pantherj

Ok so the Huddle doesn't agree with me on this and they never will, but I would have already traded Burns and Brown for high draft picks. I would use those picks to build an elite offense around Young. Only AFTER we had a high octane offense would I look to build up the defense. The defense would cheap, young, and scrappy until i had the time to start building on it. Offense first. That way you protect Young, and you make the games more fun to watch. Defense second. Rhule came in and drafted all defense, and brought in game managing QBs. You saw what happened. Not on my watch.

We're almost unwatchable now, and I follow the team year round. I don't know how many more games I can watch live. At least we had CMC and he was fun to watch no matter what else happened. And Cam overlapped with him and was before him. And before that it was Steve Smith. We don't have anyone who excites me now. That's not to take away from Burns, but I'm just not liking what I'm seeing overall. There is just no fun in watching, and I don't mean just because we're bad. We're bad AND I don't like watching these players play football for the most part. Yes Burns is fun sometimes, and non-existent at other times. We just don't have the stars we had in the past, and it's becoming boring. The team has been totally sapped of whatever made this fun for all those years in the past. Even when we had no hope of winning a game with Pickles there was still something fun about laughing at him. This just isn't fun anymore.

Otah, when healthy, was the best run blocking RT I have ever seen. Period. His back went out and he just couldn't do it anymore. He looked HoF level at run blocking. He would just swallow and maul anyone in front of him. Just amazing. Horn is a very precise, quick, and fast CB who just can't stay healthy. He's the best CB we've had since Josh Norman or Bradberry, but what does it matter if his body keeps failing him? It's not his fault, but he's going to have to settle for less money if this continues. We can't pay a premium for someone who rarely plays.

We have what we have at the moment. Predictions are just part of being a fan. I'm always hoping for the best.

I wasn't going to say this but there is the dark side to holding onto our vets rather than trading them for top quality weapons. I hate to say this, but when targets are not open Young will hold the ball to scan the field. This puts Young in major danger and he is basically the smallest QB in the NFL. That means injury is highly likely, and possible psychological damage as well. I didn't want to say that because it's rather negative, but we need to live with reality.

Consider that we have two second round WRs on our team, and they don't get good separation. It's not that easy to find WRs. But I never said that it's easier to find an elite DE than WR, also Burns is playing OLB. it's more about priorities than which is easier to replace.

When you want to develop and evaluate a rookie QB and see his progress over those first couple of rookie contract years there are a few of things that are critical. #1. O-line protects him. #2. Weapons around him are high end. Burns is less important for evaluating Young in comparison to #1 and #2. But you MUST choose correctly. You can already see the problem developing and it's only week 1. The problem, which is going to be ongoing, is that our receivers are well below the league average for separation from coverage. This causes a critical evaluation problem for the Panthers staff. Do we blame Young, or the receivers? How can we know for sure who is to blame? If the problem were the receivers, then we could replace them with the Rams picks, and the Burns money later. And if Young doesn't play well with the better receivers, then it's a Young problem, and we have picks to replace him. If he improves, then we know we have our guy, and we can then address the pass rush. We can do just fine without an elite pass rusher if the passing offense sails down the field. What we have now is a 13 point type of offense, with Burns giving us a sack here and there. And we're going to being paying Burns a fortune, but I don't like the timing. Evaluating Young is top priority, and a pass rusher can be found later. We've made our bed at this point, and we're keeping Burns. That's ok but it comes at a price, and this is not how I would want to do things. It's not that I don't think Burns can be a top quality pass rusher in our 3-4, and it's not that I don't like Burns.

And what do you think is going to happen to Young? He's going to be psychologically damaged to the point where he is useless for the rest of his career? Or are you afraid he's going to be injured and permanently ruined that way? Please everyone stop saying something like this "we won 7 games last season, so now with Young we should win more games." Stop. Starting a rookie QB is a messy affair. You're looking at rookie QB mistakes like interceptions missed open targets. That alone will decide most games, and Young is going to make those kind of mistakes a lot as a rookie. We might win a few more games with Dalton's noodle arm and more experience, but are we really going anywhere that will lead to a trophy with grandpa Dalton? No. We're taking our medicine with Young now, and I have no objections. I agree. Now why we didn't trade Burns during this learning phase for Young comes down to GM error. Better to have 2 firsts and a second for the future once Young is up to speed, or Young flops we have the juice to replace him easily in the draft. Now is not the time for expensive defensive veterans. Makes no sense. This is the learning phase, so keep the defense young, and then they mature with Young. But at any rate, everyone's job is now tied to Young. If he doesn't develop, then everyone is getting fired.

We've gone from a multi-year rebuild, to a multi-year rebuild. Brutal. That will kill any fan base. It comes down to a few key mistakes. Herbert was there for a trade up and Hurney knew he was the guy. Then he sat put and took Brown. Devastating mistake. Then we brought in Teddy, followed by Sam. Brutal blunders. In comes Mayfield. A joke. This time span killed the spirit of the Panthers fan base, and what's worse is that the fans didn't want those QBs. We already knew at the time that they were mediocre or worse. Devastating. Now here we are with a rookie QB and starting over. We fans are totally exhausted and the team looks like ass. This is basically a lost rebuild season, and we have no 1st round pick to be excited for next season. All we basically have is the hope that somewhere toward the end of the season Young will be playing at a high level. Until then we're going to get our as handed to us, and there is no reward in a high draft pick. It's all on Young, and that verdict is WAY off into the future. Essentially we have nothing right now to be excited about. So why not do something else on Sunday and check the highlights later? I wouldn't fault any fan for doing just that. The team has been mismanaged to the point where it's impossible to enjoy watching the team. It's over for now, and the future is an unknown.

That was 7.

Horn has hamstring injury.

Mega sack by big boy Brown.

Hurst! Good play calling! I love it!

I'm not watching 16 more games of this play calling on offense. Not live anyway. They better figure something out.

Another almost play clock violation.

Bro they know what we're DOING. lol

We're MORE obvious than under Wilks.

I would say our offense is 10/10 in predictability, and our run defense is 2/10.

I thought we were going to fake the Falcons out in this game. I know what we're about to do and I'm just SOME DUDE.

This was the offense we were keeping secret? The play calling is not what was hoping for. Desperation runs that are obvious are not it.

Hopefully better play calling in the red zone this time around of we get there. And it's no Chuba time in the red zone btw.

We're looking clueless I hate to say.

Bad play calling and preseason level run defense. Uh oh.

So put it in 6th round draft pick Chuba's hands? Ok... ?

Jeremy Chinn is my favorite defensive player on the team, and I'm hoping he comes up big today. Our o-line tends to bully the Falcons d-line year in and year out, so hoping that trend continues. No idea what's going to happen with the passing offense.