MasterAwesome

I've never seen a group of people blow a single game so out of proportion than y'all do for Andy Dalton. Were you among the group of posters who thought we found our franchise QB when Kyle Allen and Sam Darnold played pretty well in their first few starts with us? I would assume so, if we were being consistent here. But no, you were dismissing the hype and cautioning to hold off as they were likely to come crashing down. All of a sudden now, Dalton's singular game where he threw the ball 58 times (almost 20 more attempts than Bryce had in his season-high) is enough to draw conclusions and pass judgment. It would be silly of me to argue that Bryce > Dalton because his win% on the season was 12.5% vs. Dalton's 0%, right? But those are the kind of foolish arguments you open yourself up to when you want to compare them based on a sample size of one Dalton start. Dalton is a lot of things, including a 13-year NFL veteran QB with 163 starts under his belt. And you guys are so eager to compare him to a rookie QB whose acclimation to the NFL was accompanied by one of the worst o-line/WR/coaching trio to have cursed our eyes through the television. Dalton is experienced enough to make the most out of an awful situation...Bryce had to try and learn that on the fly, and understandably struggled. Yes Bryce was part of the problem too, but I can understand why. This year IMO is when the smoke starts to clear and we get a better sense of just how much of the problem he was.

Well you're ignoring the parts preceding the rapport; route running and awareness are pretty important prerequisites. No amount of rapport is going to overcome erratic route running. I don't think it's a coincidence that Bryce had the most success connecting with a 33-year-old very slow and unathletic Adam Thielen. Because their strengths complement one another. Thielen is the type of receiver Bryce needs IMO, not necessarily athletic freaks. And that's why I'm eager to see how Diontae Johnson does in our offense because he seems (on paper at least) to be a Thielen-type who can get open but with some actual YAC ability.

Oh okay I didn't know we were talking about college. Cause people still talk about Bryce Young's 5'10 height in here like it's a conspiracy, posting pictures of him standing next to so-and-so person (Mina Kimes, Drew Brees, etc.) and acting like he's secretly 5'3 or something. I don't think anyone ever took his 6'0 194 Alabama listing seriously. Colleges routinely overstate their players' height (see link), but for some reason with Bryce Young, it's a huge deal what his college listed him as. And not only that...but Bryce is the one lying, not Alabama. https://sports.yahoo.com/many-nfl-combine-participants-are-significantly-shorter-than-listed-on-college-roster-013654441.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALoitnBT4i6jUJU3exaPYjrbNA0P0c0PHITAA9tTLd3vWYEDeGXBjomNGx-m5YN-mWLBXwUTqvDJR_y97BNnNHatrUnYuMcYGCX8pe35AxyXW8pRmpzdXTRa5aMHETWYplOjs0U8OpLJnUqt6b41hSeuwyt-6QhiVcWWSCUU0kcE

Well, the NFL analyst who actually tweeted out the clip that was linked in here has an opinion on that: I'm inclined to agree with him since Mingo is just sprinting full speed towards the sideline. Sure, if Bryce had an absolute rocket launcher of an arm then he probably could've snuck that inbounds while also leading Mingo, but realistically speaking...that looked like a lack of awareness to me. It wouldn't be the first or second time Mingo was criticized for lack of awareness during the season. But beyond that, I think the bigger picture is that Bryce and the WRs largely didn't seem to be on the same page other than Thielen. I still think Bryce is the type of QB who needs good route runners with good awareness who he has rapport with. Guys who he trusts to be where he expects them to be when he releases the football.

Bryce has always been listed as 5'10 and his official Combine measurement was 5'10 and 1/8", so how did he lie about his height?

I think it's also because virtually every topic gets derailed into a Bryce Young snark thread within like 5 posts every time. If we sign some o-linemen, it's specifically because Bryce Young = short and bad. If we don't sign a receiver, it's because he didn't want to play with a crappy QB like Bryce. Hell, even if we don't sign a no-name 4th string linebacker with 4 tackles last year, it's specifically because he didn't want to be on the same team as 5'10 Bryce Young (yes, an actual post in the Justin Strnad thread).

I mean that's exactly what we did with Everette Brown lol I know it's easy to psychologically repress that traumatic memory as Panthers fans. That wasn't even a particularly high 2nd round pick either (43rd pick), which makes it even sadder.

They spent way more on Kenny Pickett than we did on Darnold…you seem to be conveniently leaving him out in your praise. This “smart thing” they did is the equivalent of what we did last season with Baker. Every team does smart and stupid things. Also I’m curious what you thought about Tomlin at the podium at the end of last season feeding their fan base BS on Pickett being their guy, and then turning around and trading him in the offseason for peanuts. Cause I know how much you despise when coaches are dishonest and deceptive about their intentions. I hope you’re keeping that same energy for Tomlin.

It's not that people were specifically anti-Evero, but wanted to completely clean house after last season (i.e. getting rid of Evero too). I know CRA was one of them.

