CPcavedweller

When Bryce shows he can stretch the field vertically, I'll be a believer. You can't nickel and dime your way to Superb Owls.

Ummm...we allegedly have an All-Star coaching staff surrounding him. Coaching isn't the problem. We also traded away next years first round pick, which coincidentally goes to the Bears. So guess what? The Bears may be getting two top 5 picks, they can offload Fields for a decent pick as well, they will fire their staff, get a new staff, and get the chance at Drake Maye, Caleb Williams, and Marvin Harrison Jr. with an offensive minded coach and a great core of guys that can win pretty much right away. We gifted the Bears the potential to have a dominant decade, if they play their cards right.

You don't trade a future first and second round pick if you are rebuilding. That is often why trade ups for QB's don't work. The price to get them is too high for what you often need to put around them to succeed. Would've been just as good drafting Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the 4th round, and trading down in the first to get guys like O'Cyrus Torrance, Dalton Kincaid, Zach Charbonnet, Marvin Mims, etc. and I really think DTR has a decent ceiling in this league. You trade up to number one for a generational talent. Bryce may be good, but he's not a generational type of player. Tepper pushed this to sell tickets and merchandise, and probably to get some prime time slots on TV for additional revenue. We all knew Tepper was pushing it; or maybe not all but some. He's been begging for a QB, and taking retreads and former stars to get eye balls for money. Its not for wins. It's for money. So we've wasted God knows how many resources at this point on QB chasing when we could have built an amazing core of talent to surround even a decent QB. All because of Tepper jumping over a quarter to make a nickel.

I don't think that graph means what you think it means. It's not saying "open windows availability" it's saying "percentage of throws into an open window". So Bryce could just be missing the reads he should be making, often, so often in fact that he is accurate more often than anyone in the event he does make the right read.

They did what would make Darnold successful, which is play action pass. And guess what? Bryce has the LOWEST QBR in the league right now which, to my best recollection, Sam never had, even with the poo show that was the Jets with Gase and Rhule here. So there is that. Flame Darnold all you want but he was Top 10 in QBR down the stretch, and we won that game against the Saints, unlike last night, because of Wilks philosophical change on offense. You've disproven your own argument now run along, you have a Bryce Fan Club meeting at noon.

Because they will "ram it up the gut" on 1st and 2nd down, then throw out of the shotgun. You have to mix up play calls out of the same formations to keep the defense off of their mark, similar to what allowed Sam to really thrive in 2022. You don't run out of an under center look and then go shotgun to throw every time like we saw. There is zero flow to play calling right now and it's like Reich is shooting from the hip. They need to get Bryce comfortable with running the pass game and run game from under center.

So you go heavy sets, counters, change the formations, etc. until you get an unbalanced look you like to run out of. Then you hit them on Play action down the field a few times put of the same looks. They won't keep 9 men in the box long if you can run and throw out of the same look. The problem with running out of the shotgun is that you're not going to create many advantages in leverage, and the defense can take defenders out of the box. Then when you are either throwing a screen or running out of a single back look, they know what to key on. We need a true, under center play action downfield passing game. As of now, it's all too predictable.

Looking through the schedule, I just don't see it. Absent a complete philosophical flip on offense, we aren't going to win. You don't win with a rookie QB throwing 30 to 40 times a game. Hell, we didn't win with Darnold doing that. We only started winning when we started to run, and run, and run so we could play action. We have the same issue the Cardinals have and that is a short QB, unfamiliar with being under center, who won't be able to run 50 to 60% of plays from there. It provides infinitely more versatility than running out of the shotgun and takes pressure off of the line, tight ends, and receivers. Reich needs to evaluate what made this group successful last year and try to implement some of what Wilks had done. At this point, Wilks is the best head Coach the Panthers have had under Tepper. I think he would be a better Head Coach than Reich. Wilks could've easily brought in Thomas Brown, Ejiro Evero, et. AL. himself and could have been the delegator we need. We saw what Reich was with the Colts. Reich is a good man, but man am I angry that Tepper didn't retain Wilks after the miracle he performed last year.

The 2nd Reich has not gotten off to a good start, and at this rate it looks like it will end in flames if there is no improvement, given Teppers track record of patience. Oddly enough, since Tepper began his ownership, this is the worst this team has looked, albeit through two weeks. That said, what worked last year after Rhule was let go? Wilks came in and immediately put in practice what Rhule said he wanted, "run the ball". We went from throwing 40 times a game to running 40 times a game and going play action off of that. Why? It takes pressure off of our poor pass blocking offensive line and our receivers who are probably bottom 4th in the league, as a group. We had the same issue last year, every QB looked lost when they played, and then Wilks comes in, Darnold comes back, and it's like the Panthers are an NFL team again. That worked because we relied on the run to open the pass. Under center formations are easier to run off of and present more versatility. 19 rushes total with only 10 coming from your $24 million running back isn't going to win games Reich. Get it together. Flame away.

My hot take, he's the 2023 Panthers version of Jimmy Clausen in 2010. This is a one to two win team at this juncture. The coaches need to figure the offense out because we only ran the ball 19 times in a very close game with a rookie QB which is ridiculous. At this point, I'd rather have Wilks and his offensive staff back with Foreman so Bryce could throw 20 times a game and we run 40 or so. That would be the recipe to win with bottom third receivers and a top notch run blocking offensive line. Instead we are dropping Bryce back to pass 40 times and, as I'd said in preseason, if we do that we are going to lose.

