MasterAwesome

Uhhhh….for unestablished rookies, draft position is pretty meaningful (or more specifically, how good of a prospect they are which is reflected in their draft position). So you are of the opinion that every QB taken in every round of this draft is equally talented and capable until proven otherwise? Trevor Lawrence and Sam Ehlinger are on equal footing in terms of skill?

You have to factor in the gap in talent between Wilson and Mills. That’s like comparing Will Grier to Kyler Murray in the 2019 draft.

I could give you a laundry list of “educated assumptions” going into a season that proved to be laughably inaccurate. Hell, you brought up some yourself (the Panthers’ prospects going into the 2003 and 2015 seasons). Just saying, it’s awfully convenient for you to pick and choose which teams we can already assert are “bad” two weeks into the season while simultaneously holding the general opinion that we should withhold making judgment calls about teams (including our own) a mere two weeks into the season. How many pundits and Huddlers considered the 2021 Panthers as one of these “bad” teams, under the guise of an “educated assumption”? How many assumed (with an educated basis of course) that Darnold would be a failed reclamation project here? Maybe the Panthers will suck this season and maybe Darnold will fail, but so far those assertions seem to at least be in question which is why it’s foolish to think you have any team figured out at this point…including the Jets and Saints, the former of which I’ll remind you has a brand new HC and QB which most people would consider the most significant individual pieces for a team transformation.

It's too early in the season to think we have teams figured out and yet you were confident classifying the Jets and Saints as two "bad" teams? A bit contradictory, no?

I would advise you apply some nuance to our win beyond "Saints had injuries, therefore it was a largely meaningless win against a bad team". I can grant the role that their defensive injuries played and how that might cause some reservations about giving too much credit to the offense. But when I see the Saints put up 38 against Green Bay in Week 1 and only 7 against us in Week 2 and the only difference between the two offenses was a single o-lineman? Both of their elite tackles constantly getting manhandled? Kamara rushing for 0.6 yards per carry? Yeah sorry I don't buy the argument that we chalk all of that up to their defensive injuries or their single o-lineman. I mean unless you didn't watch the game and only looked at the scoreboard.

We talking about the media or the Huddle?

I think Fox is who we were hoping Weatherly was: a talented pass rusher who was buried on the depth chart of a good defensive line. They nailed it this time.

Unless he gets charged by a 190 pound CB, then he is falling backwards on his a%$.

My Fantasy league awards DST 1 point per 10 return yards so my opponent, starting the Saints’ defense, actually ironically outscored me quite a bit, starting the Panthers’ defense, because of our kicker allowing so many kickoff returns lol.

So basically the takeaway from this game is that a great DL absolutely obliterates a great OL?? Hey props to the Panthers’ FO for prioritizing the right investment.

Part of our run game woes is that Brady has been overly predictable in his playcalling. It’s not very fair to expect an o-line to create push against a stacked box because the defense knows we’re running it with CMC. He needs to get more creative there and I guarantee it’ll open up more running opportunities at the goal line.

And yet the Chargers, with their franchise QB and franchise LT, put up only 17 points against a subpar Cowboys defense. Not very compelling for the “if only we had drafted Slater” crowd. Horn has been a boss so far and is a big part of our defensive transformation this season.

That o-line protection…

Yeah that’s correct, 8 active. Some people don’t know our roster very well apparently.

That's literally one of the 5 columns.

I guess it's a matter of opinion on whether you think there's more pressure on you if you're basically carrying your team's offensive output (as you claim Gano has been doing on the Giants) or if you're the kicker of a Super Bowl contender whose average margin of victory was 17.25 points (like with Tucker on the Ravens last year). Personally I'd say the former but it seems you think the latter. You can argue the Giants suck and so Gano automatically gets an asterisk on all of his FGs, but yesterday the Giants were just some 0-1 team trying to win a football game against a divisional rival to get their season on the right track so I'd argue his performance yesterday (5-5 on FGs with a long of 55 yards) was pretty f'ing clutch, in spite of the loss.

I mean if you want to move the goalposts and argue instead that he's padding his numbers with "easy" FGs or something, that's fine...but the numbers still don't support your argument. So less than half of his attempts were under 39 yards? Have you compared that to other kickers in the league to see if that's even unusual? Let's look at Huddle fan-favorite Harrison Butker: 16 of his 25 attempts were <39 yards. Justin Tucker: 15 of his 29 attempts were <39 yards. So yeah maybe it is unusual Gano kicked only 14 of his 32 from <39 yards...perhaps that's relatively low. Most people (here at least) would probably consider Butker/Tucker as the top 2 kickers in the NFL. Are they really not that good cause they led inept offenses and padded their numbers with "gimme" FGs?

I don't think you understand how percentages work. The more field goals you attempt, the higher your percentage? Is that what I'm gathering?

Jaycee Horn vs. CJ Saunders...ouch, bit of a mismatch. I know iron sharpens iron, but can a turd sharpen iron? Next week, on Mythbusters...

Yeah that's more my impression as well. I think there could be some niche rivalries pertaining to specific things (like football as you mentioned, or BBQ as someone else did) but I've never felt there was this overall negative sentiment towards NC as a whole.

Yeah now there's an analogy I can empathize with. Still though, in my personal experience across the border I've never gotten the impression that anyone here gives much thought to NC in general. I mean I tell everyone I'm from Charlotte and I've never seen anyone viscerally retract in disgust lol. But hey that's just my flimsy anecdotal evidence so I'll accept what appears to be the consensus opinion here.

I admit my experience is really just limited to Charlotte vs. Greenville, so I'll acknowledge that it's ignorant of me to make any broad assertions about NC vs. SC...I didn't intend to do that. Obviously Charlotte is the epicenter of Panthers' fandom considering the stadium is located there, so it's perhaps a bit unfair to use it as the standard to compare other cities to lol. I was expecting more interest from Greenville SC though since it's one of the larger cities, not far from Charlotte, and within very close proximity to Spartanburg where training camp is held. So I guess I assumed if there's little interest in Greenville, there's probably not a whole lot of interest elsewhere in SC. But again, ignorant of me to make those kinds of assumptions.

I've spent 28 of my 33 years in NC (mostly Charlotte, + 4 years at UNC Chapel Hill) and I never really got any kind of "rivalry" vibe with SC so I guess we've had different lived experiences. I mean other than political differences which have really been exacerbated over the last ~5 years. But yeah when I told people I was moving to Greenville, I would get asked the same question but tbh I didn't even know Greenville NC was a thing until that question lol. I don't think I ever got any kind of negative reception from answering Greenville SC but now you've got me wondering... I will say, even as a NC native myself...I was completely blindsided by how different SC is. Not a fan at all, personally...but again, that stems primarily from the political divide and the implications of that.

While I agree with your assertion about the drastic differences between the two (I've lived in both), I don't think that was motivated by Tepper believing that they're basically the same. It's kinda just Business 101 to expand your reach and appeal to a broader audience. I think that was just his attempt to do that. I've been in Greenville SC for ~5 years now and I barely see any support for the Panthers. I think the simplest explanation was that he was probably just trying to stir up interest in some South Carolinians like "hey this is your team too". Also, there can certainly be some validity (and dare I say commendation) in trying to find some uniting entity to bring two very different groups together. That's more just a general sentiment though, I'm not saying I think he was motivated by some virtuous attempt at unifying the two Carolinas...definitely more plausible that it was motivated by $$$$$.

Yeah but like...Snow was the linebackers coach of the 0-16 Detroit Lions so it would logically follow that he would suck as a DC. -An actual argument I read here multiple times after the hiring.