2020 will a a good year for us

[Mister]

We get to watch an offense led by Joe Brady with DJ Moore, CMC, and Robby Anderson as weapons chase games. That's two guys that had 1000 yards recieving last year and a guy who's been worth over 8 yards/target on around 100 targets in the motherfuging Jets offense for three straight years. If you add in a Curtis Samuel breakout season that's a top 5 yardage offense , Teddy will probably end up throwing the ball 40 times a game. And it will be glorious. 

one of the few things I am really excited about is Teddy Bridgewater throwing to Curtis Samuel. 

Last year Curtis Samuel finished 9th in the league in air yards, but only had 627 total receiving yards. Everybody else in the top-15 in air yards had over 1,000 yards receiving. He ranked first in the NFL in missed receiving yards (total yards on targets minus actual receiving yards) with 915. 

If Teddy is only a little more accurate than Kyle Allen and Joe Brady gets a bit more interesting with play-calling we could have a really entertaining offense.

Nothing to lose, everything to gain. Could be a fun season. Reminds me of the inaugural 1995 season except a much younger team. We don’t really know what to expect so let’s see what happens. 

I know that most fans are concerned about what our defense is going to look like. People are focusing more on what we lost (Luke, McCoy, Poe, Bradberry, and Reid). But in all honesty, I believe that Shaq has an opportunity to take everything he has learned from Luke and TD over the years and become that next great Panthers LB. I'm not too upset over losing McCoy and Poe because we are getting KK back and so excited for Derrick Brown. 

Stephen Weatherly is a guy that is really being overlooked as a key contributor to this front four. He blossomed in Minnesota getting to learn and develop from a really great D-line up there. And I believe the team is going to give him every opportunity to be that 4th starter on the line. Did we lose a lot of guys who produced sacks for us? Sure, no more Super Mario, but Weatherly is younger and every bit as capable of stepping into Addison's role and at least duplicating his effort there. That gives Gross-Matos the opportunity to rotate in like Burns did last year. 

Whitehead can duplicate the tackle production from Luke, BUT of course there is no duplicating the combo of Luke's preparation and football IQ. So hopefully Shaq is ready to be the defensive QB (losing Reid's football IQ hurts too) and Whitehead is ready to keep being Mr. Consistency (4 seasons in a row of 100+ tackles).

Let's be honest for a minute, we are going to suck at CB barring a minor miracle. At this point, losing Bradberry may be a bigger blow than losing Luke. IF Donte can rise from the ashes and build on that swagger he had early on, then we've got one competent starter day 1. Losing Reid's ability on the field won't be missed too much. I'm glad the team seems to be favoring bringing in safeties that are better at coverage than tackling (obviously you gotta be able to tackle, but DB's gotta be able to cover first and foremost). Reid is essentially a linebacker at this point.

 I wouldn't say our corps is inexperienced. Curtis is entering year 4 and DJ is entering year 3. These guys are the perfect storm of youth AND experience. Both dudes are oozing with talent. Robby Anderson is icing on the cake - 3 starting caliber WR's on the same team with the best pass-catching RB in the game? If Teddy can't excel with these guys, well then all the Teddy doubters will be proven right. My one true hope for our defense not sucking so much this year is that we are able to actually field an offense that can put points on the board, stay on the field, give the defense a break, not always play with a deficit (allowing other teams to rack up obscene rushing numbers/TDs).

[Ship]

I am really excited for the offense. I think it'll be very different than what we've been used to seeing and we really do have a lot of skill talent. I'm not afraid of our O-line. I think it will be solid, probably middle of the pack and I think that's fine. Would it be great to have a top 5 O-line? Yes. But we have a group who will allow us to compete every week. Again, the magic is going to be our skill guys.

Defense, it really is just the CB position that is a glaring problem. I think the D-line has the potential to be a top group and very nasty. Brown will dominate the middle and Short will be back to where he thrives-- less double teams and a lot of good talent around him. I'm excited to see where Burns is at. Assuming he's gained weight and has continued to practice technique, I think he has a special season. For Gross-Matos, my expectations are going to remain low. I think we see him being solid in run D with a couple of nice sacks. I could see him being a pressure guy who is just missing getting home. I do think he can grow into a big time DE though. I agree on Weatherly. He looks like our best gem FA signing--- grew up behind some major DE talent in Minn. and is ready to shine elsewhere. He sounds like a great person and I'm hoping we see him turn into a guy who earns starter level reps.

LB, I'm not so worried about. Luke was an all-time talent, but LB is not the position it once was. I think Shaq can man the defense and the leader for the team and I think we hold up. Whitehead, as long as he continues to contribute, I'm good there. We still played well without Luke when he was injured. He's good to have but the floor for production is high at this spot. I think the new run defense on the D-line helps this group a lot.

