panthers55

Best case scenario is 10-7. Worse case is 7-10. The factors to me are injury and health. If we stay relatively healthy, Darnold doesn't get hurt, the rookies like Horn don't hit the rookie wall and we don't cave late due to a tough schedule we should win 10 games. If we get hit hard with injuries and our young guys don't grow up fast we could end up on a losing streak like last year. Guys like CMC and Darnold are crucial to our success as their backups are big drop offs in talent. In other positions the next guy up will have to play inspired. We will need some winning this year to convince players the process is good and Rhule knows what he is talking about.

I think we get 200 yards of YAC as our skill guys shine. CMC shows he is back and Darnold is a good game manager. The defense is actually legit and we bring pressure for once. It is a good day to watch football in the 80s and sunny.

Darnold will be a captain based on player feedback about Sam that I have read. But he will still be the qb and main guy on the offense whether he is a captain or not. So it makes no difference.

There you go. It won't take much improvement to realistically be an 8 or 9 win team.

He hasn't played a regular season down here. If he screws up it won't be long before he is replaced. Given all the churn on this roster it is clear Rhule won't keep a guy starting if he has a better option and will move on from anyone like he did with Teddy after 1 year

You know the rookie will screw up but you don't know the vet will. In fact you expect him not to screw up. That is why he is starting. Seems to me there is no reason rushing someone to.play when you can ease him into the lineup. Brown for example is a road grader but not great in pass blocking. So give him some play when we are trying to ground and pound but don't put him in in a 2 minute drill where you are passing every down. You can use him situationally while he improves on practice until he is a complete player. Then he can become the starter.

If we had split our 1 score losses last year we were an 8 win team. Darnold should be better than Teddy in the 4th and in the redzone. I think we could do well enough early to contend and be a tough out for anyone.

I like playing rookies to spell the vets unless they are the best guy for the job like Horn. Then play them and live with the results. Even great rookies struggle more than vets until the game slows down. Usually around week 8 or so. Few guys drafted after the first couple of rounds can come in and start right away. If tons of rookies are starting your talent level is usually suspect.

Not by his comments. He didn't want to take a sack and put us out of field goal range so he threw the ball at the ground close to his player. Now he should have taken the sack and not try to dump off the ball but he did have logic in his reasoning which is just the opposite of pure panic. Rhule set him straight for sure but he didn't panic to me. Hurried and unsure at times but moved well in the pocket against a constant blitz. I thought he held up fairly well.

Actually the opposite could happen. He could be on our practice squad, learn our playbook and be picked up by one of our opponents. Just sayin....

If you remember we turned over the roster once again after 2014 so there wasn't as much carryover as you suggest. And when KB went down and we were supposed to have the worse wide receivers in the league everyone was predicting disaster. So while the reason to not get excited about 2021 is Darnold who is still unproven, the talent level in 2021 is better than 2015 with the exception of Kueckly. Even Cam did not have a good season in 2014. And no one counted the losing season where we were the best of the worse as a division title victory in 2014 as indicative of potential. Great revisionist history there.

True. I don't remember everyone thinking we were going to the Superbowl in the preseason in 2015.

Yeah and he coached the Jets. Poor coach at that point and poor team. I was thinking of him and Belicheck when I said this.

The success of the coach often hinges on how successful the organization is from top to bottom. In that case Rhule has the advantage.

The goal of the joint practices is different than a preseason game. You script certain lineups and combinations to see how they play or how they handle a particular situation. It isn't about play calling or trying to win. You can do so many things and then come back the next day after watching film and correct technique and change personnel.

It is easier to tell. If they aren't vaccinated they should be wearing masks inside the buildings and on the sidelines if they are not playing.

Actually now that it is FDA approved you won't win a case saying the NFL harmed you. Plus you don't have to play in the league if you don't want to be vaccinated. It is still your choice if you want to play. Many employers are now requiring vaccines. With that being said you can be sued by anybody for any reason so I am sure there might be some cases.

Darnold could play like Alex Smith and with this offensive talent win consistently. Right now I want Darnold to be smart and conservative and take what the defense is giving him. He needs to take care of the ball and let his players do the work while we improve the talent on this team. But down the road when he has mastered the system and is comfortable with his line I want him throwing downfield and using that strong arm to keep safeties deep and make teams pay for blitzing us. If that can happen sooner then great. But I expect Darnold to be the best version of himself which could potentially be better than Smith if he can get his mojo here.

If they were freaking out then that would speak to what they don't know about football. Every qb gets gifts at times when they get the call or get lucky when a defender drops the easy INT. The question is how the QB responds to the gift. Does he become tentative or keep playing his game. I thought Darnold kept his composure and came back with good throws. The mark of resilience which I appreciated. I think he knows he made some mistakes but knows that he has a team around him now so he doesn't have to be perfect.

I think that a few vets could be cut like Bonnafon, Trent Scott, Zylstra, and Reggie Smith. Depends on how many we carry at each position. I think the 4, 5, and 6 receivers could help themselves if they can field punts or kickoffs. Same with a third string running back. You better bring something in the return game. Of course this year making the 53 won't guarantee a spot until after the season is well underway.

Pittsburgh brought the blitz all day and at times like in that series we picked it up. If Darnold will use his checkdowns and CMC is one hell of a checkdown, I think he can do well against pressure. He slides well in the pocket and should improve his audibles as he gets more experience with the system.

Hopefully everyone has learned their lessons from Katrina and people will evacuate this time and the authorities seem to have started the evacuation earlier this time. The Katrina disaster could have been greatly reduced the first time. Hopefully they apply what they learned from that this time.

I think you are wrong. When Darnold was in New York they had a system and Darnold ran it with little input. From what Joe Brsdy said, this system was built around what Darnold does best. Sam has great weapons and he isn't being asked to do anything but distribute the ball and let the players do the work. Darnold never lost the fire or the desire to compete. Now he has the team around him to do that.

Yeah that is why I said a stronger and more mobile version. Teddy understood the offense and how to use players to exploit the defense. He just was too adverse to throwing downfield and didn't have a strong arm neither of which is a problem for Darnold. What Darnold needs is to understand the system and stay calm under pressure which are both things that Teddy did very well. Teddy could have been the answer if he had Darnolds athleticism. Darnold will be the answer if he can have Teddy's calmness and mastery of the offensive scheme.

I knew Darnold had a live arm but not that he was so accurate. If he can master the offense he becomes a stronger more mobile Teddy which is exactly what we always wanted from him.