rayzor

I think we're more likely to get in the playoffs this year than see this thing completed.

You choose to find things to be hopeful for because you're tired of being pissed and feeling disappointed. There's plenty of time to be disappointed in the team if we suck again. No use in spending all year like that. It's not easy finding things to feel hopeful for and it's even harder deciding or letting yourself feel hopeful for anything. I'm just saying there was ever a time to feel hopeful about the team rather than feeling dread about another poo year, it's now and you better grab it while you can because when the season starts that window might close. It's a new year....a new GM....a new head coach. And hopefully a new outcome. Like I said before, it's not for everyone and I don't blame anyone for already mailing it in. It's not like we've exactly had a track record that would give you much room for confidence. That's just the easy way, though. Being a panthers fan has never been easy, even in the good years. It's always been an ulcer waiting to explode. But we choose to do it every year. Why? Because we hope that maybe this year we will be closer to getting that ring. We hope that maybe this year will be better. Is it realistic? Probably not, but why not choose to find a reason to feel good about the team? Bring pissed of or mailing it in at this point in the season for any reason just isn't fun and if it isn't fun any more, the why the hell bother with it?

i mean over what we've had to deal with the past few years? oh yeah for sure. but what if the team didn't have to be carried on cam's back? what if it was built right and we had a coaching staff whose plan wasn't "let's run cam until his wheels fall off". could we have won the superbowl (or stood a better chance against that PoS referee crew) if the team was built and run better? could we have even had back to back winning seasons? you aren't always going to be able to have or depend on a superman. build the team right and run it right. that should be the #1 thing. then if you get a stud or two on the team, you'll be almost impossible to stop. teams that are put together well can get it done and be consistently competitive without a superstar QB. should we have gotten one for what we paid for? yes. did we get one? trending towards hell na. but we've got who we've got for a couple years. my hope is 1st that we get the team built right and run right so that the whole shebang doesn't rely completely on the QB being a superstar. 2nd that we can get bryce to be the guy he was drafted to be...or at least close. if bryce doesn't work out, then we get a replacement. if/when that happens then we've at least got a team put together better than the crap we've had since tepper bought it.

honestly after the first year, it doesn't matter where a guy was drafted. they'll either do good or they won't. and they (QBs), if everything works out they are just one part and they shouldn't have to carry the team on their shoulders. Cam did and where did that get us?

not yet.

i'm going to give it a half a season. good or bad, i think we'll have a real clue. for starters, it could take half a season to get everyone on the same page. it's one thing to get it worked out in TC and other practices. to get it worked out in games against live bullets is another entirely. bucs led by baker looked like any team led by baker for the first half a season, but then things started to click. maybe it takes that long? also, if they do look better initially, you have to question whether or not it's sustainable or if it's something that defenses had trouble figuring out for a few weeks but then someone figures it out for everyone else. remember we looked good with rhule for a few weeks a couple years but then completely fell apart. either way, i'm not going to buy anything until i see what's happening at the half way point.

or just get rid of chark. was he on a one year deal? upgrade him in the draft. we should be walking out of that draft with at least 2 good pass catchers that will be a huge upgrade from what we had to deal with last year. bar not set particularly high, but still...time for a WR upgrade. guys that can get open and actually catch the ball.

we're at ground zero with bryce. he's got tools that made him successful in the same areas that all others drafted before him were. he didn't do things the same way, but he found ways to make it work. the hope is that canales, idzik, and harriger (the QB coach) can work with bryce well enough to get us in a productive offense. he is what he is and we've got him for a while. if anyone can help him make that year two trend upward, i think it's canales.

