SmokinwithWilly

I don't hate Colorado. He may be the top prospect on a lot of boards, but that doesn't necessarily make him the best at a single position. Using Madden scores here for ease, so could be an overall 99, 97 as a WR and 96 as a CB and still be 2nd ranked at each position. He won't be used on the field playing both ways. He's going to be one or the other with possibly a play or 2 a game on the other side of the field. It's not a slight against him at all, just an observation of how it's going to work once he reaches the NFL level.

Cam also didn't play 2 positions. Little different comparison there.

Gotta wonder if there's something else in the water in Pittsburg.

Wouldn't 300 yards and 2 TDs passing be considered "lighting it up" vs. the Eagles? I take "lighting it up" to be an exceptional performance, not just NFL standard play. Don't you?

I'm a Michigan guy and I admit I haven't watched much of Johnson or Graham this year because Michigan has been so bad this year. Saturday was the biggest game of the season, but man it was that painful. Defense was fun to watch, but that offense. That was just a kick in the boys over and over again.

Still better than Joey Slye.

Still remember listening to the Locked on Panthers podcast the day after that game and Julian said that Bryce had mentioned he didn't bother to look off Bates on one of those INTs. That always struck me as an odd thing.

Always need to have fresh guys to rotate into the trenches. Maybe it's because my football career ended from a knee injury, but man it's easy to have a knee fold the wrong way and boom, your season is done.

It doesn't matter if they're pro level teammates or not. Bama consistently has one of the top recruiting classes in the country. The best talent is coming to Alabama vs a majority of other schools they play. It is true and it's documented.

I think it probably had something to do with his career about to be over. He's always been surrounded by the best talent and with that comes some ease in doing your job. When everyone on your team is at least 2 or 3 star better recruits than 90% of the opposing team. In the NFL everyone is 5 star recruits. I think it was probably a wake up call that either he starts actually putting in the work, or he was going down as one of the biggest busts in NFL history.

Figure out how to get Kyle Pitts from Atl. For whatever reason, the Falcons hate throwing to him. Pairing him with Sanders could be a nasty combo. Add T Mac in the 1st and everything else to the D. Bring in competition at the QB position because we need that still.

We should try and trade for Kyle Pitts. Atlanta is determined not to use him and prefers a blocking TE. Tremble for Pitts and we'll throw in Sanders too.

Because games cannot ly be manipulated by the refs so much with so many cameras. More cameras means less chance to steer the outcome. This is an entertainment league with as much outcome integrity as the WWE.

Those must be some might tasty meatballs.

The position is valuable but situation allows for better or worse performance from the position. Creative offenses with strong offensive lines seem to have a much easier time plugging and playing RBs. Look at KC, Philly, Detroit. Creative offenses with strong offensive lines. Miles Sanders is a prime example. Behind Philly he had a season to remember. Behind ours, a season to forget.

Regardless of what Bryce does, the team should always be seeking improvement. We need a vet that doesn't bleed dust and a 3rd young QB to groom. Howell is an intriguing option if he could be had for a reasonable price. I don't want to ever rely solely on BY or any other QB for that matter. We've all seen the importance of grooming a backup when Brady went down week 1 and the Pats still won 11. Doesn't matter if it's FA, the draft or even a trade. Try and find someone who can fit the system, plug him in and see what happens. We should always be trying to improve our situation.

My thought is Bryce needs a great cast around him. He's always been surrounded by 4 and 5 star recruits and Alabama could have as many as they could recruit. Unfortunately in the NFL there's this little thing called a salary cap and we can't keep that kind of talent around him unless we're sacrificing somewhere else or we have near perfect draft classes. My biggest fear is he's going to be just good enough to get to year 4 and we're going to need to pay him 40m per season and the talent pool around him is going to suffer and then we'll be back to mediocre except on a 200m 5 year contract.

Not really. They're gonna let Daboll guide them right to a top 3 pick, which is what we should have done with Rhule.

