CPcavedweller

Bryce was not the consensus number one pick, by a mile. If the Texans had drafted first, they would've taken Young. I feel like many other teams would've passed on Bryce if he was the option. Given the Bears position last year, if Bryce was surefire, they would've kept the pick, traded fields, and drafted Young. The fact they didn't is very telling.

I haven't seen the questions other than his ACL's at Indiana. Any questions for Penix are two-fold for Bryce yet we mortgaged the franchise for him.

Our offensive line is fine. We need to get back to what works and keep the main thing the main thing. A Top 10 line under Wilks, a defensive coordinator by trade, went to poo under an offensive Head Coach. Players aren't the issue, it's the system.

Like what, exactly? Bryce didn't make half the throws that Penix makes and is a good 5 inches shorter. If there are a "multitude of questions" about Penix, why was Bryce the "surefire number one pick"? Give me a break. And while you're at it, give me Penix or Nix.

You don't think Harrison Jr. is a generational talent? He was bred to be a wide receiver in the NFL. Quite literally. He's been good at Ohio State. He will be an All-Pro in the NFL. Pair him with DJ Moore and a surging Justin Fields? My god. Or, they could trade down, trade Fields, and still get Penix/Marvin Harrison Jr.

Why would Ben Johnson come to Carolina for any reason other than money? You have a meddling owner who has had 5 head coaches on two different teams. It's a recipe for disaster and the reputation he has among coaching circles is most likely horrible.

One could argue that Tom Brady was a game manager. Payton Manning was the ultimate game manager. There is literally nothing wrong with being a game manager, especially at QB. That's their job. Purdy had a bad game, it happens. I'd still take Purdy and Shanahan over whatever the Panthers have right now.

You going to say the same thing about everyone on these message boards? Fans are what drive the NFL, not the owners, not the players. If fans didn't care enough to banter, there would be no NFL.

If you're trying to say Bryce is a game manager, he's not even that. People are trying to label guys like Purdy as a Game Manager and I have a feeling it's solely because they see certain characteristics of his appearance and how he plays the game, dishing the rock, and they say "manager". Looking at his stats, he has a good case for MVP. Give me the Purdy mold of Game Manager all day.

It was dead money either way, and it's not yours. What do you care?

Yes, but it won't happen because Tepper has shown no ability to solely what is logical. He didn't retain Wilks after Wilks literally turned around a moribund franchise in about two weeks. The 12 weeks with Wilks were the best this team has looked since 2018. So do I expect him to keep Evero? No. Defensive football doesn't sell tickets, apparently. Nevermind that the defense and offense will be complimentary and as a fast, attacking, defense, Evero would likely go after an offense of the same mold.

Keeping Darnold and Wilks would have been a positive move. I will say it for the 10 millionth time, Sam Darnold's two head coaches have been ADAM GASE and MATT RHULE, neither of whom are coaching in the NFL right now because they were so bad as head coaches. I'd take Darnold and Wilks over whatever it is we had this year and what we had this year was Tepper's master plan. Lastly, Tepper is at fault here. He is the one who tells Fitterer what he wants and Fitterer just executes whatever in whatever way. You don't come from a place like Seattle and do what Fitterer has been alleged to do without some input or force (i.e. Tepper).

Going back in time, the Panthers would've been better with Hurney and Rivera the past few years. Rivera's biggest flaw was holding on to Shula and waiting to switch to a 3-4 for too long. Now watch Tepper do some dumb poo and hire a defensive coordinator that runs a 4-3, yet again, a year within switching to a 3-4.

Bros. Firing Fitterer isn't going to fix anything. Tepper will still impose his will under threat of job under the next guy. Tepper needs to sell the team to fix this. That, or he needs to go on a permanent vacation and install a management group.

Which is easier to build and easier to win with. Otherwise the Vikings, Bengals, Dolphins, Bills, etc. would all be the front runners. The Eagles and the Chiefs got to the Super Bowl last year because of their defense. Their offense helped. So yeah. Spend a majority of your salary cap to build an elite offense, neglect your defense, and you're still not beating the Cowboys, Chiefs, Lions, etc. this year. You may win in the regular season but in the post season? Defense wins championships. Offenses win games. It's sort of like the old adage "offensive linemen block for 1st downs, wide receivers block for touchdowns"

I've been saying this since 2019. I really yelled it last off-season and was nearly banned for it. Now you're getting pie? Being a visionary is hard sometimes man.

Continuing to lose games could shore up the Bears. Imagine a world where the off-load Fields for three 2nd round pics and a future 1st, get Drake Maye, get Marvin Harrison Jr. hire Ben Johnson as their HC, and now have DJ Moore to go along with the best receiver in recent history, two generational talents to go along with a generational talent as a head coach. Bears could be set for a decade. And that means if we ever hope to win, we have to go through them.

Maybe. I'm not out there getting hit by a Mack Truck one day a week so I don't know. But from a personnel development aspect, you can't bench Bryce. What you can do is change the offensive philosophy to protect him and protect the offensive line. Heavy run and heavy play action passing game. FORCE him to learn to play under center.

