Seriously though what the hell were they thinking picking up Darnold's 5th year option?

[KatsAzz]

18 hours ago, Sean Payton's Vicodin said:

I can kind of see why they traded for him, hoping that he was another diamond in the rough mistreated by Adam Gase like Tannehill was, but why did they pick up his 5th year option before even playing a snap????

I wondered that at the time. Common sense should tell one to let someone prove themself before locking into a long term deal. This was not a minor oversight  but a major mistake on their part. .

[Eazy-E]

I think Rhule and Brady got sucked into the Adam Gase QB killer mentality after seeing what transpired with Tannehill.

They probably have giant coaching egos thinking they could turn Sam into a top 15 or 20 QB and have him another year for under 20million rather then having to pay him a new contract after they worked their magic and Sam balled the fug out.

Welp, Rhule and Brady so far have shown they’re in over their heads and the college to NFL transition is much harder then they could have imagined. Sam Darnold also proved he sucks ass with or without Adam Gase and this entire situation backfired hilariously bad in their faces.

You would have thought after Teddy they would have learned their lesson but their ego’s are too big and they put all the blame on Teddy. To be fair Teddy shot the blame right back at them.
 

Tepper on the other hand has clearly had enough of their poo and seems to understand most fans have as well.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Eazy-E

[kungfoodude]

16 hours ago, TLGPanthersFan said:

During a press conference Rhule said that he didn’t really watch any film on Darnold. 

I hope that was a lie.

[Waldo]

6 hours ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

Panthers did the same thing by unnecessarily extending Robbie as well.

Draft Robbie's replacement this Spring and then extend him? Why?

Is there some sort of irrational love for former Jets players in the front office?

It is worrying. 

Who is responsible for making these costly decisions?  Will they ever be held accountable?

I am very interested to see what Anderson looks like with different QBs the rest of the season.

The entire offseason process was much more bad then good for sure. I was not a big fan and you are right, we saw some worrying moves that they really felt comfortable with.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, Eazy-E said:

I think Rhule and Brady got sucked into the Adam Gase QB killer mentality after seeing what transpired with Tannehill.

They probably have giant coaching egos thinking they could turn Sam into a top 15 or 20 QB and have him another year for under 20million rather then having to pay him a new contract after they worked their magic and Sam balled the fug out.

Welp, Rhule and Brady so far have shown they’re in over their heads and the college to NFL transition is much harder then they could have imagined. Sam Darnold also proved he sucks ass with or without Adam Gase and this entire situation backfired hilariously bad in their faces.

You would have thought after Teddy they would have learned their lesson but their ego’s are too big and they put all the blame on Teddy. To be fair Teddy shot the blame right back at them.
 

Tepper on the other hand has clearly had enough of their poo and seems to understand most fans have as well.

I think the thing missing most is that Gase wasn't even the OC for Darnold's entire career. One of the 4 Rush guys has repeatedly said something that I agree with. All the discussions around Sam Darnold revolve around excuses why he isn't successful. Bad coaching, bad OL, no weapons, still learning, mono, injuries, etc. 

Yet, all his flaws he had at USC up until now are still there. Bad turnovers, bad decisions, inability to read the field. That stuff has ALWAYS BEEN PRESENT. So how is it our "braintrust" thought they could see something that was so apparent after so much film and so little improvement? 

As a friend of mine once quipped, "Potential just means you haven't done poo, yet." Well here we sit almost 4 years into not doing poo. That idea of potential had long since evaporated.

I shudder to think about these guys picking QB or OL in the draft. They really don't seem to have any idea what they are doing. 

Edited November 13, 2021 by kungfoodude

[NanuqoftheNorth]

3 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I hope that was a lie.

Truth or lie, it's not a good look for Rhule.

[Davidson Deac II]

20 hours ago, TLGPanthersFan said:

During a press conference Rhule said that he didn’t really watch any film on Darnold. 

 

That was probably taken out of context.

https://www.nfl.com/news/matt-rhule-on-why-panthers-didn-t-pick-qb-in-draft-i-just-believe-in-sam-darnold

Quote

"We were sitting there one day on defense, and I can't remember (exactly) what we were watching, we were watching a cut up, and Sam was playing on the other side of the ball, and a couple times he made some throws, and Phil Snow, our defensive coordinator, was like, 'Man, that kid looks like Matt Stafford.' And so, we put a couple games on – and this is the defensive staff -- and they were all like, 'You know what, every game we watch, he makes a couple of big-time plays, and there has to be some meat on the bone there,' " Rhule said. "So, kind of went through the process and kept watching him and going back and watching him in college and watching his pro day and then going back and watching his first year in a different offense and the second year and his third year. When the compensation was enough where we didn't have to give up what we thought was too much that [it] would hurt our team and a chance to get him here, we'd watched so much tape on him that we saw enough shining moments."

 

[Tbe]

10 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

 

That was probably taken out of context.

https://www.nfl.com/news/matt-rhule-on-why-panthers-didn-t-pick-qb-in-draft-i-just-believe-in-sam-darnold

 

Again, Darnold was plan C and they had to talk themselves into it.

