Mr. Scot

Agree. There's a reason why a lot of these guys, even some of the big moneymakers, wind up broke within a few years of their career ending.

Among the topics discussed... The team has put in a ton of work to make sure Sam Darnold feels comfortable. They want Darnold to consider himself "1 of 22" and not try to put everything on his shoulders. Last year's lack of TE production was more personnel than scheme. They just didn't have the players to do some of the things they wanted. Dan Arnold might change that. Ian Thomas, not so much. Gantt thinks the talk about him having a good offseason is just an attempt to pump him up. As to Taylor Moton, he does still have an outside chance of getting a deal done, but Gantt doesn't believe he'll move left. He acknowledges that it could happen, but doesn't see it as all that likely. With regard to how much Moton's deal might be if it does get done, Gantt says it won't be as good as Saints tackle Ryan Ramczyk got because Moton isn't as good as Ryan Ramczyk. (not sure I agree there, but I'll grant I'm not necessarily objective). And lastly, Gantt says there could still be some roster shuffling before and during the early days of camp, especially at safety. He mentioned Ha Ha Clinton-Dix as still being a possibility but not the only one.

Been doing that for years. (a lot of us have)

Most of the questions I've seen people asking about Horn have to do with how "handsy" he was as a college DB. Some critics think he'll draw a lot of flags as a pro. And yeah, it's possible. But even some of the best in the game draw their fair share of penalties, more so over the last few years since the league's been trying to get as much offense as possible. My guess: he may well get penalized a fair amount, just hopefully not enough to where it causes problems. His rookie season especially could be a little rough in that regard. But if so, that won't mean he's a bust.

His best characteristic for me is still what he does with the ball after he gets it. He's one of the best RAC guys we've had in a while.

To be fair, the vast majority of those guys don't actually get paid "millions". That's just the superstars. As to the rest, yeah they make way more than we do, but most of them don't have long careers and relatively very few of them are "set for life" when their careers end.

To tell the truth, the more interesting question to me is just how deeply Matt Rhule believes in his "low hit rate" statement about first round quarterbacks. Our old buddy John Fox didn't believe in using high picks on quarterbacks. He preferred to just sign somebody that another team had developed (and who fit his preferred profile, of course). How will Panther fans feel if Matt Rhule has a similar philosophy?

I didn't see any such vibe at all. Both Rhule and Fitterer were known to have been high on Darnold when he was draft eligible. That, plus they did a pretty thorough job of scouting him. I think the only reason people see it as a panic move or as a last resort is because their own opinion of Darnold is bad, but you have to remember they don't necessarily see players the way fans do. Whether they'll wind up being right or wrong about him is a separate question, but I don't have any doubt that this was a choice they made not out of desperation or panic.

Hours? (I'm guessing that's an error)

So says Cassius Marsh... True? Unknown, but I get the feeling people aren't going to have a hard time believing it.

Some of the most fun plays to watch were the ones where before the snap, Luke would suddenly go ape sh-t and start pointing at something he saw. That scene usually resulted in a great defensive play.

Last minute deals do happen. I remember the offseason they thought they were going to have to choose between tagging Jordan Gross and Julius Peppers. A last minute deal got done with Gross and Peppers wound up tagged. That said, I don't think too many people's expectations of a deal getting done are high at this point. And if I'm being honest, mine aren't either.

I had a co-worker tell me a couple of years ago that the team was going to regret drafting DJ Moore. Hasn't happened yet, but can't revisit that discussion with him since we're no longer working together. The most memorable thing about last season though is that Moore never really seemed to have good chemistry with Bridgewater. It'd be nice to see that change with Darnold.

It is a stupid take, and so is this one. The Panthers weren't interested in Lance because they felt he didn't fit Brady's offense. That's why they didn't bother to go to the second workout. As to Rhule, I don't know if he's a genius yet. I do know PJ Walker is not an NFL quarterback though.

That I can sign on to.

If I thought they did that, I'd say they deserve to be fired. You don't make football decisions for appearances sake. But yeah, that theory's been thrown around before, and been pretty well debunked. I know it's hard for people to accept that they didn't like Fields, but all evidence points to that being the case. Heck, even Verge said it.

FYI: The guy you're talking to was a big Marty defender, but I'm guessing he probably doesn't want to admit that now A lot of folks on here haven't been around long enough to know it, but I was pretty much the same with both Marty and Gettleman when they first started out. Might have been a little more optimistic with Gettleman given his background (and that he wasn't Marty). But yeah, I gave Marty a chance too. Was on board after the early successes, but around 2009 or so I really started to lose faith. I think it was about then that I looked back at five years or so of drafts and realized our drafting under Marty was pretty bad. And of course, it didn't get any better. As to what you call "the current crowd", they do have the "not Marty" thing going for them, and Fitterer has a pretty solid resumé. Outside of that though, still yet to be seen. I overall like the moves so far, but that's just gut feeling. We'll see what happens when it's actually put the test.

Now this is a stupid take. But then you've got a long standing pattern of spending more time talking about me than actually talking about football, so...no shock.

A little acknowledgment from the league...

Speaking of stupid posts...

Could be worse. I could offer really stupid opinions... ...like yours.

I'm on a football forum to discuss football, but that doesn't change the fact that some discussions are stupid. I know it's a big deal these days for people to act like Jim Rome, make their "bold prediction" so they can come back later and say "see, I nailed it" (or act like they never said it if it turns out to have been a dumbass idea) but that kind of silly sh-t doesn't interest me. I have ideas about what was good and what wasn't, but just like everyone else's they're just educated guesses (though truthfully, "educated" isn't a word that applies to every poster's ideas). There are times when I might feel like discussing those, but generally I don't see the point. So basically, it's not so much "afraid to go out on a limb" as it is not giving a sh-t about going out on a limb because I don't have anything to prove to anybody.

I can't think of any move that was made which I'd find dumber than trying to predict the success of the moves we made before the team even plays a down.

And yeah, it's gonna be the left tackle position battle for me.

Yeah, I could see that. "There was this one play where I couldn't remember what the free safety's assignment was, so I didn't feel like I had fully grasped the playbook yet"