Khyber53

I really, really agree with this. Why do you have a big, athletic guy with reach competing with the sidelines when he could do a better job in the center of the field or running the opposite seam to the TE?

Harbaugh will end up in Miami. While they have a decent foundation for the team, they are in a newly resetting division that will feature pushover Jets twice a season. And then the biggest unspoken factor... tax benefits from living in Florida. There's no state income tax there. Tennessee is the same, but they've got a massive amount of work for a rebuild.

Good to see merit winning out here. Maybe XL roars back or finds him a place in the third WR spot. He's got some serious competition for it though with Horn, Jr. and Tremayne. And you can't tell me that David Moore doesn't know how to fight and compete for a roster spot. Work, man. Woulda been easier for him out of the gate rather than here at the end of the season.

Yep.

This 100 percent. Think of the Packers during the Brett Favre era as well. They kept drafting guys to sit behind him and learn from their system and Brett, too. What they did was they created not just qualified backups, but a farm system where they traded well trained QBs that smart GMs traded for as starters rather than risking it all on a high draft pick. I hope Bryce wins out this season because I'll never go against whatever brings wins to our team. Even if he does, though, there should be a QB in the wings, learning and ready to roll out at a moment's notice, whether for our team or someone else's.

Panthers 24 Rams 21 Fitz with the last second magic kick. And I think this is going to be a defense heavy game for us. Turnovers will be the deciding factor once again, giving us short fields to work from.

Those linemen won't be getting shorter.

Sorry, did not see it when I posted it. Mods please remove.

Let's just hope the Rams believe that and game plan accordingly. We caught them looking past us before, could we have it happen again? Sure would be something!

Either way, I think we can agree that barring some miraculous transformation in the playoffs, it's time to move on. Can he be an NFL QB at even back up level? Probably. Maybe. Possibly. Can he be the franchise QB that sets the tone for a decade here? No. (Once again, barring that miracle.) No hate to the young fellow, but it's just not what it needs to be.

Here's the thing, you may very well be right that both coach and QB suck here. And that's maddening. They are so tied together now that who knows for certain. And there's a good shot that these two just are incapable of getting the best out of each other, but they can limp along hitting on a couple of high spots just enough to make it muddy on evaluating. Or one could suck and the other could thrive untethered to the other guy. Hell if I know. Just reminds me of that scene from O, Brother where art Thou? Where they clamber into the moving box car, except for the last one and their leg chains just keep dragging them back out one by one... thwap, yoink, thwap. And Bryce, yeah, he has composure. Too much composure. He needs some fire. Cool is good but you need fire to win games. We have developed grit as a team since Canales came aboard, but we just lack spark. The cat needs to roar. Edit to add: Bryce reminds me a lot of Joey Harrington from back in the day. Had the pedigree and college credentials, smart, smart guy. Great piano player even. Got him on the field and he just couldn't get that traction to make him competitive, even with one of the greatest receivers of all time out there with him. Ice water in his veins, but no fire in his heart.

The stats speak volumes but about what, though? And that's the difficulty. That first season, he's both a rookie and under a different HC and offensive coordinator. Second and third years, you've got changes in personnel on the o-line (generally an upgrade), the emergence of a running game and receivers out of the backfield, and the additions of Coker and T-Mac. The story is still out on TE if there have been any improvements. Any of those could be excuses or explanations for Bryce's performance or lack thereof. What it can't quantify, however, is how play calling has made a difference. Without going over the All-22 views on every play AND knowing what the playcall was with main target, secondary receiver and check down, we have no way of knowing what was expected and how he did within it. I do know that our offensive concepts have shown a relative inability to scheme players open on a regular basis and we seem to semi-regularly have two receivers in the same space, whether by design or bad coaching, which makes the job easier for the defense. I do know this, Bryce doesn't seem to show the killer instinct to will a play into happening on a regular basis. He's shown a few places where he does have ice water in his veins, but it has generally been when the game is on the line and our backs are to the wall, but there's still a chance. He seems to thrive in those situations. Sadly, good QBs can operate like that starting in the first quarter and carry it through. What he doesn't have, though, is either Cam's ability to just grab a play up as it breaks down, throw the team on his back and exert his will on the opposing team. He also doesn't have the leadership ability that Jake showed back in the day where he'd fire up everyone around him until they'd all run through a brick wall together when needed. Bryce seems to live in a very unsatisfying area in between and one without emotion or fire. And as to coaching, I have no idea on Dave Canales. He's building something here, the team as a whole is getting better and we are developing some of our own players into bright spots or stars even. And that's important, but a team lives or dies by the QB/HC situation if they are on their way up. And our play calling seems lackluster. I think he needs to relinquish play calling duties and instead manage the game, all phases and coach the players on the sidelines as needed. Wearing two hats at this early stage in his career isn't working as well as he'd like it. TL;DR version: Sucks to say it, but can't fully judge Bryce while under current HC, can't fully judge HC while he's handcuffed to Bryce. (And the Andy Dalton experiment this season sure didn't add any useful data.)

Hunter gave it all he had, but sometimes life does these things to you. Luckily he got to earn some big bucks early in life and that will give him a leg up on things. Wishing him nothing but the best.

Geno and Pete are getting a lot of people pointing at them and laughing that they're covered in poo right now. Folks tend to forget that they were brought there to dive into the Raiders organizational cesspool and try to bring it back to the surface. Pete deserves better in his twilight years and man, Geno should just take the money and run. Back-up QB? He'd be a decent one. Better than a few starters out there? Maybe. Bridge QB? Maybe. For us? I'd take a pass for the time being. We've got changes coming at QB1 and QB2 most likely (barring something miraculous) and I really don't know what Canales will want. I just know he got saddled with what he has now, as did Dan Morgan (who was probably part of the system that got us where we are, but that's another story.)

You know, I've said some things that were directed at specific people on this board recently, my anger got the better of me. I apologize for that. Whatever my reasonings, there's no excuse for it. Let's just take a moment, catch a breath and put aside all of our differences and do something we haven't had a chance to do for a long, long time: Pull for our team in the playoffs. Simple. Let's enjoy this for how rare it has become, let's not fight over how it happened. Let's just cheer on the Panthers. Together.