous. Yes, it’s the first preseason game, but aside from the defense, the team doesn’t even look like they’ve practiced. I’m just tired of excuses to cover up for the false promises given every year. years worth of this now. for a brief time, there was a no excuses grown ass man who was thrown in as a place holder coach… and then EVERYTHING changed. Tepp would have never been able to tell Steve what to do, so Steve had to go.

Defense looks like they actually have a coach. Rest of the team, not so much. The entire offense looks completely dead and lifeless.

People say no QB would have had success with our line last year, and the murmuring is already ramping up. Excuses. A QB that can make throws that are just plain unfair to a defense all of a sudden makes a line look 10x better. It inspires confidence in the whole team, and a lack there of on the opponent. The inverse holds true as well. How hard are these dudes going to play if they know QB just does not have the tools to needed to win? Why get your brains beat in if you’ve got a full bank account and KNOW your guy is not even close to being an NFL qb? BY ain’t it, sadly, and everyone knows it. I’m very interested to at least see what things look like with an NFL capable arm tonight. I’m expecting to lose, but hopefully not be completely demoralized.

That this move was even allowed to happen by Tepp is very telling. This is not trivial. Seeing Bryce play is literally the only thing pretty much everyone wants to see this Thursday, but they’re hiding him. I don’t think Canales would have agreed to come here, knowing that his future rested in the hands of BY. No coach would. Did Tepp promise Canales that he would be allowed to do with Bryce as he wished? He saw how Tepp did Frank. I wonder if he’s got that junk in writing on his contract. A GM/head coach/owner doesn’t empty the cash register like they did to get offensive talent, offensive head coach, only to sit the starting QB on game one. Where are the ‘Bryce has grown by leaps and bounds’ articles we’re supposed to be seeing? Montages of him throwing darts in practice. Getting in peoples faces. where his hard work in the offseason is paying off? After last season and what was given up for him, we are owed this. Canales is seeing what he has in the other dudes while playing with the 1s.

After seeing how BY goes down with just a jersey tug, he is going to have the whole defense gunning for him on every play all season long. Seriously, the formula is pretty simple. Bring the house. Every play. Overload the middle and get to him that way. If he manages to roll out, key in on the dump off since he hasn’t yet shown the arm to hit anything reliably on the sidelines. Throws to the middle are pick sixes. He’s shown 0 elusiveness so he’s easy pickings for safeties, cb, lb, de.. pretty much everyone. Perhaps this is Canales acknowledging that fact, knowing that a fringe starter for another team sure would love to finish the game tallying 2 sacks and a few qb pressures. Preseason is very valuable. This team is a complete dumpster fire laughing stock, most loser ass organization in all of professional sports. This season, hopefully, is where grown men show that they have pride and that things are now, somehow, different. I’m not saying go out there and get a concussion, but if you’re getting your doors blown off and yucking it up on the sideline, laughing, smiling… that’s loser s***. 89, 88, 1, 59, 58… if they were on this team, would they just be having a good old time on the sidelines seeing their team get their brains beaten in, preseason or not? I think Canales already knows that Bryce won’t be starting come week 4 and wants the other QBs to get live action with the 1s.

I’m going to go long. Don’t like it, then don’t read. If Bryce doesn’t quickly convince his teammates that they can win with him under center… these are grown men playing for a check, love of winning, legacy or all of the above; their window of time to do so is very limited. Say you’re a WR in a contract year and all you foresee are ducks and hospital balls in your future vs a veteran on the bench who at least gives you a chance to showcase your skills. what if you’re a RB trying desperately to land a 2 yr deal somewhere? but because your QB is so limited, you know every play you’re about to get the piss beat out of you, and no team will come calling at the end of the season. It all trickles down to other positions. If on defense, why play like a wild man if bro has already thrown 4 picks in the first 2 games? Down 10 at half? Guaranteed L. Up 3? L. Up 7/10? Probably lose by a 48 yard fg at the end, but may be able to pull it out if the running game comes up clutch, and Brown can wreck shop. This is these dudes bank accounts… a very short timespan at which they have to set themselves up for the rest of their, and their families’ lives. They don’t give damn about draft, they want to win. They need to win. Now. Not next season. They might not have a next season. Any married man knows about marriage politics. Player comes home after a game. He’s beat up. Tired. Pissed. Probably needs some quiet time to unwind. Nope. Not happening. Promise you it’s not ‘You’ll get em next time, hun.’ Naw bruh, it’s more like ‘they better hurry up and pull that mf’er.’ Now homie’s got to hear about it at home…. With a high probability of the same thing next Sunday. Make your wife nervous when it comes to household finances and see how good it goes. Does anyone really think the ‘we’re getting there guys’ powwow will work if he pitches 3 WTF games out the gate? Tepper has proven 1 thing. No coach’s job is safe. That locker room is going to get real uncomfortable and hostile. Andy is in his sunset years, and I am not, definitely not, saying that with him we become winners, but he can at least make NFL throws and knows HOW to win a game in the NFL… and everyone on the team knows that. Hell, they may get cheeky and even go .500. A vet QB loaded up with talent and a beefed up o line? Stranger things have happened. 2024 Bryce better show something quickly to these dudes. There are a LOT of jobs riding on it. If Tepper and co have resigned themselves to cut bait, he ain’t got a leash. He’s getting held on to by the collar.

It’s not how many, it’s how it looks. if we’re losing, but I see some fire, passion, urgency, growth and he’s at least making NFL throws, I’ll give him at least 8 games. If he looks like he doesn’t want to be there, No fire, no drive and his teammates still look like they don’t respect him? 3 games, max. It’ll be a ‘Bryce just needs some more time to develop’ type move. We need to at least get a fan base back again, draft be dammed. For us pick 4 vs 12 may not really matter all that much. I’ll sacrifice 8 draft spots to see watchable football again. Draft capital hasn’t done us much good up to this point anyway. We need winning. If a turd is a turd, flush it down. No one will come if the 2023 Bryce is under center. As hard as it is to come to grips with, we can at least win with Andy. Maybe even go .500. 2023 Bryce gives us no hope.