SetfreexX

If any of you think Darnold is closing the season on a win you're delusional.

Stewart, Boston, and now Steve Smith.... I mean if this hasn't gotten to Tepper that at the very least two of the BEST Panthers all time are saying this is not a good look, I honestly do not know what will. Rhule defaced the team, and they tried to dismiss the heart of the team #keepponding motto....we didn't need a new culture, or a remake we needed someone to come in, and add to what we had what was in place. All Rhule has done is regress the team, less cap, less picks less offensive production. We were 7-9 in 2019, Ron was fired in December, in the 2020 and 2021 seasons we have TOTALED, let me repeat that TOTALED 10 wins as of the time of this post. 2019 - 7 wins 2020 - 2021 - 10 wins Rhule has no idea what he is doing, the on roster player support is fluff, if they didn't they'd derail their own careers.

So Pickett, Howell, etc. have the same grades as Burrow, Lance, Mac, or Lawrence...this is not the year to ''swing'' this is the year to PREPARE to swing, so that when you do swing, you have a team / roster ready to usher in a rookie to IMPROVE his chances to succeed early. People have gone broke ''buying tickets''.

CMC has a 2022 DEAD CAP hit of -- 26M to keep it simple -- 14M is his salary in 2022 -- so you'd be looking at a NEGATIVE cap hit of 12M aka you nerfed your own cap by doing this. (via Spotrac) Only way for something like this to work is to take ''less'' value in a trade so the receiving team will take on more of his GUARANTEED SALARY to lessen the dead cap hit -- I see little market for a HB that hasn't played a full season since 2019, and has the price tag he does. The money doesn't make sense -- we have DJ / Reddick / Jackson / Gilmore all to consider for extensions, and we need to add OL -- we can't afford to create negative cap space. We also owe Darnold 18.8M -- if we trade anything, we likely trade our 6th overall pick to acquire more draft stock because that will be the best way to add quality OL at a premium to the roster.

5 OL, all it takes is one to give up a sack.... BC has played well, and should have been starting much sooner, it was clear when we were .500 that Erving / Scott / Daley were not the answers at LT. Most of the sacks have been interior pressure.

Justin Fields, and Mac Jones were also available, and Darnold was only on the hook for 4M at the time, so yes ''hand picked''.

Beyond the OP, does he ''deserve'' the right to hand pick another...?

This is crazy to think about... In back to back seasons he was allowed to select a QB and use valuable assets (Cap for Teddy // Draft picks for Sam) to acquire ''his'' guy. With another supposed ''Rhule'' guy on the horizon, is there going to be a 3rd?

For my sanity no....I'd rather see Cam get the Big Ben fair well, and Ben is even worse off, Cam's arm seems fine, people make too much of it for a guy that is 32 atm. Find a place that will take Sam as a salary dump the way Osweiler was unloaded who was as bad or worse. Give fans a reason to watch / and give the team aka the other 52 hope each and every game for a win with a real Quarterback. Cam, and an upgraded, and I mean legitimately upgraded OL and I think we can get in as a 6th / 7th seed. People forget he helped a Covid-Opt-Out depleted NE roster get to 7-8; I am fine with 1-2 years of Cam if needed. No other vet, or young failed project is worth that spot. We need to draft a rookie, and the QB depth looks to be stronger overall in 23' and our roster has too many holes to take a young QB as a luxury. Maybe free agency changes my mind, but I'd still like more picks to fill out the OL with talent at a much moe affordable price.

Roster isn't ready for a rookie atm, best to solidify the roster as a whole. Trade back, and acquire ammo for this draft and the next. If we take a player at #6, and we sit until the 4th we're missing prime opportunity to improve the roster, we have cap but -- DJ / Reddick / Gilmore or Jackson will consume some of that. We're not a QB at 6 away...we have to address the OL first, I'm okay with Cam, as a bridge to 23' -- I can't sit through Darnold for 17. And like I said before, I wouldn't hate a QB via trade down if we add ammo to solidify the OL.

That's why you trade back to accumulate ammunition for this year and next. Options to improve the roster today, and tomorrow.

Both of them went to playoff caliber rosters with good coaches as well. LAC - Keenan Allen / Mike Williams / Eckler -- Bosa / Hayward / that corner from DEN who's name I can't think of, and James back healthy. NE - Got Trent Brown back, and ALREADY had one of the better OL's in the league, and solidified the defense in FA with guys like Judon, and added two of the best receiving TE's in the NFL (Henry / Smith) Where you end up is important, neither one of them is likely to life a JAX (see Lawrence) or a DET caliber organization. People weren't enamored by the Baker / Darnold / Rosen class and look how they all turned out...all in new spots, with Baker potentially moved on from as well, and look at all he had to work with -- a top, literal top OL, receivers out the wazoo, and Austin Hooper at TE with one of the BEST backs in the league in Chubb, and overall it's been meh. However, you have to give some credit for a playoff appearance, because that defense was legit.

