LinvilleGorge

We have to admit there's a problem first. Signing Kenny Pickett isn't a good sign that we're getting there. Evidently we're allergic to QBs with NFL arms.

Yeah, it's fool's gold. Darnold always had the tools. He just needed a tram with an elite D, a top 5 WR, and a Super Bowl MVP RB to carry him so he wouldn't be asked to press where he becomes a turnover machine. Darnold settled in once he was in a situation where he could just be a very talented game manager. People try to tell themselves Bryce can do that without realizing that Darnold still forces the D to respect the throws he can make that the coaches would rather he not attempt where as Bryce simply doesn't have the physical ability to force that respect opening up other opportunities. Like Parcells said leading up to the draft that based on his physical tool set "he better walk on water". What he was politely trying to say is that Bryce simply doesn't have an NFL physical tool set.

As long as the Panthers kept pretending that Bryce is a franchise QB I guess the media is just going to play along. If a major media market team had made that move Bryce and that team would be getting absolutely cooked but a small market team and a nice guy? They're just willing to keep playing along. Especially when they were all probably hyping Bryce coming put of Bama. Just a way for the entire football media apparatus to keep kicking the can on this gigantic miss that everybody should've seen coming.

As a UDFA? Sure. I'd give him a chance to come in and compete but I probably wouldn't spend a draft pick on him. Physical prerequisites exist for a reason. Bryce was supposed to be the "super processor" football savant who could overcome the lack of physical tools and we all see how that's going.

Listen, I don't want to green light this forum turning into a dumping ground for Go Fund Mes, but I just saw this posted in the Lounge. I rarely ever click on that subforum these days and I suspect that's the case for most visitors. This is a long-time Huddler and he could use some help. Just wanted to get some more eyes on it. We'll leave it here through the draft and then send it back to the Lounge.

Even if it's not 1st round, get ne a guy with legit FS type skills. Last year, Xavier Watts was the mid-round safety I was pounding the table for. This year, if it's not Thieneman in the 1st, give me Bud Clark in the mid-rounds. I'm surprised he hasn't climbed boards. He has good size and is an absolute ball hawk. The concern was athleticism but then he ran a 4.41 at the Combine with a 38" vertical. He's an athlete. I figured there would start to be some potential 2nd rounder whispers but nothing. Still tracking as a mid-rounder. Like Watts last year, I think this guy is being overlooked and undervalued and I don't know why.

If nothing else, I just hope there's some fire behind this smoke that the Panthers are finally serious about trying to bring a true FS type safety into the fold. For the majority of our franchise history we've essentially played with two strong safeties. Honestly, Deon Grant might be the only real true FS we've ever had.

If Jordyn Tyson is there at #19, I sure hope the phone is ringing because I'm trying to trade down.

I'd love it. Been begging for a legit FS forever. Lots of talk about Downs being the best true FS prospect in years... and lots of talk about the gap between Downs and Thieneman not being nearly as wide as most would've assumed.

Glad he's coming back but honestly surprised. I guess the new staff convinced him there was going to be PT for him. It was baffling how Hubert never played him. Its not like we were a top 10 type team looking like a contender and had it all figured out. We should've been giving him opportunities. There was no reason not to. Utter lack of bench development and hard headedly running his starters into the ground because he was afraid to go to his bench was an knowing issue with Hubert that he just wasn't growing out of with more HC experience. If you don't play them how are they supposed to develop? And his starters could do no wrong. Didn't matter what they did, they wouldn't get yanked and their playing time wouldn't decrease. But if a bench guy came in and made one mistake he was probably getting buried for three or four games. That's a recipe for your starters playing sloppy and your bench playing tight and scared. Saw it year after year.

Not sure it would necessarily take next year's 1st but it would absolutely take a helluva lot more than #51 + a 5th.

If you go back a decade, his 4.6apg this year would be 3rd amongst UNC players. Cadeau's sophomore season leads at 6.1, forward Theo Pinson is actually second at 5.1.