I think the decision to go with him over Fields came from fear they wouldn’t be able to get a QB in the draft and this need to win now.

Dumb decision as they should have hedged their bets with both QBs.  When in QB purgatory, you take as many swings as possible.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Tbe

[Eazy-E]

7 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

From all indications Darnold was a Rhule decision. Rhule’s entire shtick is finding lower tier players who have certain physical traits he deems important and developing them into average to above average football players. That’s how he was able to rebuild programs without having the type of recruitment larger, more popular schools have. Unfortunately he is now dealing with very wealthy young adults instead of broke 18 year old college students.

That approach is not working for him in the NFL and it is hurting the team, but he’s been too damn stubborn to change his ways.

looks like Tepper has had enough and he had to intervene. It’s time to let Fitterer do his job and Rhule just needs to stick to coaching. Hopefully the days of overpaying reclamation projects are behind us and we can start signing actual NFL talent.

[AU-panther]

4 hours ago, Davidson Deac II said:

 

That was probably taken out of context.

https://www.nfl.com/news/matt-rhule-on-why-panthers-didn-t-pick-qb-in-draft-i-just-believe-in-sam-darnold

 

Too bad Rhule didn't spend a $100 on a PPF subscription, he could have saved the team about $23m and 3 draft picks.  

Seriously though this is the problem with proverbial "eye test", NFL coaches and GMs are as guilty as fans.  You start forming your opinion off a small sample size of plays or you give too much credit to the occasional splash play.

 

[glenwo2]

20 hours ago, Eazy-E said:

I think Rhule and Brady got sucked into the Adam Gase QB killer mentality after seeing what transpired with Tannehill.

They probably have giant coaching egos thinking they could turn Sam into a top 15 or 20 QB and have him another year for under 20million rather then having to pay him a new contract after they worked their magic and Sam balled the fug out.

Welp, Rhule and Brady so far have shown they’re in over their heads and the college to NFL transition is much harder then they could have imagined. Sam Darnold also proved he sucks ass with or without Adam Gase and this entire situation backfired hilariously bad in their faces.

You would have thought after Teddy they would have learned their lesson but their ego’s are too big and they put all the blame on Teddy. To be fair Teddy shot the blame right back at them.
 

Tepper on the other hand has clearly had enough of their poo and seems to understand most fans have as well.

I think what this says is that Tannehill is more of an outlier than anything else when it came to Adam Gase.

Otherwise, if you suck, then you suck and no coaching (good or bad) will make you suck more or less.

 

[kungfoodude]

4 hours ago, glenwo2 said:

Otherwise, if you suck, then you suck and no coaching (good or bad) will make you suck more or less.

The problem is that Rhule and Co. don't seem to subscribe to this theory, which is a real problem. 

How a staff full of highly paid coaches and football experts talked themselves into such an obviously bad player while a third or more of the keyboard warriors on this board could figure out Darnold was a bust, it pretty fuging damning. 

As many of us have said, when you keep seeing these moves(Darnold, Erving, Elflein, Whitehead, etc) it speaks to an issue Panthers fans have with them.....hubris. They believe they can just identify untapped potential as if they are high school recruits. 

That doesn't work in the NFL.

[Toomers]

On 11/12/2021 at 12:11 PM, Peon Awesome said:

It's honestly not that tough to explain. If they were that worried Sam was going to be so bad they'd regret spending $18 million on him next year, they wouldn't have given up a 2nd, 4th, and 6th round pick for him. Maybe a conditional 3rd at most. You don't give up 3 picks for a 1 year rental that you're going to be obligated into an expensive multiyear deal if he ends up working out.

So it all comes down to their initial evaluation. They thought they could turn him at least into a serviceable starter with the upside of potentially being a franchise qb, in which case, 2 years, $23 million and a 2nd round pick is a pittance. Wish it had turned out that way but that had to be the thought process.

So your “explanation” is they picked up the option because it looked better after giving up so much draft capital. Something that has nothing to do with the option. Whose ego needed stroked this much? Darnold? Rhule? The fans? Part of Darnolds value was having only a 5M salary and nothing to cut if it didn’t work. They had one year to decide. If he goes Tannehil, he would be getting something similar(or lower) on his first year than 19M. Where is the financial upside? At all? Much less to bet 19M on it. 

  And considering this front office just did the same thing with another QB the year before and got burned, it really makes it unforgivable. 

  

[Rocky Davis]

Thinking you could make Sam into a QB1 behind the offensive line you put together in the offseason was foolish to begin with.  Fix his footwork, give him more weapons, maybe he'll work out and be a steal....

yeah it took all of 3-4 games to get Sam seeing those ghosts again and throwing the ball anywhere he thought there was a chance one of his receivers could catch the ball because we put up traffic cones in front of him.  Sam can have all the "natural" talent in the world and make 3-4 unreal plays a game, but at the end of the day he isn't an NFL QB1 and he sure as hell isn't behind an XFL offensive line.

Rhule, Fitterer, Brady, Tepper....any of them that thought this would work out were delusional.  Sam is definitely done as far as having a chance to ever start again and if anything would be a shaky #2.  We only reinforced what Gase and Co. did to him in NY.  That's on the FO.