Mr. Scot

Because we've gotten word from camp on just how little he's been practicing.

And again, that's nobody's fault but his own, right? Do people think Corral is supposed to coach himself up? And get something for Darnold? With someone else taking on some of his cap space in the process? Please!

To be clear though, we're not talking about prepping Corral for a starting role. All they needed to do was have him prepared to play some snaps in the second half of a preseason game and look at least adequate. That's not what happened.

And deflated footballs...

More like apples, oranges and excuses. Teams do this every year. Plenty of other teams have done it before us and done it successfully. The primary difference between us and them isn't the conditions, it's that they had competent head coaches. We don't.

So your opinion is, by your own admission, uninformed... Okay.

I wasn't on board with that idea. To be fair though, I wasn't really on board with trading for Mayfield either

And of course, that can't possibly be anybody's fault but his own Or maybe that thing about not having guys who can develop a QB (like, for example, a college head coach who's never really had to do that) yeah... Maybe there's some validity to that.

If you say so

Hate to break it to you, but Panthers-Commanders was not the only NFL preseason game that was played this past weekend. Malik Willis, Desmond Ridder, Bailey Zappe and others played significant minutes in their games and looked, at the very least, competent.

Every other team with a rookie quarterback managed to do that while also coaching up their rookie.

To Hope for? No. To expect? Unfortunately yes, especially at this time of year when everybody knows massive cuts are going to be coming shortly. It's already understood by pretty much everyone that the Panthers aren't keeping Walker. There's no real incentive for anybody to even offer a ham sandwich. And again, as it is with Darnold, one preseason performance isn't going to erase past tape. (definitely not when that preseason performance includes throwing a ball downfield when you had an open path to a first down two yards in front of you)

You're not going to get a trade for PJ Walker, but someone noted that the Panthers radio guys said one of the reasons Walker was out there so much was to try and showcase him for another team. It's not the Panthers responsibility to help PJ Walker find another job. It is very much their responsibility to get Matt Corral ready to play in the NFL. But again, which of those two things is Matt Rhule more focused on?

I'm kind of struck by a contrast here... The 49ers, planning to part ways with Jimmy Garoppolo, tell him not to bother showing up for training camp. The Panthers, expecting to part ways with PJ Walker, give him the majority of snaps in their first preseason game.

Belichick on Rhule...

From Albert Breer... I think everyone needs to listen to NFLPA president J.C. Tretter on the conditions of NFL playing surfaces, because it’s increasingly becoming a problem. Here’s what the ex-Browns center said, in the aftermath of Saturday’s Bears-Chiefs game taking place on a less-than-ideal patch of grass at Soldier Field: “The NFL said that this field met minimum testing standards. We clearly need to re-evaluate what is an acceptable surface for players to compete on. We need new testing metrics looking at the performance and safety of every field. The NFL can and should do better.” Now, I’m not going to pretend to know whether the conditions in Chicago this week were or were not acceptable. What I do know is I’ve heard about these sorts of issues over and over again from players. The great majority of guys don’t like playing on FieldTurf. And the grass surfaces in Northern climates look like crap way more often than they should. To me, this comes down to, as is the case with so many other things in the NFL, money. Teams are trying to cram more and more events into these stadiums to justify their cost, and that means either teams are going to the artificial surface or they’re letting the natural surfaces take a beating. What I do know is that it seems like the Packers are the one team that has it figured out—using a hybrid natural surface that’s woven together, and somehow withstands the Wisconsin winter. The problem is that the system, which is widely used for the pitches in Premier League soccer, is expensive and takes a lot of upkeep. The Packers don’t have an owner to answer to for that. The other 31 teams do. And maybe this is just me, but that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason not to give elite athletes the highest-level surface possible to run around on. Especially when the cost for not doing it, paid by those athletes, can be so high. MMQB

My sense is that negative articles about Mayfield were coming out before he was ever up for trade. Putting out stuff like this when you're trying to get something back for a player would be kind of counterproductive.

... not trading for Jimmy Garoppolo. The general issue with Baker Mayfield was supposed to be bad attitude. Garoppolo comes off as something worse here, specifically a bad teammate. It was already likely to be difficult for the 49ers to get anything for him. This story certainly doesn't help.

Other teams find ways to do both.

Yeah, I haven't been all that impressed. You can say it's what he's had to work with, but still...

You got to see him saying "1, 2, 3, break"

Fair point... Throw in that all of his experience with developing quarterbacks revolves around guys who will be starting in three years, two at the most. Corral might be called upon to start as early as next year (this year of injuries happen). I seriously doubt he understands the NFL version of "the process".

I don't see anything diabolical here. It's possible I suppose, but nothing of that sort has been reported. Reality for me is that Matt Rhule just has no idea how to develop a rookie quarterback. And honestly, why would he?

As to the video, good production. You could tell from his comments near the start of the clip that Matt Rhule is conscious of how both he and the team are perceived (same as Tepper). Mayfield comes off as a nice, relaxed guy. Mind you, there's no real adversity to camp so we'll have to wait and see how he looks once things get tougher. Darnold is clearly doing his best to ignore the noise. Kudos to him for that at least. For whatever he may be as a football player, he does seem to be a genuinely nice guy. Hearing JJ Jansen mention that he started with John Fox reminded me just how long he's been here. Enjoyed the tribute to Sam Mills at the end...

I'm nowhere near as animated is him