Offensive support cast ranked 31st in the league

[panthers55]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/panthers-offensive-supporting-cast-ranked-133046847.html

Maybe this will be like 2015 when our last number 1 draft pick took the worse receiver corps all the way to the Superbowl.

[LinvilleGorge]

I think our OL is pretty good on paper. Maybe as good as any we've ever had. The receiving corps is about as close to a complete question mark as you can get in the NFL. Little proven production, but some intriguing young potential. We'll see how it pans out. Honestly, I'm personally not overly concerned about this season. I don't expect to be contenders. I just want to see progress made and signs that we have a coaching staff and a QB that can get us there with a few more pieces.

[UnluckyforSome]

10 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I think our OL is pretty good on paper. Maybe as good as any we've ever had. The receiving corps is about as close to a complete question mark as you can get in the NFL. Little proven production, but some intriguing young potential. We'll see how it pans out. Honestly, I'm personally not overly concerned about this season. I don't expect to be contenders. I just want to see progress made and signs that we have a coaching staff and a QB that can get us there with a few more pieces.

Here's my worry, and it ties in a little with what you've mentioned. I think the oline may very well be the strength of the offense, but it may not have the impact we expect. The wr group is not scaring anyone, and Sanders will not have the luxury of playing alongside the Eagles weapons. So, can the passing game keep defenses out of stacking the box? If those receivers aren't getting open or not making plays, the quality of the oline will be minimized. There's a whole bunch of hope and what ifs this year, but I think that's normal for a transition.

[JawnyBlaze]

16 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I think our OL is pretty good on paper. Maybe as good as any we've ever had. The receiving corps is about as close to a complete question mark as you can get in the NFL. Little proven production, but some intriguing young potential. We'll see how it pans out. Honestly, I'm personally not overly concerned about this season. I don't expect to be contenders. I just want to see progress made and signs that we have a coaching staff and a QB that can get us there with a few more pieces.

I mean, Thielen and Chark are proven producers. Not to mention Hurst at TE. The rest of the guys, yea young potential. We do have proven production, maybe not not five or ten proven production, but middle of the pack surely. 

[therealmjl]

This seems a little extreme but I’m here for it

[OneBadCat]

Boy are they in for a surprise.

[trucpfan]

6 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I mean, Thielen and Chark are proven producers. Not to mention Hurst at TE. The rest of the guys, yea young potential. We do have proven production, maybe not not five or ten proven production, but middle of the pack surely. 

We want to think middle of the pack because it’s our team we’re very supportive fans. But from the outside assessing things with no bias I’m hearing similar rankings from lots of football fans that the cast is extremely weak below average and I’m starting to understand the logic here. It’s no way we can expect different AT is good but is clearly an aging vet. DJ is an often injured solid wr, everyone else is unproven which can’t be ranked higher than teams with solid proven WRs. We’re also starting a rookie QB no matter how confident and prepared he is there’s always struggles adjusting to the big league hence why the Hopkins move is looking more and more understandable every day. If we do or don’t we make that move our weapons aren’t better then any team in our own division which is crazy to think.

[Ricky Spanish]

I really can't understand this ranking. Based on personnel alone we are firmly in the middle of the pack. Even excluding Sanders who is coming off a pro-bowl year, our weapons are average across the board. That means we have no superstars but it also means we have no weak links all the way down. If someone goes down, we aren't in trouble, in fact our production from the WR position probably won't decrease much at all, it's not because they're bad, they just aren't superstars. 

[panthers55]

8 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I mean, Thielen and Chark are proven producers. Not to mention Hurst at TE. The rest of the guys, yea young potential. We do have proven production, maybe not not five or ten proven production, but middle of the pack surely. 

I agree that we have more talent than we are given credit for here and elsewhere. Sanders had 1259 yards on 259 carries  for a 4.9 yards a carry. That is very good.  And both Thielen and Chark are proven vets.  We lost DJ and Foreman but other than that we are ranked similar to last year.  Just the coaching changes alone should account for a higher ranking. But as I said before, the only thing that matters is how well we do on the field. I hope we ride under the radar all the way to winning the division which I think we will do.

[panthers55]

I have always thought that creating a great system which is quarterback friendly was the best way to make average or even below average players better.  And that coaching was as important as raw talent. So we have our first offensive head coach who is reportedly very good and a great staff with supposedly a quarterback friendly system and according to the pundits we won't do better than we did under Rhule and Wilks who were not offensively minded. Wilks didn't have any say in his personnel and he went 6-6. With this staff, even below average players previously as likely to look much improved. Guys like Tremble, Marshall, and Shenault are going to be much improved. I know it is way too early to say that much but I am going to enjoy this season flying under the radar while kicking butt more weeks than not.

[JawnyBlaze]

37 minutes ago, trucpfan said:

We want to think middle of the pack because it’s our team we’re very supportive fans. But from the outside assessing things with no bias I’m hearing similar rankings from lots of football fans that the cast is extremely weak below average and I’m starting to understand the logic here. It’s no way we can expect different AT is good but is clearly an aging vet. DJ is an often injured solid wr, everyone else is unproven which can’t be ranked higher than teams with solid proven WRs. We’re also starting a rookie QB no matter how confident and prepared he is there’s always struggles adjusting to the big league hence why the Hopkins move is looking more and more understandable every day. If we do or don’t we make that move our weapons aren’t better then any team in our own division which is crazy to think.

Thielen’s production recently is only barely below DJ’s and he was the #2, not getting #1 volume. Sure Chark is oft injured but he’s still proven. Few teams have five proven vets at WR. It’s usually two or three and young guys, like us. I’m not saying we should be considered upper tier, but completely discounting Thielen and Chark is ridiculous. We’re better at WR than we were last year, that’s for sure.  And there are multiple teams with worse than aging Thielen and injury risk Chark as their #1 and 2. 

[shaqattaq]

I couldn't read the rest of the rankings without the subscription, but I'm curious about the other teams. I simply cannot believe that only the Texans are worse on offense than we are. Our WR's ARE questionable, whether that be how much gas ids left in the tank, can they stay healthy, or can they finally take a step forward. BUT, we vastly improved our passing game from the TE and RB (post CMC) viewpoint. We looked pretty good (not great) the 2nd half of last year with 0 passing game from TE or RB. Let's not kid ourselves, we played smash mouth football under Wilkes because that was basically our only option. Add into the position upgrades comments from Tremble about not really getting route trees from his coaches last season, and there's no way you can say we haven't improved.

[shaqattaq]

21 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

I have always thought that creating a great system which is quarterback friendly was the best way to make average or even below average players better.  And that coaching was as important as raw talent. So we have our first offensive head coach who is reportedly very good and a great staff with supposedly a quarterback friendly system and according to the pundits we won't do better than we did under Rhule and Wilks who were not offensively minded. Wilks didn't have any say in his personnel and he went 6-6. With this staff, even below average players previously as likely to look much improved. Guys like Tremble, Marshall, and Shenault are going to be much improved. I know it is way too early to say that much but I am going to enjoy this season flying under the radar while kicking butt more weeks than not.

[rayzor]

good.