The injury excuse on defense ....

[fortyrod]

4 hours ago, TheWiz said:

What kind of "audible calling" power does Luke have on the defense? I'm sure he can do whatever he wants but I just wanted to ask. 

I have a completely unfounded gut feeling that radically switching defensive schemes screwed up one of the best defensive advantages we have, which is Luke directing traffic to hose up the offensive play calls. Going to a new alignment has to force an adjustment period of some kind.

[Mr. Scot]

4 hours ago, TheWiz said:

What kind of "audible calling" power does Luke have on the defense? I'm sure he can do whatever he wants but I just wanted to ask. 

Blank check...

("carte blanche" if you wanna sound fancy)

[SOJA]

8 hours ago, JARROD said:

I like Bruce Irvin, McCoy and I like Poe too.

the middle really stopped working when Poe went away.

I'm 100% out on Poe, has underperformed for two years imo 

[Snake]

Especially when Burns has barely seen the field. At some point I hope our GM will find us 1st round picks that can contribute year one and a coach that can get effort out of the players. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Rebuild the DL. As much as I've screamed and begged for a legit FS for years, rebuild the DL. Going into this season, I was concerned about the age of our DTs. Poe is pushing 30, Short is 30, McCoy is over 30, Love is well over 30. Right now, Poe and Short are the only two DTs we have who are under contract and they're both on the wrong side of 30 and will be coming off of season ending injuries. YIKES.

Meanwhile, DE is arguably even worse off. Mario is set to be a free agent and he'll be 33 before next season starts. If we're talking 3-4, we have... well, I guess Short could be a 3-4 DE. Yeah, that's it. 

The DL situation sucks because the only two guys coming back we would honestly probably rather be able to get rid of. Short is an absolutely cap killer with his contract and Poe is significantly overpaid for his production as well. At least Poe's contract can be jettisoned fairly easily. Short's contract is a real motherfuger. Thanks Hurney for that classic patented "Hurney restructure" where we give an aging, declining player more guaranteed money to free up some cap space in the short-term. Hell, we didn't even do anything with that cap space.

[BurnHurnBurn]

Switch back to the 4-3 base, Luke and Shaq behind KK and re-sign one of the other DTs to keep Luke free, supplement the edge rush with Shaq blitzes and pray to whatever it is you think will help that Burns can find a fit.  Either beef up against the run or develop some coverage skills.  

As the MFCEO has so eloquently stated, "They have 5 healthy first rounders", that investment is going to have to be enough for the next DC to work with.  All attention from now until its fixed should be on the offensive line.  CMC is the offense now.  There would be no better use of cap and draft picks than a wall of angry hulks opening huge lanes and escorting Christian down the field.

#ChangeMyMind

[Jus Rob]

3-4 or 4-3 we don't have interior linemen to hold the point off attack. We need to evaluate whether our current personnel is better suited to 3-4 or 4-3 going forward. Personally I think 3-4 

[weyco2000]

Luke is so good at recognizing plays, teams are using it against him. They're pretty much doing the opposite of what's on film, he looks frustrated at hell at times.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, Jus Rob said:

3-4 or 4-3 we don't have interior linemen to hold the point off attack. We need to evaluate whether our current personnel is better suited to 3-4 or 4-3 going forward. Personally I think 3-4 

We have a lot of DL roster building to do either way. Also have to remember that McCoy, Butler, and Irvin are all set to be FAs.

I think Luke is our best defensive player and he's best suited in a 4-3. Short is our highest paid defender and he's best suited as a 4-3 three technique. 

[Ivan The Awesome]

23 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Panthers still have 5 healthy first rounders playing in their front 7 plus Mario Addison who is making good money.

Still ranked near last in the league in run defense.

 

Tear it all down. Rebuild the D starting with Luke as a true MLB. 

Not going to happen.  With hurney giving out contracts to Shaq it won't. He's average at best at milb. I can't wait for the new coach and gm to get here. Hurneys hands on this team spell doom. 

[MHS831]

The thing I hate the most about the leadership of this team.  We are arguing the same stuff we were arguing about in August. 

What did we learn?  What is the team's identity? Nope-just another year of throwing poo at the wall  to see what sticks.

You keep Luke as long as he can play.  He is a genius at LB.  If you bring in youth around him, what better way to learn the game? 

[pantherj]

You can't pay Luke $17,000,000 or whatever and play a 3-4. A 3-4 might work if we could find a Vince Wilfork type NT in the draft, but we have bigger fish to fry.