Yeah, he looks to me like a guy who was able to excel in HS simply because he usually had 4-5" on the guy trying to guard him. Kinda like watching Adam Morrison at Gonzaga. Like yeah, dude is hooping, helluva college player. But he can simply shoot over top of these college guys trying to guard him who are still on him like white on rice. He wasn't shaking defenders he was simply playing over top of them with size. How is that gonna translate to the NBA when the guys guarding him will be his size and way better athletes? Well, we found out.

I'm not crying over losing Mingo. After he committed I watched his highlights and just didn't get it. He looked like a top 50-75 type recruit to me, not a top 10 type guy. Yeah, he was making plays but HS defenders were still all over him right in his hip pocket. Usually top 10 recruits look like gods on a HS court. They look like a different species compared to everyone else. Mingo just looked like the best player on a HS court, nothing out of this world. It's the equivalent of watching a college WR and evaluating him as an NFL prospect. Like yeah, he's making plays, but he can't separate at the college level. Now project that to the NFL level where he's definitely not gonna be creating separation and is gonna have a bigger, stronger, smarter player draping him like a blanket. Is he still gonna be making plays then? TBD.

His trade value has to be practically nothing. Unless he's a lockerroom problem I'd rather bring him to camp and give him another chance to show something than trade him for a conditional late rounder or something like that.

Yeah, if we go offense in round one, it feels like it has to either be that Oregon TE or OL. Our TEs are probably the worst TE unit in the league and our OL is rapidly aging and highly paid. Three straight 1st round WRs is insane given all the other holes on this roster. Detroit got mocked for that for years and that was even with one of those WRs being Megatron. Three straight 1st round WRs plus the draft capital given up to trade up for Bryce would mean we have just an insane amount of draft capital tied up in a QB and WRs.

Eh, fug it. I'm sold. LOL

The team that's been "kicking our ass for years" is in a longer title drought than us and has just become the new one year stop off for guys heading to the NBA as soon as they're eligible. They can have that crown. Our last championship team was light on NBA talent but heavy on very good experienced college talent. Give me that. I'll let the dookies brag about elite NBA talent stopping over for a coffee in Durham and not getting to the big game.

If we tool a WR in the 2nd I think it would have to be the by far and away BPA and a guy we were utterly shocked to see still on the board to the point of the front office frantically making calls to friends around the league to try to find out why. Bernard isn't that. Honestly, I think he'd be a reach in the 2nd and I definitely don't want to see us reach on a WR in the 2nd. When you look at our needs and then look at this draft class and draft projections, 2nd round LB is looking like a likely match made in heaven.

It's an ongoing theme. If you point out that he's being an idiot with terrible takes he just blocks you. The guy is probably seeing very few posters' comments at this point. I honestly didn't pay any attention to who I was actually responding to. Now it makes sense. LOL

I wouldn't mind it. Everyone talks about TE not being a need and that Canales doesn't utilize TEs in the passing game, meanwhile we have one of the worst TE units in the NFL and we'd be dumb to heavily utilize them in the passing game. If Canales wants to use the TE position as a core part of the passing game then it's quietly actually a huge need. Every TE on pur roster is a guy who should be competing for a backup spot at most and honestly probably just simply fighting to hang onto a roster spot and a paycheck.

Not getting the "not understanding impactful players part. An afterthought of a 2nd round pick won three MVPs under him.

I wish we could've gotten Marcus Paige to hang around but when you know turnover is coming and you have a job offer you kinda can't afford to say no so I get it. May has NBA money in the bank to lean on.

Not a chance. We'd be all in on a guy trying to come back from back to back ACLs both returning to form ("form" that's not yet proven at the NFL level) and staying healthy for the first time in years. Bruce is barely serviceable with a dominant running game to lean in. It'd be ugly if... wait a minute... I just convinced myself we need to trade Chuba. LOL

Wouldn't mind as a UDFA