Mr. Scot

Way too many people evaluate draft picks based solely on what they're doing this year. You also have to factor in what the Horn pick allows us to do in future seasons.

From Sheil Kapadia (link) Team that shouldn’t panic: The Carolina Panthers I didn’t watch their 36-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys and think they were outclassed. The Panthers had a 14-13 lead at halftime before falling victim to a disastrous third quarter when they were outscored 20-0. Sam Darnold played well in the first half, but the pressure got to him in the second half. And the Panthers’ defense got gashed on the ground, giving up 245 yards. There were some things that just didn’t go their way. Carolina had two potential forced fumbles in the first half that didn’t get ruled in their favor, and they missed a long field goal at the start of the third quarter. The Panthers are without Christian McCaffrey, cornerback Jaycee Horn and linebacker Shaq Thompson. Carolina’s offensive line is going to be outmanned most weeks. But the Panthers are well-coached. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady has done an excellent job of playing to Darnold’s strengths, and defensive coordinator Phil Snow is creative and aggressive. I loved that Matt Rhule was willing to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Carolina 34 in the third. The Panthers were down 26-14 at the time, and Rhule took an honest evaluation of his team, knowing that they were going to have a hard time keeping Dallas’ offense in check. A lot of coaches would have rushed to punt in that spot. I don’t know if the Panthers are going to make the playoffs, but they look like a group that’s going to be competitive and frisky most weeks. Also, for the Steeler haters... Team that should panic: The Pittsburgh Steelers Amazing sequence in the third quarter of their 27-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers. Trailing 27-10, the Steelers faced a third-and-4 from the Green Bay 32. Ben Roethlisberger threw a go ball down the right sideline against Pro Bowl corner Jaire Alexander. Incomplete. Then the Steelers burned a timeout because the play clock was winding down. Pittsburgh got lined up again. Roethlisberger took the snap, and it was as if he thought his head might turn into a pumpkin if he took more than one-and-a-half seconds to get rid of the ball. Roethlisberger completed a pass to Najee Harris that was 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The Packers were rushing three on the play and swarmed to Harris. It was a loss of 1 and a turnover on downs. The Steelers are now 0-for-5 on fourth downs this season. Their offense had chances to make some plays in this game, but Roethlisberger was off-target all afternoon. Through four weeks, Pittsburgh ranks 28th in EPA per play offensively. At 1-3, the Steelers are in sole possession of last place in the AFC North, with the three other teams all sitting at 3-1. It’s hard to see a scenario where they turn things around.

See the answer from Brian S above regarding a big reason why PFF grades miss the mark. And no, I'm not going to bother to chart stuff because I don't give a sh-t about stats. I see what I see, and I understand what I see because I've been watching and studying the game since I was five years old. My "grading system" has only two categories: "good enough" and "not good enough". Plus if you actually read what I've already posted, you'd have a better understanding of what I saw in this game.

It happens though. That's a "waiit and see" thing of course. My bigger concern is that even if other teams aren't necessarily built to attack us that same way, we're still weak in the middle once you get past our defensive tackles. Middle linebacker and safety aren't positions of strength for us right now. And although I'd love to add an "except for Chinn" disclaimer, I really don't feel like I can. It's very possible that Chinn just needs more time to transition himself to a safety role, but the early returns haven't been great.

I do kinda wonder if Dallas having a successful run would kickstart a cycle shift though. The NFL has always worked that way.

Ouch

Protection has to get better. Frankly, that'd be true regardless of his past status.

Appealing to PFF as authoritative? Ummm...

That, plus I'm pretty sure that's what he's being coached to do. Right now, the coaches want him to get the ball out fast. And sadly, given the makeup of our line it kind of makes sense. The more complex stuff can come as he gets more comfortable. Remember, they're treating him as if he were a rookie. This is how you'd coach a rookie.

Back during the "Greatest Show on Turf" days, Dick Vermeil used to coach his receivers to basically duck and cover if they were about to get hit rather than trying for extra yards.

I could see it, but does he wanna come here or go back to the Patriots? That, plus I think the team believes in Carter.

Without sitting down and looking at the rosters, I'm not certain. As mentioned above, NFL rules over the last several years have favored passing and I think most teams have built accordingly. For what it's worth, that also means Dallas could be set up for a pretty good run because teams have been building their defenses to stop the pass. A good power running team might be able to tear through those defenses like tissue paper.

You're talking about very different running styles though. Darnold isn't gonna run anybody over and he can slide pretty well. Heck, he's hardly been touched the times he has run. Frankly, my bigger concern when it comes to Darnold isn't how much he runs but how much he gets hit behind a porous offensive line.

Truth be told, with the NFL rules being what they are, I don't know that many teams have emphasized power running. It's valid that we'll be vulnerable to teams that can do it, but which teams are those?

Valid.

Which is consistent with the previous games. Our original plan for the inside was Elflein / Paradis / Miller. Between Miller having the virus and Elflein getting injured, I don't know that we've had much of that alignment at all. Not so sure we've started a game with that setup yet, but very sure we haven't finished a game with it. (not that I necessarily think it would have been a huge improvement)

Our offensive personnel in general, line included, are very WCO.

Erving hasn't been bad prior to now, but Gregory owned him this game. Miller was better previously too. Paradis and Daley? Well...

We've spent the last few years arguing (correctly so) that rushing stats and touchdowns should be considered when evaluating quarterback play with Newton. Now suddenly somebody is arguing that they shouldn't be? Yes, passing ability is more essential than running ability, but having both is great.

Yeah, and it wasn't that long ago that he was let go from here, so it's kinda valid.

Definitely. But also, much as I hate to say it, Jermaine Carter probably isn't an ideal middle linebacker. I still agree with dumping Denzel Perryman for other reasons, but when healthy he probably was better suited to that role. Throw in, as has been mentioned in other threads, safety isn't exactly a strength right now. And unfortunately, that likely includes Jeremy Chinn. Adjustments are probably gonna be needed. We'll see what happens.

Quotes from Matt Rhule and Jermaine Carter in Joe Person's latest article (link) “They came out, introduced some big personnel packages they hadn’t done a lot of, got downhill (and) ran through contact,” Rhule said. “We did not tackle or get off blocks to our liking.” And as Carter suggested, in a copycat league, the Panthers better get used to seeing teams load up and attack them with a power running game. “They did come out and play some big sets, and we struggled to match up to those big sets,” Rhule added. “We’ll work on that. We’ll know that people are going to come out and try to do that to us moving forward.” It's a long time cycle in the NFL. Build a power defense, teams attack you with speed. Build a defense with speed, teams attack you with power running. We've built a defense with some power up front but mostly speed in the back seven because we face some prolific passing attacks in our division. But does that potentially leave us vulnerable against teams that have the capability of fielding a power running attack? Well...yeah. Carter's right. Other teams who watched this past Sunday's game are going to pick up on that. And unfortunately, having a middle linebacker who's only 225 lbs can be one of the vulnerabilities. We might need to make some adjustments in both scheme and personnel to account for it. Doesn't necessarily mean we'll go outside the team mind you, but we'll see.

Go look back at pre-draft discussion from this year and see

It'd be too soon to fire him, but that's never stopped stuff from happening before.