MillionDollarCam

I really think Corral went to the worst possible team for his development. Howell came from a more pro ready offense, UNC’s offensive line was abysmal last year so he’d already be used to dealing with what we have to offer here, and I think his deep ball accuracy can be elite and his mobility could also be considered to be above the NFL average. Corral needs good coaching and a lot of attention, not sure if he’ll get that from our staff. Just looking at what Howell can do… he can read NFL defenses today, he can make all the NFL throws, he has great mobility, he’s a natural leader, and he can still perform when the team around him is bad. Everyone overthought Howell in my opinion. If you take away any QB’s top two receivers and top two RB’s and put them behind a poo OL then they are going to regress a bit. I think Howell showed yesterday what he can truly do in the NFL. Only nitpicks I have on Howell are I’d like him to go through his reads a tad quicker (though I say this about every QB), I want him to look off his receivers better, and I want him to slide. All nitpicks and if he does all of those things then I think he’s a franchise QB.

For an RB3, you’d like to have someone that you can plug in there that can 1) block and 2) catch… Chuba can do neither… even thrusted into an RB1 role last year, he was below average. His 3.4 true yards per carry ranked 70th at the position and his 2.11 yards created per touch were 41st. Think RB needs to be addressed in the draft next year and having watched Sean Tucker from Syracuse a few times, I wouldn’t mind adding him.

It’s the same talking heads that originally thought that Willis was a gimmick QB at best. In the game against the Cardinals he hung in the pocket as long as he could. I said earlier that Willis and Howell were playing behind OL’s just as bad as Corral was playing behind. Difference is that Willis and Howell can escape pressure quickly (for example, Willis breaking a tackle attempt by Kyle Hamilton on a safety blitz then outrunning the Raven’s DT as well as the DE and then breaking another tackle by a LB on his way to the end zone). Let’s call a spade a spade and just agree that if Corral looked anything like Willis or Howell then we’d all be happy. Bottom line is he doesn’t and from a processing perspective he has a lot further way to go than the other two. RPO QB’s and Air Raid QB’s… two that typically don’t pan out unless there’s some sort of elite trait that they have (arm strength, athleticism, speed, etc.)… Simply from an Air Raid perspective, there is: Mahomes, Murray, and potentially Mayfield… that’s it. As for the spread or more specifically, RPO plays, not even Cam ran RPO plays as much as Corral did in college… and obviously the difference between Cam and Corral is massive in their overall ability. Going back to my comment about Mike Tomlin saying that you have to look at what kids can do and not what they can’t do… with that said what can Corral do? He seems to be a pretty accurate passer out of a gimmick offense (very similar to Mayfield who was a better overall prospect than Corral in my opinion) and what else? I’ve said before that I hope Corral succeeds and he still might, but I’d put money on Wills or Howell being better simply because they have some characteristics that could be elite at the next left, the offenses they came from are more pro style than what Ole Miss runs, and they aren’t being coached by Matt Rhule.

I watched the entire game against the Cardinals so I can say without hesitation that the game plan for him was to show his ability to go through reads and hit the receivers running intermediate routes. Everyone knows he’s got a cannon, it’s the intermediate passing game where he needs work, it’s a work in progress but he’s developing right in front of everyone’s eyes. He’s also much stronger than everyone gives him credit for. Is he going to truck defenders, probably not, and hopefully not… you don’t want your franchise QB taking unnecessary hits… will he break arm tackles… absolutely. Per Sports Info Solutions, he broke 28 tackles and forced 52 missed tackles with 672 yards after contact. Among all college players with at least 100 rushing attempts in 2021, none had more missed and broken tackles per attempt than Willis.

Not declaring victory at all but being from central VA I saw Willis live more times than I can count. Probably more than most of the NFL scouts. Everything that I saw from him suggested that he does enough things really well to be an NFL QB. Mike Tomlin used to say that it’s not about what players can do, it’s about what they can do and what they can do really well. Willis does so many things that you can build on and by all accounts is very coachable and a quick learner. Personally, I believe he’s an NFL QB and most talking heads (Jim Nagy for example), are starting to agree.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that if a team plays contain then he’ll hit his receivers just like he did yesterday. Willis is a good enough of a passer that he can pick a defense a part if they don’t get pressure with a front four and drop their LB’s back in coverage or as spy’s. He’s grown already, probably more than any other rookie QB, there’s no reason why he won’t continue to get better.

Not really, an opinion, everything I’ve said is backed up by pretty much all of the talking heads. There’s literally a video of him already going to his third read and hitting his receiver for a TD… Is he ready to take over as QB1, probably not, but all the talking heads are agreeing that he’s much further along than they thought he’d by right now…. And he’s much further along than Corral.

Kevin White… there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.

Don’t think we need any more special teams aces, but the Packers cut Ty Summers who’s known for his special teams play. Didn’t have as much of an impact last year as he did in 2020, but in 2020, Summers led the Packers with 13 special teams tackles. Rhule should also be familiar with Summers (TCU) as Summers had 8 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception, and 1 pass defended against Baylor during Rhule’s first year with Baylor. The Panthers haven’t had a player record 13+ special teams tackles in a single season since Jason Phillips did so in 2012. I guess it would come down to the coaching staff preferring Summers over someone like Stanford.