Safety, we have big potential here with Chinn. If Chinn is a Kam Chancellor type guy-- watch out. It won't matter what you think about the LB group, because if Chinn can succeed here, he will make the middle of the field a dangerous place to be. I like Boston being able to play the FS spot and bring momentum changing plays-- I think he thrives at that role. I admit I'm hanging a lot on Chinn, but I think he's a big key for the defense. Our other rookie and Burris could also be good in the mix on certain downs. My expectations are lower there, but the fun thing with a new staff and new players is anything can happen-- careers are going to be made here in the next 3 years.

CB-- I like Jackson if he can grow up some. I think he's just immature and isn't disciplined enough. He's like a Josh Norman. The talent is there, but we need him buckled in to realize it. I don't think he ever holds down a Julio or Evans, but I think he has great potential as a solid outside CB. A lot of pressure is going to be on Troy Pride. He's penciled in as the starter on Evans and Julio right now. I am very worried that he's not up to it yet and hope we don't ruin him. He'll need lots of support-- I can see him and the FS bracketing these WR1s all year. He's going to need training wheels. Hopefully if we don't break him he can turn into somebody. He seems to have a lot of tools to be a starter CB, but it's going to be delicate. I think we see a lot of Pride, Jackson, Boston, Chinn, and Burris in the backfield this season with just Shaq and Whitehead in the middle.

[LinvilleGorge]

All they can possibly do is exceed my expectations. I don't know if I've ever had lower expectations going into a season than this one. We have an all new staff practically devoid of NFL experience. We have Marty Hurney still building the roster. In the past, Rhule has always followed a three year building process where the first year is abysmal. We have a journeyman QB playing behind a patchwork OL. We lost the best player from every level of an already bad defense and we're going to be heavily relying on rookies on D.

There will be some fun moments and hopefully signs of good things to come, but I think the W-L record is gonna be ugly.

[Shocker]

I have a sneaky feeling we are going to be better than everyone thinks.  

[LinvilleGorge]

8 minutes ago, Shocker said:

I have a sneaky feeling we are going to be better than everyone thinks.  

Well, considering that would be about 4 wins for me, that wouldn't be tough to pull off. I'm honestly expecting 3 or less.

[jumpman910]

16 minutes ago, Shocker said:

I have a sneaky feeling we are going to be better than everyone thinks.  

Rhule leaning heavy into athletic prospects to a degree could help that young defense transition. But without being lofty they should take their fair share of lumps early on. 

But yes I do think they'll compete earlier and harder than many outside projections suggest, not sure how many will relate to W's yet. 

[ladypanther]

22 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

In the past, Rhule has always followed a three year building process where the first year is abysmal.

NFL is different than college. You get to draft players  rather than trying to get high school players that other schools have been recruiting for years.It is probably 2-3 years before you start to get your own recruits in college.  Free agency is about money and opportunity. It is comparing apples to oranges.

In the NFL better coaching and better player evaluation can pay off sooner rather than later.

[LinvilleGorge]

26 minutes ago, ladypanther said:

NFL is different than college. You get to draft players  rather than trying to get high school players that other schools have been recruiting for years.It is probably 2-3 years before you start to get your own recruits in college.  Free agency is about money and opportunity. It is comparing apples to oranges.

In the NFL better coaching and better player evaluation can pay off sooner rather than later.

It's true, but I think these guys are going to have a significant learning curve adjusting the NFL and just like in the past, Rhule is inheriting a "program" in shambles. I'd feel a lot better if we had more NFL experience on the staff. I think Rhule will learn the hard way that he's going to need it going forward.

[Mister]

59 minutes ago, Shocker said:

I have a sneaky feeling we are going to be better than everyone thinks.  

We will 

[PhillyB]

i want to believe 

[Mr. Scot]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

All they can possibly do is exceed my expectations.

That's a pretty low bar for me.

[onmyown]

Other than one instance, a middle of the pack oline hasn’t won the Super Bowl in a decade plus. A few instances for a deep playoffs.

It’s going to be pretty amazing a college coaches comes in the NFL as head coach and breaks those kinds of records and trends. Pretty damn amazing borderline unbelievable.

For myself, I don’t see it happening. I don’t expect anything big from this team for a couple years mainly due to the oline.

 

[Drk89Wng]

Hopefully we see something like Cam’s first year an exciting offense with a defense with potential but not all pieces in place yet. High scores but competitive because our offense is keeping us in the game. I do hope we can retain Samuel after the year but if he hits 1k i dont see us paying him. Keeping DJ imo is a must he might actually be better than most of us anticipated and we will see this year why Norv was drooling over him at his pro day. I for one wish we would’ve gotten a big body WR but I’m guessing thats Ian Thomas’ role since he does have the althleticism anad speed for his position. With all the uncertainty around the off season regimen I hope we can get these guys some experience with the new staff sooner than later and have some great progress towards the up coming seasons. 

 

[electro's horse]

guarantee we won't lose a game!