SmokinwithWilly

It's the rookie salary cap all over again.

We're seeing more and more the importance of high impact rookies on those cheap contracts. Having to pay Purdy anywhere near top 10 QB money is going to create some problems with that roster.

Sanders has been the least surprising for me. Anything at all was better than everything from Ian Thomas.

I heard that they asked him to be more "hands on" but he dropped the ball.

4 hour limit on those little blue pills so I've heard.

It's not hindsight. Called it then. Called it with TMJ over Humphrey. Our center play has been hot garbage for damn near a decade and relying on a guy moved from guard to C coming off back to back injury seasons was stupid. I've been beating the drum for a center since we traded for Paradis.

It's not that we're the cursed. We're just monumentally stupid at reading the draft and knowing where premium players at certain positions are typically found. Our GMs have been willing to take the Tier 3 guy at a premium position instead of a premier player at a position of need, just not as glamorous. And to no one's surprise, it works less often than not.

9 carries. 22 yards. 3 receptions. Those kind of numbers are irreplaceable. Frazier would have been a starter, not Corbett.

I've been wanting us to take one since Kalil's neck injury. We were spoiled with excellent center play and then we've had patchwork in the middle ever since. I've been told over and over on this MB that centers are easier to get than RBs and you can get one off the waiver wire that will be pro bowl caliber. I'm still waiting.

It's long term vs short term satisfaction. I'd rather lose the rest of the games this year and be able to draft a difference maker because he's actually available at our pick, than win a couple of games and end up 10-16 and getting another good player, but not game changer. No one remembers the feel good wins a year or 2 from now. They remember success and that's not something we've done with any regularity.

Can't tell if you're serious....

Or it could be that they're letting him get time to learn on the bench like a lot of new QBs need to do. I think it would be fair to say if Byrce had spent his 1st year on the bench instead of being thrust into the starting lineup before he was ready, this season may have been quite different.

I feel like we love projects in the early rounds. It's why we're where we are and other teams are where they are. You can take projects when you already have a well built team. When you have more holes than a block of swiss cheese, you get guys that can plug those spots.

I feel like this is an old bedtime ghost story. A long time ago, on a night much like tonight, the Carolina Panthers drafted Eric Shelton...

But it's not his true rookie season. His true rookie season counted and where it counted most was on his contract. That's a year of rookie salary cap that we can't get back. We're in week 14 of year 2 and are finally seeing good football from Bryce. We should not be going into year 3 asking ourselves if he can be the guy or if this is a flash in the pan type grouping of games. We need to see a full 3rd season of what we've seen the past few games. If he keeps playing like he is, we're probably going to be hearing about an extension somewhere early season 4. Personally, I'd like more than a single complete season of elite level play before we end up having to drop a 6 year, 360M contract.

Or Terrace Marshall Jr over Creed Humphrey.

It's not knee jerk reactions. There have been very few picks in Teppers tenure that have worked out with the most successful at this point being Chuba. Bryce's successful sample size is far too small to label him a home run and Horn has been injured half his career.

Dude. You seem a little triggered here. Sadly the fan base has been right more often than not over the past 6 years about major decisions the Panthers FO has made. You don't necessarily have to look at the player, you have to look at the tendencies of the front office. Players with high RAS scores that need a lot of development in early rounds. Development isn't something we've really excelled at. Paying big FA contracts for guys that were not good. JMO, but I think we've reading the flow of the drafts poorly and drafted out of panic several times and been at the tail end of runs instead of the beginning. I also think we've built the team poorly by constantly "retooling" instead of just embracing a rebuild. We've paid positions in FA we should have been drafting, and trying to fill key spots with draft picks because we have no other option from bad contracts. Bryce is not the QB I wanted. I still think we overpaid. I wanted AR with the right coach, but that wasn't Frank, so my then my default was Stroud. We started him when he had no business starting, which was made obvious in Seattle, and then doubled down the rest of the season to prolonged failure. Then this off-season he was handed the keys with no competition for a performance that was cut worthy except for his draft position. The last 3 games haven't proven anything to me yet. Even mediocre QBs have had short stretches of good games. We're going to need season 3 to see if he can pull it all together and season 4 to make sure he's not Daniel Jones before offering a massive contract off a single good year. We've had enough bad contracts for 1 year wonders. I don't like how this team has been operating and the path they've taken to build. We're not replicating what successful teams do. The Tepper way hasn't worked for the past 6 years and there's been zero sustained success in franchise history. It's hard to criticize fans for being pessimistic or critical about the way things are done when they've never seen 9 wins back to back years in 3 decades.

We called it a bad pick then. It didn't make sense then. It makes less sense now. It is what it is. The real Panthers mantra.

Centers are overrated. Anyone can play center. They're about as interchangeable as RBs. No need to draft one when you can find one on another teams waiver wire or practice squad. They are even less valuable than RBs. At least that's been the argument every time I've suggested we draft one.

I get that. The statement was players ALWAYS chase the money and I was just pointing out it isn't always about making the most money. Players make decisions for different reasons. Could Horn be chasing the money? Sure. Could he be considering going somewhere else to play for a better team and a better chance at a ring? That's possible too. Could want to be in a different place to raise a family or maybe the Charlotte area is what he likes. I expect it to be a 100% business decision.

Wrong. Frankie Luvu walked out of here and we had offered him more money. Environment matters. Winning matters. Look at how many players played on reduced contracts to win a SB with Brady. Money isn't everything unless your team is a perpetual loser.

He's not the greatest and I think that showed after bRady left. Brady got another ring. BB turned that franchise into a train wreck. He's damn good, but there's no downplaying the huge part of his success that was TB12.