All the guys we got via trade backs had pedigree - TMJ was viewed as a 1st rounder, but medicals dropped him -- We failed to find him a role Brady Christensen was one of the top rated LT's in college, age, and measurables dropped him -- when he FINALLY got to play his natural position, would you believe he actually looked good at LT Tremble can block, can run, and catch -- Under Brady we didn't really feature the TE in 2020, and we didn't in 2021 either, though Tremble had plenty of flashes Deonte Brown was a stalwart for ALA -- On our roster with UDFA Mike Jordan and Turnstile 2.0 Miller, we can't even get him on the field? I think more than anything the staff / coaching decisions need to come under more scrutiny. Those 11 picks aside from the LS (Rhule) set us up nicely to move forward with less issues. Our OL could have been something similar to the following to start the season; Christensen / Elflein / Paradis / Brown / Moton With the only real weakness being Elf, as he's been better at his natural spot ''C'' as well. Instead we trot out; Erving / Jordan / Paradis / Miller / Moton Three of those spots we knew day 1, day freaking 1 those dudes were trash with no room to get better. ---------------------------------------------------- Similar to Ron, and moving on from vets, in year 2 I developed those same concerns about Rhule.

I'm not sold on these 22' QB's -- 23' looks more promising overall, and none of this matters if we DON'T have an offensive line.

Because the offense can't give them ANYTHING to work with, the defense has held up early / long enough versus the better teams. The issue is the offense can't score, therefore eventually the defense will crack. We're built to get after the opposing offense with enough run defense to survive early, it's why when we have had a lead we've looked relatively good on that side of the ball.

TBF looking at 23' I think I'd take the future 1st, we will need ammunition to move up for a QB, prepping for that during this off-season / draft would go a long way in solidifying that position moving forward. I'm also not against selecting Willis while adding OL via trading back a time or two if the cards can fall right.

You can't trade either, CMC - Has a 26M DEAD cap hit for 22' and would create -12M in cap space Robbie - Has a 15.6M DEAD cap hit for 22' and would only save 1M People need to do some research before things like this are proposed, Teddy was moved because the coaches thought they could replace him with Darnold, and still had to eat a considerable amount of dead cap. You can't operate / waste cap that way two off-seasons in a row, especially if there are talks of trying to figure something out with Sam... Could you trade DJ Moore, yes but he's on a 5th year option, and a team may not be willing to pay a premium price for a receiver on a one year deal, and likely looking for premium compensation. You also don't get better trading away your best players, imagine where the passing game would be in his absence in this past season. I would not consider this team with a competent staff in ''burn it all down'' mode. Use the 6th to acquire more picks, and solidify the roster as a whole. IMO find a way to move Sam if a team agrees to take on some of the guaranteed salary and keep Cam as he'd perform the better of the two with a competent OL. If you can't find a partner for Sam, we are forced due to his 18M guaranteed to likely ride it out with him for 22' and Cam is released...again. In 23' we should be in a better position roster wise to move up for a QB where the talent is expected to be higher.

This is what we need to hope, and then kick ourselves for not operating with intelligence last year as we owe a bum 19M. For all the talk of treating Sam like a rookie, oh he's just one of 53, you opted to pick up his 5th year without one snap and committed guarantees to him as though he was NOT A ROOKIE. He was 4M in 2021, that salary will more than quadruple for 22' that is insane roster / cap management, we all know Sam is not an answer moving forward. And we passed on a QB to take a corner. Could have had a REAL competition, and went with the best man, yet here we are still trying to figure something out.

3 to 12, not 6 (where we are) to 12; and that trade up was for a QB most people at that time was thought to have the highest ceiling. Pickett, Corrall, Howell, Willis, and Ridder -- I don't think anyone is going to come out of pocket ''like that'' to move up for one of them.

I'm putting that trade on Rhule, Scott facilitated the request. If we feel good about Christensen at LT, I'm ok with 1-2 first round trade backs to put us in position to address IOL with multiple day 1 / 2 picks. Fix the OL IMO has to be a focus this off-season, if you can pass pro / run block everyone gets a little bit better.

Yeah, but you also have to be careful passing up good players to acquire more on day 2 and 3, it's a balance, SEA trades back a lot and their drafts overall have not been great these past few years if memory serves off the top of my head aside from Metcalf. Fitterer IMO had an impressive draft, but Rhule / the staff not getting guys like - TMJ, Christensen, Shi, and Brown on the field more while Tremble at least saw some work is what really concerns me. All of them showed well from what we got to see from camp / pre-season, yet our 2nd round pick TMJ hardly ever seemed to be involved in the offense even though we spend a good amount of time in 11 personnel.

Will Rhule survive Monday, January 10th...aka ''Black Monday'' That's what this will all boil down to, and even if Pickett is his guy, we have cap with some names to secure long term (Moore, Jackson or Gilmore, etc.) so money for OL will be limited in free agency to some degree. We almost don't have a choice in regard to trading down to make sure we can acquire some top OL talent since we don't have a 2nd or 3rd this year, and I doubt if we did it's outside the top 15, Fitterer was quoted if memory serves talking about the drop off around that point in the first. I am truly intrigued to see what happens this off-season, we have a lot of talent at some key spots, the OL, and QB play really held us back, I'm honestly impressed with what the defense did all things considered.

So with things essentially set with us picking at 6, and at best 4th if miraculous wonders are worked, how would you feel about the compensation below. Moving to 12th, added a 4th in the same draft, and a first the following year. I know many were speculating trying to recoup a 2nd and possibly a 3rd, with no real ''top tier'' QB talents like we saw in 2021 what will we be the value of the 6th pick, and what will we be able to recoup in a trade back; or would we trade back multiple times in the first, or after in order to do so.

It's 1000% there

Bahahahahahahahahaha, I love this answer, I was at the game, we're poo, even when the score is within a possession, we don't / can't put a drive together outside the opening one.