Panthers *ARE NOT* tanking

[Khyber53]

21 minutes ago, CRA said:

I don't see how we lose Luke and Bradberry....yet are improved on D. 

 

I'm with you there. I also didn't think we'd have any offense at all in 2015 when Kelvin Benjamin blew out his knee and our big get on the offensive line was Blindside himself. 

Somehow it happened, though. Sure would be great to be surprised like that again.

[Jeremy Igo]

On 3/25/2020 at 9:29 AM, Sean Payton's Vicodin said:

Jeremy they picked the black Alex Smith over a former MVP who looked like a pro bowler just 1.5 years ago before he got hurt. 

The NFL not wanting to trade a 4th rounder for him after seeing his charts should clue you in on something. 

[ECUPantherFan]

Weatherly has a lot of potential.  Whitehead is a stud.  Kerr adds value and is underrated.  

[Harbingers]

9 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

I'm with you there. I also didn't think we'd have any offense at all in 2015 when Kelvin Benjamin blew out his knee and our big get on the offensive line was Blindside himself. 

Somehow it happened, though. Sure would be great to be surprised like that again.

I don’t mean to make light of his injury but KB going out was probably the best thing that could have happened in terms of cam improving. We still had plenty of offense around cam. 
 

The difference is we don’t have any defense right now to speak of and if we are going entirely from the draft on defense with college coaches learning the ropes themselves I don’t expect much from this defense at all this year. 

[Khyber53]

6 minutes ago, Harbingers said:

I don’t mean to make light of his injury but KB going out was probably the best thing that could have happened in terms of cam improving. We still had plenty of offense around cam. 
 

The difference is we don’t have any defense right now to speak of and if we are going entirely from the draft on defense with college coaches learning the ropes themselves I don’t expect much from this defense at all this year. 

Oh, I've got ya man. I do agree that it was a blessing in disguise. We (at least the fans) didn't know what we had on offense until they fired it up and let it loose on the league at the start of the season. The loss of Kelvin opened everything up and somehow everyone rose to the occasion.

Our defense, I'll be honest with you... the loss of Luke is quite possibly the most crippling loss of a player this team has ever taken; Cam, Smitty and Pep included. I don't know what we'll do without him. I really like Shaq and I think he's going to be marvelous, but Luke had legendary skills and knowledge of the game -- a once in a lifetime kind of player. The other losses on defense, in my opinion, are all pretty much replaceable. Bradberry was probably the best but he, in the end, was just a solid cover corner -- not a shut down guy, but a good and dependable guy you could count on to cover his man. Hopefully someone else can step up to that or we draft someone that can do it.

That D-line, though, had a bunch of guys who weren't even trying and a couple of younger players still learning how to survive in this league. We kept the young ones and let the rest go (except KK and well, I'd personally trade him if there was a third rounder or better offered). 

Will our defense just get run over this season? Maybe, but it won't be any worse than it was last year. They really set the mark that low. Heck, if we just line up 11 guys who aren't afraid to tackle, we should be a bit better at least.

[Ivan The Awesome]

1 hour ago, Harbingers said:

Rhules has a combined 3-21 first season with a team record. 8-8 would be closer to his year two record. And this is the NFL not B league college. 

lol i never claimed he didn't do bad his first years. I said i would be thrilled if he went 8-8, didn't say they would. I'm fully expecting them to compete. Win however, that's another story. 

[Call Me James]

1 minute ago, Ivan The Awesome said:

lol i never claimed he didn't do bad his first years. I said i would be thrilled if he went 8-8, didn't say they would. I'm fully expecting them to compete. Win however, that's another story. 

Why would you be thrilled at going 8-8?

[Ivan The Awesome]

Just now, Call Me James said:

Why would you be thrilled at going 8-8?

For starters, the expectations of this team are rather low. Second there are way too many holes to say this team would get to 8-8. IF they did, that would be my reaction because something would have happened that they figured out most of those holes to get to .500 with the roster they produced this off season. Means that the next year should be better with the pieces they have found to get to 8-8. 

[Call Me James]

1 minute ago, Ivan The Awesome said:

For starters, the expectations of this team are rather low. Second there are way too many holes to say this team would get to 8-8. IF they did, that would be my reaction because something would have happened that they figured out most of those holes to get to .500 with the roster they produced this off season. Means that the next year should be better with the pieces they have found to get to 8-8. 

I get what you're saying, but it just seems more like the same carousel we've been on. Since 2013 we've been:

12-4.

7-8

15-1

6-10

11-5

7-9

5-11

 

[stbugs]

18 hours ago, Xtreme said:

TBF, that's what I expect them to say, but I do believe secretly, they plan to tank for Lawrence. They can't publicly say "we're going to intentionally lose to draft Clemson's QB." That won't put butts in the seats. PR move. 

Problem is that if you setup the team as a PR move, you could miss out. I don’t understand why they would get rid of all the comp picks and sign a bridge QB. I honestly don’t know what we are doing but it doesn’t seem like we are trying for a 2021 QB. I wanted to go that route but we’re wasting cap we were trying to save. If you want to build up cap, spending $30M+ on bridges with short contracts is not the way. Also, why not get rid of Short and save $13M?

I really hope we aren’t trying to walk the line of going for a franchise QB while appeasing fans thinking people won’t show up if we try to get comp picks and build up cap space. As @joemac posted, if you don’t get pick #1 or #2, it’s very possible there’s no amount of picks that will love you up. It’s been a while since there have been QBs with this much hype.

[gorillamilitia13]

Hahaahaha, with this defense we’re tanking whether we want to or not

[WOW!!]

5 hours ago, Malt Liquor said:

We will be better than what we was last year. Which is not saying much but I think we will be a very competitive team. I'm thinking 7-9.

Yeah I disagree with that..

[WOW!!]

2 hours ago, stbugs said:

Problem is that if you setup the team as a PR move, you could miss out. I don’t understand why they would get rid of all the comp picks and sign a bridge QB. I honestly don’t know what we are doing but it doesn’t seem like we are trying for a 2021 QB. I wanted to go that route but we’re wasting cap we were trying to save. If you want to build up cap, spending $30M+ on bridges with short contracts is not the way. Also, why not get rid of Short and save $13M?

I really hope we aren’t trying to walk the line of going for a franchise QB while appeasing fans thinking people won’t show up if we try to get comp picks and build up cap space. As @joemac posted, if you don’t get pick #1 or #2, it’s very possible there’s no amount of picks that will love you up. It’s been a while since there have been QBs with this much hype.

They are doing both.. Giving TB a chance to prove himself while having a bottom 10 team roster.. Unless the offense plays out of its mind .. You're going to be in position to get a top QB next year in the better QB draft..

[WOW!!]

3 hours ago, CRA said:

Yeah, but the Luke of late is still better than almost any ILB in the game. 

Unless we are going to a man to man scheme....Bradberry is also a huge loss.  And I didn't advocate paying him but it can't be denied that he excelled vs the NFCS beasts.   So I think it is safe bet we struggle more defending Julio, Thomas, Evans, etc this year. 

Plus we will have new coaches and a new scheme.  College heavy staff. Even with great talent it generally takes awhile for new defenses to look good. 

I think we will score more points.  Have a better O.    But yeah, I think the D easily could be just as bad.  

How ppl don't understand this is crazy..  There is nobody you're bringing in now that is going to be a better leader then Luke next year.. Or a CB that is matching up with the NFCs passing games day 1..  We don't have the horses this year to compete at a avg. Level right now..