Mr. Scot

History...or Stockholm Syndrome... or maybe a little of both

No argument...

No he doesn't, but Mayfield isn't exactly known as the kind of guy who realistically evaluates his position and behaves accordingly.

Yeah. Heard that last year too, and the year before, and...

We kinda did already. And this year's Cardinals were a better team than the Saints or the Falcons are right now.

There have been indications that our position has changed. There's been no indication thus far that his position has.

You guys don't remember the "mutual disinterest" tweets from a few weeks ago?

The "I don't need to watch film" thing would never fly in New Orleans. Not so sure it goes over well in Atlanta either.

My gut reaction is it's probably bullsh-t.

I feel like there's two posts that I see here on an annual basis... 1) Next year we're gonna have a lot more cap room 2) Next year's quarterback class is more interesting than this year's As I recall, last year around this time, some folks were talking about how great Sam Howell and Spencer Rattler were going to be and how we should wait on them. There just aren't any guarantees.

As if on cue...

Couple of things I'd point out here... There's a real tendency among big Newton fans to take a look at any halfway decent athletic quarterbacks coming out in the draft and excitedly exclaim, "It's Cam! He's come back to us!". Yeah...except it isn't, and he hasn't. And sometimes I really think people have forgotten just how unique Newton actually was. The other thing I see a lot of is people looking at those athletic guys and saying "This is how we can finally get Cam Newton 2.0". To that, I'd say that while some fans are looking for Newton Part Deux, I haven't really seen any definitive indication that the Panthers are. So if you fall into either of these mindsets, you might have a pretty good chance of being disappointed.

Every year watching The Draft, we're confronted with things that don't make any sense based on what we've heard. A big reason for that is because even good reporters don't really know what's going on behind the scenes in teams' draft prep. So if we're surprised again this year, it really won't be any surprise.

Timing is a factor here... Rap Sheet thanks the Panthers are his most likely destination if he's traded before the draft. Based on what we know right now, I don't really think the Panthers are going to sign or trade for anybody major before the draft happens. If they don't and they take a tackle at #6, then Mayfield becomes an option. So does Garoppolo. But Rapoport's opinion is that if Mayfield isn't traded before the draft, he might have to wait a long time before anything happens.

He was. He went #1 overall.

In the hot seat...but also in charge. That is a flat out horrible spot for any organization to be in.

Campen went to his workout.

He fits their offensive system perfectly. (technically, ours too)

Unfortunately, the guy with the least interest in the team's long-term future has final say.

Saints beat writer Jeff Duncan thinks the Pitt QB could be a target. From the article... Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune believes that, if the Saints go with a quarterback in round one, the guy they take could be Pitt’s Kenny Pickett. The hand-size issue may not deter the Saints. The Saints play their home games indoors, eliminating the potential impact of the elements for at least eight or nine games per year (plus road games in domes). Also, Duncan notes that Saints assistant G.M. Jeff Ireland drafted quarterback Ryan Tannehill a decade ago. Tannehill had (and presumably still has) hands on the smaller size, at only nine inches. You know how this goes, of course. If the Saints take him, he'll be a Hall of Famer who will torture us for years. If we take him, he'll be a complete bust

I have a tough time buying the choice to stick with Dennis Daley.

You're not Matt Rhule though...

Didn't know this, but Howell and Ekwonu don't count toward the Panthers quota because they're local guys. That's a nice little bonus.

From Albert Breer (Link) I don’t think Kyler Murray will be an option for the Panthers, or anyone else but the Cardinals. But the Panthers’ situation is a perfect illustration of why Murray’s camp viewed timing as so important to his situation in the first place. Carolina’s one of just a few teams left out there (Seahawks, Falcons, Lions) that don’t have their QB plans set for 2022. Once we get past the draft, you figure more, if not all, of those teams will drop off the list, because they’ll either take one or they’ll dive in on a Mayfield or a Garoppolo. And that organically takes an arrow out of Murray’s quiver, when it comes to trying to leverage a deal out of Arizona, because it’s tough to pull the trade-demand lever if there isn’t a team out there willing to give him the kind of contract he wants, while also handing over a war chest of draft capital to acquire him. That’s why when Arizona told Murray and his people back in February that they’d take care of him in the summer, after the rest of the offseason business was done, that was met with strong resistance (and that strongly worded statement from agent Erik Burkhardt). So here we are now, and I’d expect Murray’s camp to try to keep the temperature high for the next couple of weeks, because there’s really no guarantee that what the Cardinals come to him with a few months from now will be what he’s looking for. And if they get there, well, given the holdout rules, Murray may have no other recourse than to play out the fourth year of his deal. Which didn’t work out really well for Mayfield, who happens to be a close friend and ex-teammate of Murray’s.

Here's Albert Breer's perspective from his latest MMQB Just as last week was important for the Panthers, this week is too. Just as the team had the quarterbacks in en masse last week, Matt Rhule, Scott Fitterer & Co. are having N.C. State tackle Ikem Ekwonu and Mississippi State tackle Charles Cross in to Charlotte together on Tuesday. And I think there’s an interesting dance that’ll play out in the aftermath with the sixth pick. As I see it, the Panthers can gamble, barring someone trading up (which I think is unlikely), that they’ll have their pick of quarterbacks at No. 6. What’s hard to forecast is whether any of the top three tackles—Ekwonu, Cross or Alabama’s Evan Neal—will be on the board when Carolina’s up. If those three are gone, maybe it’ll be simplified for the Panthers and they’ll take a quarterback. But if one or more of the tackles are there, it wouldn’t stun me, or others in the league, if the Panthers grit their teeth and go with the offensive lineman over the quarterback—with perhaps the idea that they could go and get Jimmy Garoppolo after the first round, or even Baker Mayfield, who’s been seen internally as a sort of redundant gamble to what the team did with Sam Darnold last year (and would probably require the Browns eating a whole bunch of his $18.858 million base). Having Mayfield and Darnold, the top two quarterbacks in 2018 (both of whom were drafted before Allen and Jackson), together would be interesting, for sure. But right now, my guess is the Browns would be pushing that more than the Panthers are looking for it. Which, again, could change, depending on what happens with the sixth pick.