No chance

[MHS831]

11 hours ago, Harbingers said:

Is our defense good? We have up 25+ a game last season, this isn’t b league college  dude. 

Thanks for schooling me, dude.

Our defensive secondary last season vs. this year?  To put it into perspective, Pride started and was borderline roster this season before his injury.  Horn is a stud, Bouye is an upgrade, Jackson is back, Chinn is moving to FS, and to be honest, Hartsfield has been solid at nickel.

We have more pass rush, better secondary, better MLB (Whitehead?).  We added DT Jones, Nixon.  We added OLB Reddick.  We added DE Fox.  Same team?  Ummm--nope, and that was my point.

Edited August 21, 2021 by MHS831

[MHS831]

9 hours ago, OldhamA said:

It's just lazy, but sadly that's the state of journalism these days.

Well said.

[MHS831]

I assume that Darnold is going to be a significant upgrade.  No yellow jacket yet, but improvement. Better than and QB we have had since 2017.

In my view, these teams project to be worse than the Panthers (12):  Bengals, Eagles, Texans, Jets, Giants, Falcons, Lions, Broncos, Jaguars, Bears, WFT, Dolphins. 

These teams to be about equal to the Panthers (10):  Saints, 49ers, Cowboys, Patriots, 49ers, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Steelers, Cardinals

Better NFC Teams: Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Seattle, LA Rams
So Tampa, Green Bay, Rams win divisions.  Seattle gets a wild card. 

We must be better than the Saints, Vikings, 49ers, and Cowboys to go to the dance.  Of course, this will be horribly wrong, but it is how I see it now.  On the schedule: Saints x 2, Cowboys.

I am seeing good things.  We win 10, miss the playoffs in a tie breaker.

[OceanPanther]

As many have posted,  every year  a few teams do better than expected,  and a few who under preform based on pre season "guesses " .

Our schedule , is more favorable in the first 9 games and could be 6-3 at that point . The second half is more more difficult .   Winning a couple more games wouldn't be impossible.  So I don't think we'll be in the bottom 6 . 

Coaching will be so important.  They've got to have improved over last year , as we lost so many 1 score games. I know the players on the field have to execute , but some of those losses were on the coaches. 
We can't keep  playing to win, by trying 50 plus yard field goals. Clock management. Bridgewater was awful in the 4th qtr of games and the red zone.   
If we've improved in coaching and QB,, we can make the playoffs.

Line Backers are our weakest group.  I know we talk and worry about the O Line,,  I hope I'm wrong about the linebackers.  

[BIGH2001]

Sounds about right until we acquire an NFL caliber coach and QB.

[kungfoodude]

16 minutes ago, MHS831 said:

I assume that Darnold is going to be a significant upgrade.  No yellow jacket yet, but improvement. Better than and QB we have had since 2017.

In my view, these teams project to be worse than the Panthers (12):  Bengals, Eagles, Texans, Jets, Giants, Falcons, Lions, Broncos, Jaguars, Bears, WFT, Dolphins. 

These teams to be about equal to the Panthers (10):  Saints, 49ers, Cowboys, Patriots, 49ers, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Steelers, Cardinals

Better NFC Teams: Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Seattle, LA Rams
So Tampa, Green Bay, Rams win divisions.  Seattle gets a wild card. 

We must be better than the Saints, Vikings, 49ers, and Cowboys to go to the dance.  Of course, this will be horribly wrong, but it is how I see it now.  On the schedule: Saints x 2, Cowboys.

I am seeing good things.  We win 10, miss the playoffs in a tie breaker.

I think this is basically our very best case scenario for this season.  So, I can't come down that road to assuming we will max out our potential in year two of the rebuild. It's possible but unlikely. 

I think this season will hinge on a few things. How bad Darnold is(or good, perhaps), how much our secondary improves, how much our overall defense improves, how bad our offensive line is, and how well we avoid the injury bug(so far doing an excellent job). 

Perhaps the most interesting thing to see is if we make the improvement to being a slightly below average to average team. If so, that means Rhule's turnaround pattern from college would be present. That could mean a big leap in 2022.

[cardiackat88.]

56 minutes ago, OceanPanther said:

As many have posted,  every year  a few teams do better than expected,  and a few who under preform based on pre season "guesses " .

Our schedule , is more favorable in the first 9 games and could be 6-3 at that point . The second half is more more difficult .   Winning a couple more games wouldn't be impossible.  So I don't think we'll be in the bottom 6 . 

Coaching will be so important.  They've got to have improved over last year , as we lost so many 1 score games. I know the players on the field have to execute , but some of those losses were on the coaches. 
We can't keep  playing to win, by trying 50 plus yard field goals. Clock management. Bridgewater was awful in the 4th qtr of games and the red zone.   
If we've improved in coaching and QB,, we can make the playoffs.

Line Backers are our weakest group.  I know we talk and worry about the O Line,,  I hope I'm wrong about the linebackers.  

Hasn't this happened the last two season?

IIRC it was 4-2 and on hot streaks at the beginning of the season and then just crashed and burned.

[Toomers]

10 hours ago, Panthercougar68 said:

If we go 8-9 this year I will be thrilled because that is literally the Matt Rhule trajectory and with young talent too. (Also means @Toomers loses his bet )

The roster doesn't have as many holes like people think it does it just doesn't have the depth that is needed to make it to February but it doesn't have the experience to be a 10+ win team)

  That wouldn’t bother me. It’s house money anyway. If I win, y’all can pick the charity. But with my history of predictions regarding the Panthers, I’ll probably be rolling it over to next year again. 

[jfra78]

Lol this non Panthers fan spends a lot of time worried about our team.

[Toomers]

Just now, jfra78 said:

Lol this non Panthers fan spends a lot of time worried about our team.

For a tidy profit, it seems. Don’t be jealous that I know so much more about “your” team that I can actually make money from it. You laughed at it all last pre-season, and pretty much everything I said happened just like I said it would. Want to take a look at those threads again? 

[Moo Daeng]

14 hours ago, Harbingers said:

Is our defense good? We have up 25+ a game last season, this isn’t b league college  dude. 

I can only assume you don't pay much attention to the roster. It's not the same defense. Yet to be determined but that was a insanely young inexperienced defense that had no offseasom with a new staff. They overachiever. The bright spots are still here. The weekest links gone. There's new vets in their to bolster the former weaknesses. 

To make a statement like this says at least one of 2 things:

1. You don't pay attention to the team.

2. You are trolling without thinking.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Moo Daeng

[RJK]

The irony being the only person who 100% has no chance of making the playoffs is the nerd who wrote this article.

[Harbingers]

11 minutes ago, Moo Daeng said:

I can only assume you don't pay much attention to the roster. It's not the same defense. Yet to be determined but that was a insanely young inexperienced defense that had no offseasom with a new staff. They overachiever. The bright spots are still here. The weekest links gone. There's new vets in their to bolster the former weaknesses. 

To make a statement like this says at least one of 2 things:

1. You don't pay attention to the team.

2. You are trolling without thinking.

Or maybe I’m focused more on our defensive coordinator and coaching staff as I had previously said. I just simply don’t think snow has the stuff to be an NFL play caller. He can have all the weapons in the world but if he’s determined to continually rush 2-3, horrible blitz gap assignments, and keep the coverage in prevent not much will change from last year. We’ll still be giving up 20-25+ a game. There comes a point in the NFL when that simply isn’t sustainable.
 

Ya perhaps he can do more man with this talent but we’ll see if he actually does.  

[kungfoodude]

25 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

Lol this non Panthers fan spends a lot of time worried about our team.

We have a lot of those in here. Jets fans, Lions fans, etc.