Well, how about now? We have the Seahawks, Vikings, and Dolphins coming up. Where do you see a win there? If Tepper were interested in winning this year, and potentially long-term, he would've retained Wilks. Both of these games are games we would've won with him last year. But we have to "trust the process" of becoming the Steelers South in Year 5 of the Reign of Tepper. He wanted a QB to sell tickets, that's it. I personally believe he is the reason we took Young over Richardson or Stroud. However, this is not what it the worst. We are potentially a Top 3 pick team, in a draft with Drake Maye and Caleb Williams, as well as Marvin Harrison Jr., and we sent our draft pick to the Bears, who may also be a Top 3 pick team. So not only will an NFC team be able to offloadd their deadweight at QB, they'll be able to draft the best of the QB's and a likely perennial All-Pro wide receiver. The sky isn't falling. But you would expect to see a glimmer of good by now after three preseason games and two regular season games. The Texans and Colts have seen it with Stroud and Richardson while we are still here twiddling our thumbs. Last night was very Jimmy Clausen-esque.

27-10 Saints Maybe Chark will standout? Won't matter though.

Long-term for what? We aren't a playoff team. Not like we are going to beat the Saints, Bucs, or Falcons for the South and we certainly won't win enough for a Wild Card. Throw him out there so he can get his money on a decent contract elsewhere next year.

Long-term for what? We aren't a playoff team. Not like we are going to beat the Saints, Bucs, or Falcons for the South and we certainly won't win enough for a Wild Card. Throw him out there so he can get his money on a decent contract elsewhere next year.

You have it backwards. The hype we need, but not the hype we deserve, which is no hype at all. We. Are. Bad.

He overthrew DEEP BALLS? So he doesn't have a noodle arm? I think you're misunderstanding what gives an NFL QB the moniker of "noodle arm". It's not the ability to throw the deep ball but rather the ability to nail in the short and intermediate throws into tight windows.

I was banned for saying this over the summer; be careful. "BUT HIS BRAINS. HE'S GOT HUGE, MASSIVE, STRONGGGGG, BRAINS." Of course it's just one game. But physically, he is underwhelming to say the least, which we all knew. He had deep ball opportunities and missed those as well which is another concern considering that was supposed to be a strength of his. It took Drew Brees what, six years? So maybe after another two coaches we will get there. Or maybe we can get a GM who can work a trade for or find the next Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle in the draft? Going to be tough going against the Bears when they have DJ Moore, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Drake Maye or Caleb Williams. They could be great for a decade or more if they play their cards right.

Everyone knows this. Everyone knows all of this. What you see is a reaction equal and opposite to the infinite optimism that existed over the summer. I was banned for saying Bryce would probably struggle and that I didn't like the pick, mostly due to the team building aspect. I was called "negative" and that it wasn't needed. I was chided for saying that our 3-4 defense would take time since we lacked depth and the appropriate personnel. We just lost to a divisional opponent by two touchdowns and they threw for 95 yards. They threw for less than 100 yards and we lost. This after this forum decided that Wilks and his offensive preference was too old school because you have to pass to win now. What most of you all don't get is that we ran a power run game last year because we had to in order to win. We couldn't throw 40 times a game and win. We couldn't line up in shotgun 65% of the time and win. We needed to run a traditional offensive look and pass off of play-action to protect the offensive line, the quarterback, and to help the receivers. We would be wise to go back to that approach because what I saw today isn't going to win many games. It may hjave been one game, but there was enough there to see that we are a 2 to 5 win team. I don't see a world in which our offense is good enough to win more than that, as it exists today. Even without Bryce's interceptions, we were not winning that game today.

And guess what? If we suck bad enough, the Bears can double up by drafting Williams or Maye, AND they can take Marvin Harrison Jr. while off-loading Fields for another pick. We should've just sucked it up for another year and gone hard for Maye or Williams next year. Those two would've forced Young and Stroud down the board if they were in the same draft class. Tepper has been desperate for the excitement of a top draft pick and the money that drives and he got it. It was a dumb, short-sighted decision. You don't trade 1st round picks away when you have more holes in your roster than the swissest of swiss cheese.

Did you read my post? I wasn't making excuses for anything. I just said we suck. I said it in the score prediction thread and by my count, I was probably one of the closest in guessing the margin of the game. It's fine that we suck. This is the NFL where you can't build a team in a single off-season and despite most fans hopes, and the teams propaganda, we were never going to compete for anything but last place this year. I actually said this, and said that I didn't love the trade up for Bryce because we have so many holes on the roster, and I was banned for a week because of it. I was told I was "being too negative" and that people were tired of it. Well, how about now? This game was a throw back to Master Rhule instead of a step forward from where we were in the last six weeks of last year. I stand by my feelings that we should've gone with Wilk's, traded down to get more picks, re-signed Darnold and Foreman, and gone from there. We aren't going to win anything throwing the ball 40 times a game with this receiver group and the offensive line. It is what it is.

We were told we were morons after drawing some season long conclusions after preseason as well. Then we were called morons for saying Young will struggle. Man, this garbage of calling people morons for saying we still suck needs to end. We suck. It's obvious. We don't have speed at receiver, the QB is a rookie, and the defense is in Year 0 of a change to a 3-4 scheme. It's fine to say that we will suck. It's a fact. Panthers might win 5 to 7 games this season but that would be quite a surprise. You can bookmark that prediction if you'd like as well. Falcons beat us without throwing for 100 yards. That's very, very telling. Now we get to suck for the whole world to see against the Saints, which is also fine. It may drive down ticket prices enough for me to take my kids to a game.

Well, seems to have played out about the same as we saw in preseason, didn't it? This is why people were concerned. Same poo, different game, different coaching staff, different QB.

How about now?

Did not realize that the Falcons have Calais Campbell, Grady Jarrett, and Bud Dupree. While we are starting a rookie on the offensive interior line? May God save his soul. This first game might be rough.

0-3 teams in preseason generally don't go on to have good regular seasons.