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Interesting and fair point. I think the Bears also have to go all-out with their playcalling in the preseason because they have a new OC with a completely new playbook. Hard to be vanilla in your playcalling then expect your team to know every play week 1 when they only had an offseason to learn the playbook

We need to stop disrespecting Demani Richardson

Sarcastically saying this... This is our way of playing 5D chess when we actually don't call moronic plays the entire game week 1 vs Jacksonville. If we are calling 90% pass plays like we did in the first preseason game, go ahead and take us out back and put us out of our misery

Just wanted to mention that the Bears were not doing vanilla playcalling. It was very reminiscent to Mike McDaniels' first season in Miami where he showed his hand and then in year two everything seemed to come to a halt. It's too early to make the same determination for Ben Johnson's future, but it was very apparent that he was treating preseason like the regular season. Some fans like that mentality for understandable reasons. However, one of the risks to that is exposing your tendencies to the rest of the league at the beginning. Last season was to see if Bryce could be the guy. At the beginning, it looked like the damage from his rookie season had done him in. Mid-way through, he's back and looking good. At the end, he's still ascending. This season, the focus is on rebuilding the defense while developing our young weapons. Winning is always the #1 desire, but I don't know if we're deep enough on both sides of the ball yet to demand excellence yet. 2026 we'll have cap space, some expiring contracts to make decisions on, and knowledge of whether or not there's going to need to be a change at QB.

Maybe. I can't imagine there is more than a handful of 3rd stringers and beyond that are worth keeping on this team. I wouldn't be surprised if we had more waiver wire pickups on our roster than current 3rd/4th stringers on this team

The major issue here being that Richardson went #4. The Panthers correctly evaluated that sitting at #9 we were simply too low in the draft order to land one of the top QB prospects. Now whether or not the move was worth the cost or whether or not we picked the right guy, those are completely different questions but sitting too low at #9 was the correct evaluation of the situation. Honestly, I'm not sure how much AR even played into our planning process there. Really seemed like it was Young and Stroud. We were fine with either as was shown by us first trying to trade up to #2 initially, but obviously ultimately preferred Young.

Frank Reich, Ryan Poles get honest about challenges of developing No. 1 pick QB. *Reich: My handling of offensive system "probably made it more difficult for Bryce (Young)" *Poles: From 24-25. tone changed from bridging Caleb Williams to 'tough love' https://x.com/jfowlerespn/status/1957857880276705508?s=46

As bad as AR has been, the Panthers would’ve been better off right now, if they had stayed at #9 in 2023 and picked him instead of doing what they did. At least this way, they would’ve only wasted one draft pick vs what they gave up to pick BY. And they would have kept the #1 pick in the 2024 draft.

I felt pretty good about us making progress this season, surprising some people, and getting some more wins than last season going into it. Now, after preseason, my expectations are much, much lower. I was talking with my friend who is a Bears fan, and we were discussing their drubbing of the Bills and how people try to dismiss it as “preseason, so it doesn’t count.” It absolutely counts. Not the wins or losses. No one really cares about that. But what the Bears are doing shows that even in a vanilla, non-specific scheme, they are executing at an elite level and they are disciplined. It shows they are well coached. They see growth in their players. Versus us - hard to tell what we’re looking at because everything is a fuging mess. In games we’re still undisciplined, be it penalties or assignments. We do NOT execute. We got random coaches calling plays that won’t be calling plays during the season, we have our players getting into fights in the last padded practice of the preseason, then we have Bryce and Chuba trying to correct it while our coach sat off to the side laughing. To be clear, I like Canales. He seems like a good dude. But, it feels like we have very little direction and discipline. You’re allowing a team who has been historically bad the last almost decade, with a losing culture that mostly bereft of talent to self-police? You’re allowing subordinates to work in pet projects at the expense of getting valuable reps and evaluation of players in during games? My friend literally brought up last night that when Ben Johnson got there he essentially put DJ Moore in notice because it was starting to be perceived that he was displaying some diva-behavior. That’s leadership. And they’re reaping the benefits early and setting a tone. My friend said there is an excitement and confidence in and around their team that’s he’s never felt his entire life. And here we are, sounding and looking like The Bad News Bears in our final week of training camp and preseason. I literally stopped watching after halftime last week. I used to watch every play faithfully, even in 2001 and 2010. It was fun. This isn’t. We are bad and our administration keeps making bad decisions to compound things. Reading poo like this today is just fuging deflating.