For those who were disappointed we retained Evero instead of fully cleaning house: this is part of what Evero brings...his connections. I'm sure a big selling point was reuniting with his old DB coach.

He played in all 17 games last season but on a pretty low snap count (25% of total defensive snaps). So probably another situational guy, but maybe Evero sees more of a role for him.

The implication is that the offense as a whole was so awful that it was hard to properly evaluate him. It's not like this is some homer Huddle take...we've seen this same sentiment echoed by actual analysts, commentators, and multiple NFL executives/coaches/scouts. Although the latter was apparently some coordinated psy-op by the rest of the league to try and trick us into keeping Bryce so that we don't rise to power. And yes Bryce was undoubtedly part of the problem last year and his performance also negatively impacted those around him. But if you have a poor performing QB, o-line, receiving corps, and coaching staff, then how the hell do you properly evaluate each of them individually when they all so directly impact one another? Well, just keep one of them the same (Bryce in our case) and bolster the rest and if we still suck and have the same issues as last year, then chances are Bryce is the problem. Or a major contributor to the problem. We should have a better idea this year and I guarantee most of Bryce's supporters will slink away if he has the type of season he had last year.

You're being sensitive if you interpreted my tone as angry. If you can't handle being challenged without getting defensive then tbh this is a strange place for you to spend so much of your time. In general I think of a plan in pretty broad terms, as in I want a general sense of what the team is trying to accomplish during their offseason rather than just a bunch of seemingly random moves with no rhyme or reason. If your personal bar for accepting that there's a plan is that you need to know how many plays in our playbook involve a playaction pass specifically to Diontae Johnson, then IMO that's a really weird impractical standard but at least your disagreement makes more sense to me. But I don't think listening to Luke Combs speaking on the Panthers, (which many have pointed out, sounds like the take of a very casual fan) that when he says he "doesn't know what the plan is", that he means he's not sure whether we're going to run 35% 5-step drops or 38% 5-step drops and exactly what percentage of hitch routes vs. slants vs. drag routes Smith-Marsette is going to run, etc.

You do understand that a *PLAN* is detached from a particular outcome, right? If I *plan* to become a multi-billionaire by age 30 but I fall short, that doesn't mean I didn't have a plan. It means that my plan failed. So I don't know why you keep pointing to our failures as proof that we have never had a plan. I have no idea if we have the coaches or talent to make things work either, that's why I said the success of our plan is TBD. But the plan is clear to me: focus on fixing the offense and evaluating/developing Bryce Young in the process. All the major offseason acquisitions point towards that being our plan. Do you disagree?

FTFY #HuddleThings

Where in my post did I mention or even allude to anything anyone *said*? I'm very clearly talking about the actions the team has taken in the offseason. The Canales hiring and the big offensive FA acquisitions.

I mean…it’s perfectly understandable to be skeptical and temper expectations. But you’re telling me we hire Canales (whose an offensive guy and known to have helped develop Geno and Baker into respectable starting QBs), we spend big on two solid guards on Day 1 of FA, we trade for a talented potential #1 WR on Day 2 of FA, and you say “if there’s some big plan I certainly don’t understand it”? Really? Either he’s being purposefully obtuse or he’s a bit clueless. It doesn’t take a genius to see what the plan is. Whether the plan actually works out or not, that’s TBD.

DJ has a ton of experience masking bad QB play from his time with the Panthers. He's always among the league leaders in YAC; last year was no exception. I don't think it's fair to hold Mooney to the same standards, which is reflected in his contract compared to DJ's.

Cause he's had to catch passes from Justin Fields. He looked pretty damn good when Dalton was throwing him the ball in 2021.

Oh yeah for sure, it's just hilarious that the need to be upset has led us down a road where we're pissed that we're prioritizing o-line over linebackers. If only the ~2010 Huddle could see us now...I guess poor Marty was just ahead of his time.

So you wanted us to prioritize and overpay a linebacker to keep him? Marty, is that you?

When the Bengals drafted Jamarr Chase, was that cause they knew Burrow was ass? When the Bills traded for Diggs, that was only because they knew Josh Allen was ass? I’m having a tough time understanding the logic here that investing in your QB = team knows he’s ass.

This year should be all about evaluating Bryce, and to a lesser degree Canales. We need to know sooner rather than later if they're the right guys for this team. The best way to evaluate them is to get competent pieces for the o-line/receiving corps to allow for them to run their offense unimpeded and remove any room for excuses and doubt. I'm fully on board even if they want to do all of this at the expense of the defense because in all likelihood we are not going to be competitive regardless, and we absolutely NEED to make a decision on Bryce at the end of this season if we are in a position to draft a QB high in the 1st round next year.

Were you hoping we all forgot how much you defended the decision not to trade Burns for 2 1sts and a 2nd at the time? And attacking people who were criticizing the non-trade? Or are you considering yourself one of these Fitterer apologists we’re supposed to dunk on?