hepcat

I want to see one drive that scores a TD against the Bills backups and I’ll be satisfied. They go 3 and out a couple times against the Bills 2nd stringers and this team is f*cked again.

Well I think you’re being a little shortsighted but I get your point. I would liken keeping Wilks after the 2022 season to the 49ers keeping Mike Singletary in 2009. In 2008, the 49ers fired Mike Nolan after an 2-5 start, and Singletary was named interim head coach. He went 5-4 and the 49ers finished 7-9. The 49ers had talent but he wasn’t the right guy to win with that roster, but he developed the defense and kept them largely competitive until they took off under Harbaugh using many of the same players as Singletary had. I could have seen the Panthers following a similar trajectory to the post Singletary 49ers if they retained Wilks in 2023. They could have remained competitive and rebuilt the roster for a couple years before potentially hiring a next level coach to truly compete. But the Panthers made a series of absolutely mind boggling decisions after firing Matt Rhule that lead us to today. They traded away the team’s best offensive player for a 2nd round pick instead of trading away an overrated defensive end for 2 first round picks. They didn’t keep the interim head coach that won over the locker room and had success with a mediocre roster. Then they traded away the team’s best offensive player again to draft an undersized QB. If they had kept Wilks, traded Brian Burns instead, and didn’t trade CMC or DJ Moore, I could have seen a universe where the Panthers are a playoff team this year. But I think it’ll be a case of starting over yet again next year, and it does center around not keeping coaches who can at least remain competitive.

The mistake in the rebuild wasn’t hiring Matt Rhule. It was not hiring Steve Wilks who is the only coach to show any semblance of competence under David Tepper’s ownership. The Panthers could have used three years of him stabilizing the ship, developing the roster, and if he couldn’t get over the hump, hiring someone else at that time. It’s just frustrating to watch the team keep hiring the wrong guys.

McVay is a bad example. He took a perpetually terrible Rams team and turned them into a playoff contender in his first season. He played his starters in his first preseason when the team was still unproven and bad. A good team with veteran starters has a much stronger case to bench starters in preseason.

McVay played his starters in preseason his first season as head coach of the Rams Secondly y’all telling me the worst team in the NFL last year and over the last 5 seasons couldn’t use a few live game reps? It’s like some of the fans want to have a bad team just to virtue signal to the fans who don’t

After significant backlash from the fanbase about the worst team in the NFL inexplicably benching starters during the preseason, head coach caves to pressure to play starters for a little while in the final preseason game.

for reference: https://www.instagram.com/ordinarypeoplememes/?hl=en

I will do more if people think these are funny ok bye

Wow what a great opportunity for ordinary people memes

It’s the panther way trade away quality starters for minimal return and panic to draft a shittier replacement. It’s been happening for years!

It's a lot harder for me to keep up with the team just because of my life and obligations. So I actually see a benefit there because even if I wanted to I couldn't watch every game this year or keep up with the ins and outs of the team and players. Aside from that, there's nothing to get excited about right now. They traded away the two best players on the offense to trade up to draft the smallest and most physically limited QB ever drafted #1 overall. To make matters worse, they passed on CJ Stroud, who I and many other fans and maybe even the coaching staff wanted, who turned out to be very very good. If Bryce can show something early in the season I think you'll see a lot of fans start keeping an eye on the team again, but if Bryce is a bust, it's going to take a long time for the fanbase to recover from the destruction of the Panthers since Tepper purchased the team. I really never thought it would get this bad.

The same thing happened with Sam Darnold in 2021. I thought it was insane to trade for Darnold, not draft or sign any QB competition, and also give him the guaranteed 5th year option. Starting to wonder if it's a Tepper thing to coddle the starter.

Judging by the last 5 years I can assure you with a startling amount of confidence that there is no method behind the madness

Too Soon 28 days later

Right, the worst team in the NFL last year and over the last 5 years has nothing to whine about watching their team bench starters in the preseason while the best teams in the NFL have no problem playing their starters. What a world. This fanbase is as garbage as the team is

So now practice reps are the same as game reps?

And they are putting Bryce in a winning situation by not giving him any preseason snaps in the new offense?

Bruh no one who has watched this team the last few years even only a few games would be surprised if that happened. They are trash

McVay didn’t bench his starters in the preseason his first season as head coach of the Rams

On what planet does the worst team in the NFL the previous season and over the last 5 years think it’s a good idea to bench starters for all preseason games? The best teams in the NFL are playing their starters for at least a few drives. But the Panthers are on their 3rd coaching staff in the last 3 years, talking up a “great practice” against the Jets on Thursday as reason to bench starters for preseason games. I thought the Panthers employed NFL professionals who understood practice reps are not the same as game reps but maybe I am wrong. The Panthers were a dumpster fire in preseason last season so maybe they’re trying to avoid tanking ticket sales worse than they already are or they are intentionally tanking, but who knows.

I am really starting to wonder if they are tanking this season

If they can’t even get Bryce out there for a couple drives in the preseason I genuinely think this franchise wants to be bad. Like they are trying to be bad. I haven’t seen anything to convince me otherwise in many years.

I think history is not going to be kind to the Panthers trading CMC and DJ Moore away. Panthers offense was set up to be very good with even average QB play after Cam was released, but boy howdy did they f*ck that up.

I remember going into that game thinking that if Bryce couldn’t show anything against the league’s WORST pass defense at the time, he was done. Green Bay’s pass defense even made Tommy Devito look good last year.