CPcavedweller

We beat the Detroit Lions last year with a punishing running game and a road grading offensive line. We had the Bucs on the ropes. The only reason we even went .500 to close the season was because Wilks made a concerted decision to protect the offensive line and run the football using D'Onta Foreman and pass off of the play action opportunities that created. So yes, call me old fashioned but when you have lemons, you make lemonade. Our offensive line isn't built to drop back 40 times a game or pass protect from the shotgun 60% of the time like the Cardinals have been doing with Kyler. Perhaps you don't remember but our offensive line was a "strong point" coming into the season because of what we saw last year. What no one, including the pundits, took into account was that we went from a true West Coast offense to what effectively was a Power I situation mid-season which made the offensive line seem much better than it was at pass protection. Now we go back to a pass heavy West Coast look and we get the same poo we saw early on in 2022. In effect, we have lemons but need to make chili. Sure, you want it a little spicy, but you ain't got the ingredients.

Well the most recent high profile trade up for a QB has failed now that Trey Lance is likely gone. Time will tell if we are in the same boat three years from now. May as well hold onto Corral and see what he can become. Imagine if the Packers had offloaded Jordan Love when he looked like hot garbage his first two off-seasons. Where would they be? Purgatory. Now, to my untrained eye, they look like a darkhorse to win the NFC North.

Pairing Hurst with a guy like Washington, to go along with Charbonnet at running back and his college teammate in DTR (5th round pick btw), at QB behind a road grading offensive line would've been nasty. Add in a guy like Mingo who should, with his size, be a blocking god and you'd have one hell of a running football team. But, Tepper wants to throw the ball. Too bad we don't have the team to do that right now.

Why do they need to be locked? Any criticism of Bryce gets you a one week ban. Now you can't even criticize the decision to trade up in the first place? Cheese and rice man, what a time to be alive.

I think we should've traded down and drafted guys like Zach Charbonnet, O'Cyrus Torrance, and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. But what do I know?

I was told that this was blasphemy just a month ago.

I guess time will tell, won't it? It isn't "negative" to suggest that we made the wrong pick. Hell, history would say that we made the wrong decision to trade up for a QB as that has not really worked out at all in the past decade. To me, this is like all of the teams that passed on Josh Allen. Richardson will make a lot of this forum believers by the end of the year. I can't say the same about Bryce and it may not even be because Bryce is that bad but rather because Richardson's raw physical ability will open up the entire offense he plays within.

Bro, have you not watched Josh Allen? He's literally a better version of Cam Newton.

As far as Ickey is concerned, I think we need to understand the context within which our line looked good. When Rhule was fired and Wilkes came in with a plan to run the ball, and throw off of play action, our line magically got better. We protected them. Now this new staff is asking them to do what Rhule was asking them to do which is pass black for 2 to 5 seconds two of every three snaps, and the result is the same. I don't think we have the personnel to run the Rams West Coast style offense and would be much better suited to running something like the 49er's run to, if nothing else, protect our offensive line. They can be a Top 10 unit when running.

I'd say yes. Even the threat of Richardson running will make throwing the ball so much easier for him. While we drafted a 5'9 pocket QB with a below average Arm but a live brain. I think Bryce will be fine, but it's going to take some time whereas Richardson will get by solely based on his physical talent. If he can take a Josh Allen type leap in his throwing ability he's going to be scary.

I'm sort of with him on the trade. If the goal isn't to make a playoff push throughout Bryce's rookie contract, why would we give up a future 1st to draft him? Teams trade 1st rounders to win now, not win tomorrow. So if we are terrible this season and we end up with a Top 5 pick, that pick now belongs to a conference rival with their Franchise QB, a number one wide receiver, D'Onta Foreman, and some good defensive pieces. I don't mind the urgency here but it's like we are playing checkers while looking for QB1 and it's been that way since Tepper bought the team. He knows that QB1 sells, period. It's a pie graph to him. We will see if it pays off but I have a feeling it won't be until Year 4 when we should have had enough time to build a core of talent but at that point, will Tepper show any patience?

