Khyber53

Scourton had his coming out game. This guy might be a solid player next season or might just take off like a rocket. Honestly, this whole team has that feel, that we're on the edge of something good. We're ahead of schedule on the retooling with Canales, we're competitive now. Can't wait to see this keep developing. That rookie class, though, is turning into something truly special.

It feels good to win. Let's get two more to finish out the regular season. This is a freakishly weird team to figure out and one that seems to be at its scrappiest when taking on favored opponents. That in the playoffs could make for some very odd games. I can't wait to see them!

I'm going to say this, because it happens to a lot of young guys that get drafted high each year. If they've never had anything, and suddenly find themselves getting checks for a couple of hundred thousand dollars per week, they don't know what to do with it or don't know how to handle turning this into a career. I think XL might be one of those guys. He desperately needs someone to sit down with him, explain what being a selected star and then having to take the secondary receiver role means and how to turn that into a long, meaningful career. If Muhsin Muhammad could spend some times with him, Xavier might get this straightened out and become a contributor. He's got the skills, he's got the physicals, his brain just isn't into it and I question the maturity.

We had some serious run blocking problems. Tampa's run D was a weakness for them coming into this game and they really sold out on keeping us bottled up. They succeeded at that. They were more prepared for Rico than Chuba, but both guys struggled. Nice to see we were able to adjust.

Panthers 28 Bucs 24

It makes me happy to see one of them take a beating.

Tried to say it back in the day, but nobody would listen. That game against Minnesota where he put the entire team on his back and brought us within a whisker of making a massive comeback showed who he really could be. But we weren't there as a team and certainly didn't have the coaching staff in place. Now, we might well be looking down the same gun barrel with Bryce. But no one wants to hear that either.

Dude, I love those Time Life series. Honestly, I've got five different series... dating back to the early '70s. WWII, Civil War, The Old West, The Sciences and the Cooking ones (which is a masterpiece of culinary literature).

More like a series of books that you pre-paid for a subscription to and now this many issues in you have to keep reading them because you are already so invested, even though it just keeps getting worse. I think those books are being written by AI now. Tommy Tremble had seven fingers on the last cover.

As much as I wish it were different, our TE room is a bunch of nobodies. Don't mean to slam them, but as a group they've been pretty lackluster and none of them has managed to push themselves to the forefront of a rather easy batch of competitors. I mean, really. Tommy Tremble has been the leader for most parts but he's putting up second string, maybe third string vibes. We definitely need to work on this.

We take the win.

Here's one of the most maddening things, that will be shown in full light over the next three weeks. The same people around here that called Darnold a bum and Mayfield a washed up over draft are also the ones saying Bryce is a catastrophe. Yeah, and I've been one who said Bryce wasn't big enough, brave enough or capable enough. I said back in the day that Darnold had a lot of fight in him and got shouted down. And on Mayfield, heck I didn't know, I just knew we had a very, very bad team that was run terribly. But I saw both of those guys go out there and resurrect their careers and be play-off bound since shaking the Carolina clay dust off their cleats. And we sat there and cat called their cars as they pulled out of the parking lot, laughing at what nobodies they were. Over the next three weeks, those two guys may just serve us sh!t sandwiches and then settle down to their just desserts. And then we'll probably let Bryce go off into the realm of other teams. And when that happens, will we see him coming back, better than before and we're left to re-sit this cycle all over again? Same naysayers, same results, same revolving carousel of ponies and pundits? Will we end up looking like the Temu version of the San Diego Chargers back in the day watching Drew Brees come to fruition in the previously moribund Superdome while we whiff on a Manning pick just to be jilted for Phillip "Always a Bridesmaid" Rivers?

This keeps coming up a lot: Why does Canales give Bryce such a long leash? Why does he keep putting him out there. There's one really important answer here. It doesn't cherry pick a game, it doesn't take into account draft position, or even height and weight. The number one reason Dave Canales keeps starting Bryce Young is: The QB bench. Look at it. Look at it. That is one dusty ass bench. The Red Rifle can no longer be reloaded. And there's literally no one else there. We've shuffled the practice squad guys a couple of times for QB prospects and they can't even claim a jersey. That's management, not coaching.

Cam will have a better shot at HoF simply because of his highlight reel. Stats be damned, there were things on the field he did that still haven't been duplicated, no matter how much Josh Allen tries. Ryan, while he catches a lot of flak here, was a darned good QB, but as Peter King once opined, if there was a Hall of Darned Good, he'd be a first balloter.

Those never work in this day and age of Twitter feeds, scream sheets and podcasts. Everyone has an anonymous source willing to trade a favor or a few bucks for something off the record. Besides, they almost never ever stand up in court.

Moton is getting up there in years and there was some question if I remember correctly whether he was going to hang it up or not. Sadly, Father Time catches every player eventually. Still, we also have to consider that for all of New Orleans' faults, they've had two really good pass rushers for some time now. Me, I can't wait for Cameron Jordan to finally hang up his cleats and join a broadcast team somewhere. Man, he has been a menace in every game he has played.

No, there's not enough room down that rabbit hole for both of us.

I appreciate ya man, but that's bullshit. But if it makes the world make sense to you, go for it.

The problem with most conspiracy theories is the incredible assumption that every single one of the people involved will maintain complete secrecy throughout their entire lives. Yeah.

Me, I'm sick of WWE channel hopping their PLEs and shows. Netflix now with Raw. USA still has Smackdown but you can't get it with Roku if you don't also have cable. Then they went from all the PLEs on Peacock to ESPN+ which required upgrading your Disney+ package. Then they frikkin' move Saturday Night Main Event with John Cena's retirement match back over to frikkin' Peacock, which we'd just cancelled two months prior because no PLEs there anymore. And there are fewer, but longer matches and its the same danged stories again and again. Rematch after rematch after rematch between PLEs. Fewer matches, fewer wrestlers, more promos (of lesser quality) and less action. It just seems like it's all fillers and re-runs. I'm tired of Cody Rhodes. I'm tired of Jey Uso. I'm tired of the two Brons. Shuffle the deck a bit guys, this game's getting stale.

There may very well be a point here. And that should be part of our scouting and scheming. I wonder how Jackson does against speed vs height as well. And then have Moerhig (sp???) double up on the speedster for some hard hits. Nothing slows up a speedster like a couple of hard tackles.

You forgot Dan Morgan.

Funny how we said there was no value in washed up Sam Darnold and washed up Baker Mayfield, too. Just sayin'...

You pick up Bryce's option because it has value beyond just the team in the next two seasons. If we decide to go ahead and draft some QB competition, or replace the Red Rifle finally with a new free agent with some experience, you have an upswing QB in Bryce that can be traded, especially if there's a team with an injury that happens. And, let's be honest, right now Bryce is playing as well or better than the other 1st round QBs from his draft class. Scary, but true.

This. He's building a team in the right way, he's managing the creation of a support system within it and has (and I didn't think he could) begun putting some grit and resilience into this band of players. He, however, needs to be able to hand play calling over to someone and learn to manage the overall game more than each individual play. He needs to conduct, rather than try to conduct and play the solo. And I think he has something hanging over his head that is crippling him at times... the Teppers reputation for cutting coaches for poor performance. It makes him play not to lose at times, especially against lesser opponents like Sunday. Maybe he needs to instill more grit in his own game.