i kind of don't think he needs to be a offensive guru. he just needs to find something that will work with who we've got. we all know that even with bryce not playing like we think he should have, he was in a poo situation with 2 coaches from 2 different schemes trying to create an offense that was dissimilar to anything they had run before and for most of the year having that patchwork offense with no cohesion called by a dinosaur who repeated half of the things he said thinking it made more of an impact. plus, who was coaching bryce? how many voices and ideas did he have thrown at him? plus, whatever "scheme" we ran wasn't something that made the OLs job easier. i think a lot of what happened with the downturn in the OL last year was due to a badly designed offense (and a poo ton of injuries). also the WRs were crap aside from thielen. i know that this looks like a laundry list of excuses, but it's a serious clusterf*ck of a situation for any QB, especially a rookie. it would mess with anyone. if we can get those other issues addressed and then have just one voice coaching up bryce (and ever young QB needs coaching up, regardless of where they were drafted), i think we could have something there. i don't expect a quick and dramatic turnaround that gets us in the playoffs, but i would expect bryce to play much better than he did last year with just the external things getting corrected.

i'm hoping that this is the kind of stuff they are going to pick out in the "self-scouting" phase and Canales' detailed and specific plan for BY. i REALLY hope that canales is what he was hyped up to be.

i feel ya. i'm just starting to get tired of dealing with what should have been. all that does is piss me off. now it's just on what we can do with what we've got. i'm hoping that the morgan/canales team can make chicken salad out of chicken poo.

Who are you talking about?

I don't blame you. Like I said, I'm tired of feeling like crap about the team so I'm going to choose to be ok with allowing a little hope to shine in. Tepper has made poo decisions for sure, but one thing that you can't deny is that he's willing to throw everything at the wall hoping to find success. Hopefully he threw the right poo at the wall and it sticks. So far what I hear from Canales and his plan so far and also the focus Morgan is showing...I don't know. If you're looking for something to hope in, I think you've got it right there. Might I be setting myself up for disappointment again? Probably. But I'm used to that roller coaster. I'm stuck on it and there's nothing I can do to change what the team is doing so my choice, as I see it, is to choose to be a bit hopeful or let myself feel like poo about the team. It's all just my way of dealing with being a panthers fan. It's probably not for everyone. Or most people. Just me.

Could be. I hope it's not. I do think I'm going to decide to not feel like crap about the team. Canales gives me a reason to feel hopeful.

He didn't really talk about that. If anything he's downplaying that talk. It's just an interview with a guy who seems to have a much better idea about what he's doing than the past 3 HCs we've had coming in.

I kind of remember that being the case as well. If it is, then I think he probably has a good idea of who BY is and what he's capable of more than me.

I was encouraged. I like his mentality. Make the football team better so the QB doesn't have to carry it. Hopefully he and Morgan can get this thing turned around.

We're pretty much stuck with him for a couple years. If you're tired of being a bottom feeder, you better hope Palmer is on to something. Btw...I guess there's something wrong with the face forward camera. I don't like what I saw in Bryce (aside from a few bright spots), but I really hope that Palmer is right and that better days are ahead. Would make it much easier if Bryce can become who he was drafted to be. Better than waiting another 2-3 years.

If we aren't filling those holes overnight, then why send $30mil/year on a WR? Just makes no sense.

one problem and giant ? for another. nah.

oh, we probably can afford to pick up one elite player. but then what? how much will we have left to fill holes elsewhere? do we just depend on the draft to fill out this team? you know we've only got 5 picks and no first rounder. we will have (after the increase) about $40 mil. how wise is it to spend 75% of our available cap on one player when we have so many holes to fill?

then we pass. just not worth it.

and the team would still suck. but at least we'd have a shiny player to get excited about.

the team isn't bad because it lacks elite players. this team is bad because it lacks even good players. we have to spend to get good players in here. once we've got a good base, then we can start talking about elite players. this year isn't about making us a playoff team. this year is about getting the team built the right way and i really don't think throwing everything we've got at one player is going to fix us. even olson said/warned about this... we aren't one player away, so don't fall into this trap that if we just get this one player then we'll be ok. we won't be. i know you probably like shiny expensive objects and have no problem buying them. but when you are working from a deficit, you've got to be a lot smarter with your money and some times that means not buying the shiny nice things so you get get more of the necessities you need to get by.

true, but if the others see that this works at all they are probably going to jump on this. we could see more than wendy's doing it.