It really is giving me flashbacks to last year before Wilks came in and we started to really run the ball well. If this staff wants to throw 35 times a game, or run from the shotgun 20 times a game, we are screwed. This line is best when road grading.

Trying to edit...edit...edit...edit... Was wrong. Was thinking of Tuttle for some reason./

So what is a fake starter? He was brought in to contribute to the team and was a miss. Now Ickey is playing like dog poo, Chark is injured, we missed on McCall, Miles Sanders is also injured. Now the team comes out and say that it's going to be a three year process, meanwhile we don't have a stockpile of picks like you'd hope a team who just drafted a franchise QB would have. So no, this isn't "getting a look at him". This is a whiff. This has been the Panthers since Tepper took over. Get used to it.

I don't think we should've traded the farm to get him. It was a bad deal and I'll tell you the number one reason why. If we aren't going to win this year, and make the goal a playoff push, we just traded our number one pick next year to a conference rival who already has a Franchise QB and now has a number one receiver to go along with their defensive pieces. So they get another high pick next year, a likely middle to low pick, both in the first round to continue to build while we are stuck with building through Free Agency which is not a winning strategy without a great core of talent. So it wasn't about Bryce, it was about the trade. With this offensive staff, we could've re-signed Darnold and he would've had the best coaching staff he's ever had, we could've traded down in the first, taken multiple players who were Top 3 at their position for the draft, and got a core of talent. Anyway, I'm not the owner and I'm not a GM, but I am of the opinion that we gave up too much to move up. I get the drooling over Bryce, he's probably going to be a good QB, but if the goal isn't to win now, when will it be time? You don't go trading away 1st round picks to win tomorrow.

Yeah, that was the worst take I've heard in a while, other than the guys who thought we would be a playoff team. Or perhaps that Ickey had proven he is a franchise left tackle. Lot of fanboys here who are just hot take after hot take.

What? He was our number one receiver for crying out loud. What has been separated as fiction from fact is that we are not nearly as talented as we thought that we were. At this point in the season, you are who you are. You're not going to find much production off of the waiver wire and you're not going to find much production on someone elses practice squad. We all need to accept that we aren't going to be very good this year and we won't have a first round pick next year to get better.

If the Cowboys go 0-3 in preseason, history tends to show that they would be pioneers in blazing a trail to the playoffs. It just doesn't happen.

Very strong correlation between losing in preseason and regular season.

At this point Luton looks about as good as Bryce. But ya know, that's blasphemy around here.

Really? You think the Bucs aren't thinking "tank for Williams or Maye"?

This is very dismissive of how bad ALL of our depth chart looked. Starters looked bad, 2nd looked bad, 3rd looked bad. They all looked bad. That isn't scheming. That's just being the less talented team.

They almost certainly have. It was repeated on the broadcast probably 6 times. It's been said here since last year. Ickey was good when we were running well and were able to mix up the run and pass. When obvious passing downs come, he's toast. That should improve as he ages but for now, it's just not good, at all. As I'd said before, it's to be expected that he'd struggle and there is nothing wrong with that going into Year 2. However, he wasn't just beat against the Jets, he was run around with ease on a speed rush that left Bryce plastered. It should've been Roughing the Passer twice, by the rulebook, but they didn't call it for some reason, but it doesn't matter because the end result is the same.

Teams rarely, and by rarely I mean maybe once or twice, have gone 0-fer in the preseason and made the playoffs. So no, you can't go 0-3 and be a 12-5 football team in the regular season. It's not that it can't happen, it just doesn't. The preseason is not only a representation of your players but your depth against depth, your coaching and development, and your ability to find guys down the depth chart who can play. If the Panthers lose 27-0 or anything close to that again, and lose a 3rd game, you can bet the under on our win total for the year.

I saw him get beat like a drum on Saturday and numerous times at pivotal moments. There is a difference in allowing a sack and allowing pressure. He got Bryce toasted on a damn bagel twice in three plays. You can argue what your eyes show you all day but I know what I saw and it was ugly.