Well, at least one team is scoring high now. Which is why Tepper is a moron, again. Games with scoring in the high 20's is a high scoring game in the NFL. The biggest problem with Tepper's logic is that in the NFL, as opposed to college, a win is a win is a win. It doesn't matter how you get it. "Just win, baby". "You play to win the game", "Playoffs. Playoffs?" Tepper forgot about that. The team with the best defense generally wins the championship games. Does Tepper think the Patriots cared that they beat the Rams 13-3 instead of 43-33? Or that the Patriots were able to hold the Falcons scoreless after they got to 28? Does he realize the investment the 49er's have made in their defensive personnel since they have an offensive head coach and defensive GM? The 49er's success is enabled by four guys on offense and probably 10 guys on defense. DEFENSE. RUNNING GAME. PLAY ACTION. UNDER CENTER. DEFENSE. May sound boring. But I'd rather watch that and win than see another fuging tunnel screen to Adam Theilen.

Deductive reasoning. 1. Is likely factual 2. 95% fact, 5% speculation 3. 50% fact, 50% speculation - We know Tepper made the head coaching decision. He never really wanted Wilks from what I understand so I have to assume Wilks made it that far at the behest of Fitterer 4. 100% Fact - Look at the Seahawk's and tell me when they've done something comparable. This would be totally out of left field for a guy like Fitterer. We know for a fact that we've had a new starting QB each year since Tepper bought the team accross three head coaches. That's one constant presence which tells me he is the driver of this. Having a franchise QB is good for business. Problem is that buying low and selling high doesn't work in football. Buying blue chip stock doesn't work well either if the CEO of that stock holding is garbage and runs it into the ground (i.e. Disney and Bryce Young comparison). Ultimately, football is just a game and Tepper is missing that point. He doesn't love the game of football. He doesn't watch nor pay attention to college football aside from what the ESPN talking heads have to say most likely. He's literally as informed as any one of us, except I watch probably 10 to 15 college football games a weekend and re-watch some more during the week while I'm working so I'd like to believe I could make decent decisions given the opportunity. Tepper isn't that. This is a pet project for him that he thought would be easy. That much is clear. He's also ruining peoples livelihoods and careers in the process of his ownership.

McCown said as much on his YouTube channel during a breakdown of Stroud. He effectively said as much at Stroud's Pro Day which was captured on camera. Then you compare the body language of everyone at Stroud's Pro Day versus their body language at Young's. The only group who seemed more please at Bryce's were the Tepper's. Now why would they want Young over Stroud? One is more microphone ready. He's probably better in a business meeting, better in speaking engagements, more polite perhaps with better table manners. And Young got the stamp of approval from Nick Saban, which is a death stamp, as far as I'm concerned for QB's. But, Tepper doesn't know poo about college football so he took it. The story of how the trade happened is also very telling.

No one is mad that Young is starting over Dalton. Not only was Bryce taken number one, but we gave up another number one, a number two, and a play worth a number one. You almost have to give him experience. Hell, I don't like it either but there is no point in cutting bait right now considering everything is guaranteed from the picks given to his salary.

What do we accomplish with that? The fact of the matter is that you mortgaged your future for Young, whether it was Reich, Fitterer, or Tepper. You have to go with what you have, unless you can dump Bryce for a late 1st Round pick or something. Imagine a world where we don't trade up for Bryce, and we have a shot at Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, or Bo Nix. This is why owners don't make personnel decisions. The decisions for the 2024 QB Class are infinitely better than they were in 2023. 1. Daniels 2. Stroud 3. Maye 4. Williams 5. Nix 6. Richardson 7. DTR 8. O'Connel 9. Young? Like he is so far down this list it's ridiculous.

What does it matter who is GM so long as Tepper is here? He is a Jerry Jones wannabe except he wants to have a GM. Fitterer is a scapegoat at this point. I also disagree vehemently about Wilks. There is nothing in his history suggesting that hiring him would've been a mistake. He took the same team that has been losing for four years and at least got them to .500. That was before he would've had a draft and been able to build an offense in his image. It was also after firing 12 people mid-season. So give me a break. What Wilks accomplished in 2022 will, in time, be seen as a miracle because it might be the most success we see for another 5 years. Go ahead and pin this comment, save it, do something to reference in April of each year as Tepper continues making the same mistakes. This all falls on Tepper. He wanted Reich, he wanted to trade up for Number 1, he wanted Young. This is on him. Fitterer either said yes or get's fired. What would you do?

There is no forward. This team will be another one to three win team in 2024. Our best bet is hiring a defensive minded coach who appreciates an offensive approach similar to what the Lions run and what we ran in 2022. Heavy run and heavy play action with a lot of 12 and 13 personnel to help support the offensive line. Draft a burner or two on Day 3 to stretch the field and sign a bruising back. Go heavy under center with a 52/48 run/pass split, heavy play action, heavy tight end involvement, roll outs, etc. That will protect our offensive line, our receivers, and our QB. If we play good enough defense, the offense should be good for probably 22 to 28 points a game which is good enough to win in the NFL. We won't win through the draft for another three years. Gotta make it count in how you scheme.