The offer was 2 1sts and a 2nd. That's not a Panthers fan valuation. That's an NFL team GM valuation trying to win a SB before Aaron Donald retired and we said no because we were going to build around him except we didn't and ended up getting a 2nd rounder. We would have gotten a higher draft pick for Burns this year with the Rams trade than we did, and for what? 2 whole wins. Just because the Panthers have had the scrapings of a Porta potty for GMs doesn't mean competent teams or people who look at statistics know that your chances of getting starter quality talent on rookie contracts is higher in the 1st round. Maybe we should look at how successful teams do their player valuations, because they're winning back to back seasons and counting, and well, here's to year 6 of losing in row under Tepper. 3 wins so far this year. 50% improvement. Go team.

Who cares about entertaining? Burns was not a difference maker. He never took over a game like a TJ Watt. He couldnt set the edge or defend the run. He was consistently taken out of plays by a single linemen, TE, or even a WR, and he disappeared 2 on 1. Did he get sacks? Sure. But he was never top 5 elite. He did one thing. Rush the passer. Hassan Reddick did it better and played a more complete game. Teams recognize value in future firsts. It's why you didn't see us trade away a 1st, 2nd and 3rd and DJ or the 9ers trade away 3 3rds for Trey Lance. Other teams don't want that for high picks. They want future 1sts because they do have value and when your team is hot garbage, you need as much elite talent as possible.

I don't think it's too early to negotiate an extension but I would be taking a hard look at how the NFL refs are calling the PI and holding calls on CBs for the rest of the season and any rumors of off season rule changes. As was mentioned earlier, Horn is a bit handsy and if they're calling that type of play with more frequency overall, it may be something that factors in to whether it's a good idea to keep him at a higher tier contract price tag.

I don't think it's necessarily selfless to make that trade. I think it's all in how you plan and if you can objectively view the player. You know you're going to have a new coach and be taking a QB in the draft. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, we were going to be beginning a rebuild with a new offense and new defense. Depending on the coach, Burns may not have even been a good fit for the scheme that coach wanted to run. So, if you're not 1st, you're going to need to trade up. Burns likely is going to want in the 30m per year range. While an effective pass rusher, he was never a complete DE. He wasn't a JJ, TJ, Bosa, or Garrett. He was more Reddick, and while good, never going to be in that top tier contract caliber. So the question becomes, knowing that you need a QB to go with a new coach, is it better to have your 23, 24 and 25' 1sts extra 24 and 25 1sts an extra 23'2nd and 30m aav of future contract cap space to get a QB and edge rusher Or your 23, 24 and 25 1sts and a good, but not elite DE on an elite tier contract. 6 picks and available 30m AAV in cap space vs 3 picks and 0 extra cap space to get a QB and a good, not great, DE. To me that is a simple answer and frankly one that could potentially save my job. You have to have vision and be able to recognize value. Fitts over valued Burns like many fans did. I think ultimately what cost him his job was 3 years of not being able to value players correctly. We saw it twice in the draft in 2 separate years when he panicked and couldn't read the draft. DJ Johnson and Matt Corral picks specifically come to mind. I don't think it was about being selfless as much as being a strategist. Neither Rhule nor Fitts never struck me as very strategic guys. I think they were more let's throw poo at the wall and see what sticks. Unfortunately for the fans, none of it stuck, but it still all stunk.

I think part of the problem though is Fitts never embraced the rebuild and had a bigger picture plan for building a team. He was constantly trying to add a piece here or there to be competitive. Sometimes you just need to tear it down and start over. Rhule was gone. We were going to be hiring a new coach. New coach means new QB. And whether or not you are using them this year, future 1sts are valuable trading material plus we would have had their 2nd that year to add an edge rusher if we so chose. How much different would it have looked if the trade for Bryce had been our 1st (9) and the Rams 2 1sts instead of our 24 1st which ended up being number 1 and DJ. A much better scenario for going and getting your new HC his new QB for his new offensive system instead of gutting the WR room. Sure, we would still end up losing Burns, but there was always the possibility that was going to happen anyway. Self preservation no doubt played a role, but Fitts wasn't looking too hot already. It's never a good thing to see your GM panic in the draft room.

Are braided belts making a comeback?