With so much of the focus the past couple years being on offense, the defense has definitely taken a backseat to the talent available in the draft. I get it, they want to surround their number one draft pick QB with offensive playmakers but unfortunately that has come with a price that so far has not worked Let’s hope the offense and Bryce Young put it together this year or it’s going to be another rebuild next year with another new QB.

I was intrigued by him but always said it comes down to the interview process and talking to his former coaches, etc. You gotta find out if he's coachable and has the mental makeup. I think we've found the answer. LOL

I didnt like the Beason pick or the Kuechly pick at the time. Thought we had other more pressing needs. Certainly would like to have an ILB of that caliber on this team, though. It's definitely ironic that in a year where we maybe have the deepest WR room in franchise history, we probably have the weakest inside LBs, a position historically we've been strong at.

Well, you do have to also consider that they are pretty well set on who the starters are. It's the cut line and reserves they are evaluating in game 3. I would guess that is the reason.

I have to assume it is some trolling job. We can't actually be that stupid......right??

Would have made more sense if they called plays week 1 or 2. No point in calling plays for your 3rd and 4th stringers that are playing Thursday

AR was one of the most obvious and clear busts I have seen in years as a first round pick. The fact that we had a contingent pounding the table for him in the Huddle is scary. He doesn't have an ounce of NFL QB ability in his body. He is just a guy that is a great athlete that can throw a pretty long ball once in a while. He is literally a CFL caliber player as his maximum ceiling.

I would imagine that would only be for obvious pass rushing downs where the NT could hopefully shoot the gap (or stunt with the DE) before the IOL can figure out blocking assignments. I'm grasping at straws though

You are missing that they literally don't have to trade him. He is under contract and they can franchise tag him for two years if they so desire. Why do you think the sports books have the odds heavily weighted towards being a Bengal? Any of this seem familiar? Maybe.....Tee Higgins? The fact that they are leaking this unreasonable ask is basically telegraphing that they don't really plan to get rid of him unless someone is stupid enough to meet their ask price.

Canales is serious about considering himself a developmental coach. That includes staff development, evidenced by the preseason operation approach I understand what his intent is. It makes sense I also disagree with it being best practice for this #Panthers team in this moment https://x.com/rickyboboddy/status/1957846538819965138?s=46 i have to say… i do agree with this take.

Yeah, natural physical ability. That's what people mean when they say "talent" in regards to football.

100%. If Sam Howell was such a hot commodity, why is he a 4 year player on his third NFL team?

Yep, I was pissed we drafted Beason that year instead of Olsen. I wanted Olsen. Fast forward a couple years and we end up with both and both were great players.

You mean body/size? Because there isn’t much talent there. Everything AR has is purely physical.

And trading a top 5-6 at position salary for a 5 year rookie deal.

some details on the fights Joe Person @josephperson · 1h Ikem Ekwonu and Jaycee Horn just got into it pretty good. Ekwonu pushed him and Horn swung. Mike Kaye @mike_e_kaye · 1h We’ve got a scrum between the offense and defense, Moehrig hit the back of Ewonku’s helmet after he got into it with another defensive lineman. We already back to drills though… Alex Zietlow @alexzietlow05 · 1h Scuffle! A big mass of #Panthers players physical after the play. Tough to see who started it, but Jaycee Horn, Tre’Von Moehrig, Ickey Ekwonu all involved. Dave Canales was seen smiling from afar. This practice needed some energy, tbh. Joe Person @josephperson · 1h Temper still flaring after practice between Ickey and Jaycee Horn, and Chuba Hubbard and Nick Scott. Austin Corbett did his best to keep the peace. Darin Gantt @daringantt · 53m Canales joked that he may have pushed the team a little hard. Last padded practice for starters. There was some pushing and punches thrown late.