trueblade

I will never understand. You have a 3rd and gotta have it as the Titans. On your team is AJ Brown, Julio Jones, and Derrick Henry. You target Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. Picked off, and you never see the ball again. At least give your game changing players a chance to make a game changing play.

Both Cincinnati and Carolina need OL. If you're an FA offensive lineman and you get offers from Cincinnati and Carolina, wouldn't you take the Cincinnati offer even if it's a little lower?

What a play!

Marrone is certainly familiar with working with inexperienced NFL owners from his time in Buffalo early in the Pegulas tenure.

The defense was average. You can see the case for that conclusion in this thread:

I'll always be a Panthers fan, but it might be a good time to find an AFC team to adopt as a "second" team.

I sincerely hope you are absolutely right about Horn, but can I caution the Huddle to slow down on the Horn evaluation. Many parts of the team looked much better the first three weeks than they turned out to be over the course of the season. Imagine, for a moment, that it is Darnold who gets knocked out for the year in Week 3 rather than Horn. Most of the Huddle would have a very different view of Sam right now if all we had seen was the same three weeks we are crowning Horn for.

Not going to panic until he's announced as the hire, but bringing him in for a second interview doesn't bode well.

Points allowed: 21st Rushing yards allowed: 18th Passing yards allowed: 4th Total yards allowed: 2nd Football Outsiders DVOA : 15th My take: The Panthers were an average NFL defense (DVOA). After a promising early start feasting on rookie QBs, opposing teams got big leads (21st in points allowed) and didn't need to throw the ball (4th against pass). They ran the ball to burn clock (18th against the run). The lack of explosive passing plays and short fields from the struggles of the Panther's offense led to the 2nd overall ranking in total yards allowed.

Points allowed: 21st Rushing yards allowed: 18th Passing yards allowed: 4th Total yards allowed: 2nd Football Outsiders DVOA : 15th

It's also in-game. I was listening to one of the other games last weekend and I think it was Brees as the color guy. He explained that the scripted first 15 were mostly called as reconnaissance. How does the defense respond to 11, and 12 personel? What does the defense do if we go empty? How does the defense answer a strong side trips formation? And on and on through the scripted opening fifteen plays. It's only after the play caller had those answers that they would layer in the rest of the offense based upon what they learned in the scripted first fifteen.

This is just wild speculation on my part. No one is reporting it or even saying it's a rumor. I have no "sources". I'm just spitballing. Speculation: Tepper hasn't spoken publicly because he has been waiting for Pittsburgh's season to end. He has an agreement with Kevin Colbert to come in and asses the entire football operations of Carolina after he retires from Pittsburgh. But Colbert did not want to leave/retire until Pittsburgh's season was over. That is why Tepper has made no public comments. He's waiting. I have to believe Colbert will see through Rhule's salesman talk and recommend the Panthers part ways with Rhule. Colbert might have just the guy to recommend as a replacement in the person of Mike Tomlin. Could Mike Tomlin be available? He has coached the Steelers for 14 seasons. That's quite a long run. With Big Ben's retirement, he's tasked with trying to find a new QB while facing two very good and young QBs in his division (Burrow and Lamar). Tomlin might see this as an opportune time to step away and give the Steelers a completely fresh start (GM, coach, and QB). Colbert could provide Tomlin a nice landing spot in the NFC with Carolina. People have been connecting the dots between Colbert, Tomlin and the Panthers since Tepper purchased the team. There is the small matter of Tepper supposedly begin part of minority owners who wanted Tomlin fired. Tepper could either deny that or state he's learned his position at that time was in error. Again, this is pure speculation and none of it is likely to come to pass but it would explain Tepper's silence since the end of the season.

I hate to break it to you but not only it's it not going anywhere, but it's likely there will be an 8th seed added at some point in the next five to ten years. The NFL owners will want another game to sell to the networks.

This game is about to get

That might be Touch-GAME.

This is part of why I roll my eyes when Rhule starts preaching defense and running game. At some point, you're going to run into a team you can't stop and you are going to need to be able to throw the ball at a high level.

Fireable offense.

You have Ceedee Lamb, Amari Cooper, Dalton Schultz, and Zeke and with your season on the line you throw it up to Cedric Wilson?

Inaccurate down the field, and outside the numbers.

It's been widely speculated. The thought is they would promote Kellen Moore to keep from losing him to a different HC job. Similar situation happened in Tampa some years ago.

Jimmy G does his best work in the middle part of the field. He struggles to threaten down the field, outside the numbers. Like a lot of QBs, he needs everything around him to be above average (OL, defense, running game, weapons). It's absolutely true you could do worse at QB than Jimmy G. San Francisco must have had a conviction that Lance was the kind of QB who can be a difference maker. Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong, but when you get a chance to draft a guy you think can eventually be in that upper echelon of QBs, you don't pass up the shot.

When discussing the Shanahan offense, columnist TMQ would often say, Denver's helmets should have a label that says "Insert running back, gain 1000 yards". I get the same feeling watching San Francisco.