Gapanthersfan

It should be a pleasure, hopefully, God hopefully, to see Evero’s men again well prepared. 

I don’t care who it is starting on the offense, it better look like a group of men who have had at least 1 practice together. 

Can someone please work some photoshop magic parodying the ‘dawg’ that we’re currently living?

Literally EVERYONE in that stadium really, really wants to see Bryce play. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did want to play but is not being allowed, to his defense. 

All that can suit up, should be playing at least some. All games mean at least something. They’re trying to change the culture? Dawgs? What if things still aren’t good come week one? We starting backups then as well? 

Are there any other teams in the league sitting this many starters? Possibly are, but IMHO, they’re trying to hide a bad look with one that’s even worse. 

I sincerely hope to see as many starters as a can tonight. Bryce is still my main interest. It’ll be defense next. 2 picks, 2 sacks, 3 pd tonight.

Mark it, dude. 

Marketing promotion to get fans back to the stadium. 

I still have big respect for Darnold. Say what you will about his head, but bro had heart. I remember him getting the piss knocked out of him several times. His physical ability still is few and far between in the league. He needed/needs a QB whisperer. 

He’s the quintessential system guy who plays off of confidence. Give him a top 10 TE who is always open over the middle and D can* make that throw from anywhere behind the LOS.

Hes a tough sob who I think the team respected. I wish him well. 

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. 

22 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

The drops didn't help much either.  I do wonder if the early drops impacted his confidence a little.  But his pocket presence was terrible.  

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. 

27 minutes ago, Ricky Prickles said:

Nah man I was just goofing. You don't have to explain yourself!

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

1 hour ago, strato said:

Thanks for clarifying and I felt that but there was plenty of that talk when the deed was done. I agree with all of it except the hard quota stuff (which you did not endorse, it just a general opinion).

 I think he deserved the consideration, 100%.  I also think I have to submit to the people making the argument about how could you let Mike Evans burn us three times for what was likely a division title.

I could not, in good faith, excuse that. That was a tough one because I think we needed leadership of the type he provided, and I do not personally elevate people to head coach consideration based primarily on x and o stuff. (which, it seems like everyone else is doing that).

All I knew was they gave him little in the secondary pretty much annually and he produced with it. He produced with the whole team once he was given it. 

Look at the W-L records of the people that preceded him under Tepper. Who among them won 6 in a full year or otherwise? Not a single person. 

And what did they do without him? Lol. 

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. 

2 hours ago, Ricky Prickles said:

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. 

2 hours ago, Martin said:

He comes from Seattle/Carroll and they were all about positivity while being extremely successful. Not saying it will work, but also not dismissing the style. The thinking that a HC has to be an asshole is, in my mind, a thing of the past. As an example, Reid and Harbaugh are extremely well liked by their teams, they are positive and good guys who knows when to put their foot down and have built a great culture.

Dismissing Canales after one pre season game where he was happy that our defense looked good (I thought it looked good as well) and didn’t chew out offensive practice squad players and backups is a stretch in my mind. But as I usually say, it’s ok to disagree on these things. 

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). 

4 hours ago, MHS831 said:

The thing that bothered me about Plummer--I saw no leadership, no fire, no sense of urgency.  It was like watching a Greatful Deadhead walk home from a party. And he made stupid decisions under pressure--any qb knows "get rid of the ball" when under pressure.  Flipping the ball to Smith Marsette on the sweep from 2 feet away was dumb.  He was slow getting to the handoff spot--you keep the ball and follow the runner and get what you can.  He is going to be cut very soon.

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. 

2 hours ago, Ricky Prickles said:

Is it me or does Evero seem like he can take anyone and make them play decently on defense? This guy to me really looks like he would make a hell of a head coach

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. 

4 minutes ago, *FreeFua* said:

So same as last year?

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.