I really hope this month is a turning point for us

[Bwood]

I'm praying to lose. It'll benefit us a lot for the future.

Fug the one who argues about having a losing mentality.

We're already in a losing season.

LOSE out! Gets Top5 pick!

You play to win the game. Do you think Smitty or Cam are thinking about losing so they can draft whomever they want? No.

Win some games, show some improvement, get the moral up. That's all we can do from here.

We will be in a position to draft an impact player, it doesn't have to be top 3.

[Gucci Mane]

Losing for a draft pick just continues and expands the culture of losing with this franchise.

All i want for Christmas is for all the panther "fans" that want us to lose out for a draft pick go find another team to root for.

[Kurb]

Realistically speaking, we've basically clinched a top 15 pick this year. You'll get an instant starter.

That said. I'm hoping we win out in December, yet Ron still gets released. What I'm really looking for is some late game heroics by some of our younger players (Cam, LaFell, Hardy, Norman), and not displays of coaching prowess. I've seen enough of Ron. I'm sick of watching us get M.Bisoned in the 4th quarter of every game, and I'd never seen us lose that way with so much frequency until he started coaching. He's a good X's and O's HC, and by that I mean we're not getting dominated schematically, but he's just a horrible decision maker. I've touched on this point before, so I'd rather not waste time elaborating but you can easily understand what I mean if you've been following the team this season.

Winning out will do a couple of things for us. It'll boost the morale of the team we have now, and most of those players will still be here next season. It's extremely hard to turnover a huge chunk of the roster given our specific situation. It'll also make this team more attractive to prospective executives and coaches moving forward.

Back to winning out, the key word here is hope. We've got 4 opponents left (Atlanta, New Orleans, San Diego, Oakland). It took this team playing some of its best football this season against the Falcons in their first game and they still somehow beat us. Highly unlikely that we defeat them, but the rest of the opponents are definitely beatable. We lost Ron Edwards, who took whatever run defense we had with him, so that won't help us.

As for the new GM, I'm confident Accorsi can help direct Richardson to the right answer, and I hope Richardson stops being so involved in everything. There's a big chance one of the frontrunning HC candidates (Marc Ross, Greg Roman) get offered the job, and I hope they bring the mentalities of their superiors with them. An annoying characteristic of Hurney was the fact that he thought his scouting was infallible. Start Fua, sign the guys I drafted to ridiculous contract extensions with paralyzing amounts of signing bonus money, trade up for this soft roadgrader, trade up for some shitty Florida State DE. This team needs to sign more free agents from other teams to compete. Nobody drafts 7 starters every year, but Hurney acted like he did for a bit.

Great post.

[Guest Tom Cat]

This team would be lucky to eek out 2 more wins this year and I dont think it will.

[Gucci Mane]

The falcons arent practicing in pads anymore.. could slightly lower their playing ability. Still will be enough to beat us though.

[rayzor]

Realistically speaking, we've basically clinched a top 15 pick this year. You'll get an instant starter.

That said. I'm hoping we win out in December, yet Ron still gets released. What I'm really looking for is some late game heroics by some of our younger players (Cam, LaFell, Hardy, Norman), and not displays of coaching prowess. I've seen enough of Ron. I'm sick of watching us get M.Bisoned in the 4th quarter of every game, and I'd never seen us lose that way with so much frequency until he started coaching. He's a good X's and O's HC, and by that I mean we're not getting dominated schematically, but he's just a horrible decision maker. I've touched on this point before, so I'd rather not waste time elaborating but you can easily understand what I mean if you've been following the team this season.

Winning out will do a couple of things for us. It'll boost the morale of the team we have now, and most of those players will still be here next season. It's extremely hard to turnover a huge chunk of the roster given our specific situation. It'll also make this team more attractive to prospective executives and coaches moving forward.

Back to winning out, the key word here is hope. We've got 4 opponents left (Atlanta, New Orleans, San Diego, Oakland). It took this team playing some of its best football this season against the Falcons in their first game and they still somehow beat us. Highly unlikely that we defeat them, but the rest of the opponents are definitely beatable. We lost Ron Edwards, who took whatever run defense we had with him, so that won't help us.