So I actually was on IC last night and a lot of people including myself had the same thought. Agree 100%, assistant director of recruiting or something like that would be right in his wheelhouse. He’s really able to get those kids from the 757 (Virginia Beach) because of his influence in that area, a lot of those kids have played on his field (Dre Bly Field). In other news. Hampton and Pettaway look like the next great RB duo for Carolina and Drake Maye had one of the best performances from a first time starter that I’ve ever seen. Regardless of who they were playing he still had to make the throws and make the reads. Not sure the last time I’ve seen a Carolina QB go through his reads and spread the ball around like Maye did last night.

I kind of addressed this above. The hashmarks play an important part in how he’s looking. College hashmarks are so wide that they essentially eliminate half the field. On the other hand, NFL hashmarks are much narrower forcing defenses to cover the entire field of play. In Malik’s 50 yard run, not one member of the secondary was seen until Malik had already picked up the first. If the Titans run a lot of outs and sideline routes then Malik will feast. And I’ve said this before… fast kids play D2 ball too. You, like myself, are a Carolina fan and hopefully as an unbiased Carolina fan, you could tell that FAMU had plenty of fast and athletic kids on their roster last night.

Facts, everyone who said he wouldn’t be able to run on NFL defense can eat a big bag of crow. I think one forgotten thing here is that in college, the hashmarks are much wider, essentially taking away one side of the field. In the NFL, they are much narrower and it forces NFL defenses to play the entire field. Because of this, Malik literally has the whole field in front of him as his track.

It would be nice to know how PFF comes up with their grades… it would help everything make a little more sense.

So a few more tidbits that I’ve seen on Reddit and HFBoards. Jersey wise… black is home primary, white is away, there will be a special jersey unveiled as the alternate for this year… it’s thought to be red, there will be a 25th anniversary jersey, and a stadium series jersey. As for cap space, the thought is that Gardiner is not close to coming back and him coming back was premature… would not be out of the realm for him to spend all year on LTIR again.

Malanda was great, didn’t look out of place at all.

Patterson is actually pretty impressive, wouldn’t mind having him.

Corbett was getting tons of flack from the fan base throughout the preseason… so who’s right? Panthers fans or PFF?

He’s for sure looking to run but I think a lot of it has to do with the OL. Specifically yesterday, the Cardinals were feasting in the backfield. The difference is that Willis is used to that kind of pressure and can escape it. Stat wise, Liberty’s OL was the second worst OL in college football last year. He’s also drastically improved in just three weeks of game action.

Hard not to pull for Baker… the city of Cleveland seems to drain everything from all of their athletes (football, basketball, etc.)… ever since Baker has gotten to Carolina, he looks like a new person. Hope he balls out.

Corral was a third round pick so I wouldn’t even use the bust terminology. However, I personally think that Corral faces an uphill battle. He has to learn a whole lot more than all of the other QB’s while not getting the coaching that all of the other QB’s are getting. If the plan all along was to give Corral the minimum then they should have drafted a player like Willis or Howell who were more pro ready based on the offenses they came from and their overall ability to be elite at certain things… mobility and deep balls. And don’t get pro ready confused with the ability to play now… I simply mean that the learning curve isn’t as great. By all accounts Willis and Howell picked everything up very quick. Corral on the other hand seemed to be processing everything much slower and doesn’t have the elite mobility like the other two guys do to make up for it.

Nagy weighing in on Willis…

PFF ranked our starting OL… they didn’t rank our backups… and while our backups aren’t good… it’s foolish to assume that other teams backups are good. Willis was sacked 4 times yesterday and Howell was sacked 5 times. Both still managed to put up impressive performances. We can’t keep putting the blame on the OL when we just saw Mayfield ball a few nights ago while getting pressured every other snap. Corral faces an uphill battle… anyone who believes otherwise is kidding themselves. He wasn’t asked to run a real offense in college, all his reads were quick reads, and a lot of his passes were slants and quick outs. I’ve said before that he has tools but if he can’t process the game quick enough then he’s got no shot at being an NFL QB (like Darnold). I think we are also seeing why people liked Willis and Howell. Both played behind the worst offensive lines in college football last year so they are used to being under pressure and they also have the wheels to make something out of nothing once they pocket collapses.

Wholly disagree, I’ve watched nearly every snap from Willis, Howell, and Thompson and they are playing with the same quality of OL players that Corral played with. Titan fans were asking for Willis to come out tonight with how bad Tennessee’s OL was playing. Elite players will step in a get it done. It’s quite obvious that the game is way too quick for Corral right now.

Don’t stop at those three (Willis, Pickett, and Ridder)… Howell, Thompson, and Zappe have also looked better… Corral has the physical tools but the question coming out was if he would be able to learn and process an NFL offense after running a simple RPO offense throughout his career at Ole Miss.

And the front office isn’t off the hook either… waiting until deadline day to get your transfers when your team is in need of reinforcements for a playoff push is fuging ludicrous.