As for the new GM, I'm confident Accorsi can help direct Richardson to the right answer, and I hope Richardson stops being so involved in everything. There's a big chance one of the frontrunning HC candidates (Marc Ross, Greg Roman) get offered the job, and I hope they bring the mentalities of their superiors with them. An annoying characteristic of Hurney was the fact that he thought his scouting was infallible. Start Fua, sign the guys I drafted to ridiculous contract extensions with paralyzing amounts of signing bonus money, trade up for this soft roadgrader, trade up for some shitty Florida State DE. This team needs to sign more free agents from other teams to compete. Nobody drafts 7 starters every year, but Hurney acted like he did for a bit.

totally agreed.

it does the team no good to lose out.

it's a whole lot more likely that we could win out and rivera be fired than losing out and trading our top 2 pick for a "whole slew of picks".

there's just really not anyone in this draft worth giving up a whole slew of picks for and there really isn't that much of a difference in quality of picks among the top 5-10. i just don't see much advantage or reason for a team to want to trade up all that much or give much.

i don't know that it matters where we pick in the top 10 because we're going to get a stud starter. there's just a good bit of quality picks at positions we need upgrading.

as i said before, i think it's important that this team look as good as possible for prospective GMs and HCs. this team has talent? you've got to show it on the field. if this looks like some team that only has a couple serviceable parts and needs to be completely gutted, who is going to want that except some scrub rivera level HC that's been turned down for a dozen HC opportunities already? or some over eager assistant/coordinator somewhere that no real competitive team would every look at but that we might have to settle on (i'm looking square at mike mccoy)?

what GM is going to want to take over a team that can't win, has no fight, and whose roster has to be completely redone?

it's safe to say that probably at least 90% of the team and even starters will be in tact (not current starters, but ones that would be starters if they weren't on IR). i'd like for those guys to be given a reason to hold their heads up going into the offseason and be upward trending. i don't want a bunch of guys feeling like losers because there's just been way too much of that mindset around here.

there has to be something more to build on going into next year for the new coaching staff and GM.

[top dawg]

I don't think that December is going to be a turning point for us regarding wins. From what we've seen out of our team this year, I could see us going 2-2. But, you know what? I'm good with that. Keeping realistic expectations will be the key to fans' sanity, and the FO's sober minded decision making when moving the organization forward. I would just like to see some improvement, some promise---positive potential, basically, and I am not necessarily going to use wins and losses as the litmus test when judging our personnel on the field.

I just think that it's important to be realistic, realize that there is probably some trouble ahead, especially if we have to get a new coaching staff, and be aware of the fact that unless we get lucky we may be two or three years away from reaching viability. I would like to think that the turning point began happening during this past month, and that we'll see enough out of everyone that it justifies modifying and tweaking plans here and there, but not cleaning house. I am thinking that if we have to turn in a totally different direction, then we are going to be "lost" for a few years, unless we get a tried-and-true coach that has already been to the promised land.

[carolina-chuck]

You play to win the game. Do you think Smitty or Cam are thinking about losing so they can draft whomever they want? No.

Win some games, show some improvement, get the moral up. That's all we can do from here.

We will be in a position to draft an impact player, it doesn't have to be top 3.

I dnt just want a top3-5 player. I want the chance to trade down and add more picks. Thanks to Hurney we have little picks in a draft where the needs of ours are packed (DT, OL, WR, FS).

It's a lost season already. There's no losing culture. New GM and new Coaching brings in new culture. Get rid of River's losing culture, that's the real reason.

You think the Colts didn't tank the season for Luck? They just so happened to land Luck by coincidence?

Showing improvements and getting moral up, isn't that what we did late last season. What happened? We're sitting here at 3-9.

[BelgianPantherFan]

I dnt just want a top3-5 player. I want the chance to trade down and add more picks. Thanks to Hurney we have little picks in a draft where the needs of ours are packed (DT, OL, WR, FS).

One of the problems is - beside losing - the lack of real prospect to trade our early pick for few more.

[TheRed]

The season is already lost, we need to atleast try to end it on a high note.

Fug all this weak minded tanking for draft picks mentality.

[Kettle]

I love seeing us win. I just don't think we can with Rivera. Like the OP said. He makes bad decisions. Taking time outs to the locker room with time on the clock, playing soft with the lead, and being stubborn in so many ways with the game plan. I thought we'd lose to Philly and we would have if not for fumbles. With Edwards gone, I looked for Charles to run over us, and he did. Same will happen this week probably with Turner. Same will likely happen with Matthews in SD and whoever against Oakland. And then I think we MIGHT close the season with a win against the taints.

Again, I love seeing the Panthers win. Rivera just doesn't seem to be a winner.

[frash.exe]

whelp we didn't tank for a draft pick like a lot of you wanted.

so the real question is did we turn a corner in the past month? and where does rivera fit in here? i'm pretty certain he was involved in the team's improvement. i guess i'd be okay with him coming back, as long as we get one of the solid gm candidates. but rivera needs to keep trending up. reminder that just because we won all our games in december doesn't mean we have momentum going into week 1 next season. that kind of gets interrupted by 9 months of offseason. if he stays, Ron needs to make the playoffs in 2013 or face exile. this isn't trial-and-error until you get it right after 15 years.

[Bwood]

I think that the guys have showed us that they believe in Ron and are willing to work hard and get better.

We absolutely need to find a way to stay healthy and we need to restructure/cut some contracts so we can spend money where it's needed most.

I think chud is the only one on the chopping block right now, but I would be shocked to see us make any sort of drastic changes in personnel. That includes GM.