Khyber53

Well, he'll just have to do it again, or better. But let's face it, we're a small market team that had a dead man walking as a head coach, then an interim head coach and what had been a mushy soft defense for a couple of years. No one was really looking at our defensive players at all. Hopefully this will be a sit up and take notice year for the NFL when it comes to our defense. We need, desperately, to regain the strength and reputation that we've had in the past. And there's only one way to do it and that's with INTs, sacks and giving busted lips and black eyes to our opponents. We, as a team, need to play the whole season like the first hit Thomas Davis would put on Jimmy Graham every time we'd play the Saints. He'd just knock the dogwater out of him and Graham would play scared the rest of the game. You could see him flinch every time Davis would make a quick move in his direction. We've got to be like that every game this season.

True, very true.

He's right, we spend way too much time obsessing over ever single moment of OTAs and practices and stuff. There's just way too much media out there right now and honestly it's ruining the game. Everything is so under the microscope anymore and there are soooo many pundits that it's easy to forget about the game itself. I realized that during the week, I'll spend more time watching football coverage and conversation than I actually spend watching the games. I'm not sure that's healthy for the sport (much less for myself) and for the fanbase. And honestly, I'm getting kinda creeped out by the overly enthusiastic man crushes people develop over players, even newly minted rookies. I think we're losing perspective.

They said Big Ben was a meathead, too and couldn't move up from college and make it. Somehow the big lunk did. (And I still think he's a meathead.)

Honestly, I think he'll be the next Ben Roethlisberger. He's got the build and a similar game. Same kind of love 'em or hate 'em vibe, too.

If your rookie QB doesn't have some really bad days in OTAs and early training camp, you may just have a major problem with your defense.

Man, I wish I was more hopeful for our WR group but let's be real. Every single guy we've got is in a "prove it" position right now and that doesn't bode well. TMJ is right now going into his third season after being a highly touted draftee. His first two seasons were lackluster at best and even with coaching aside, he hasn't even flashed brilliance much. He's really in a make it or take it home situation this year and his career really hangs in the balance. Thielen was just jettisoned from the Vikings for basically being too old, and that's after having a heck of a long career there, as well as being a local legend. He's got a lot to prove that he still has the "it" factor and that he can still make the hard catches and put his excellent route running to good use. He has to somehow prove the Vikings coaching staff wrong in a new town, with a new coach and a brand new rookie QB. That's a mighty tall order to fill. Chark was lt go at the end of the 2022 season by the Lions after being there for a year on a "prove it" deal. He had 502 yards and three touchdowns there and it just wasn't enough to keep him on the roster. He's just 27, so there's still some hope, but were the Lions right about him? He's on the hook here for $5, but is 500 yds and 3 TDs really worth that much? Mingo is a rookie, second rounder with some good stats and a lot of praise for his college game. Same as TMJ when he was drafted here. Still, he's a rookie, so it is a definite "prove it" situation for him, but with some leeway due to how new he will be to the pro game. I'm really hopeful for him, but reality says that he's got a hill to climb this year. Shenault's looking at a prove it year, too. He's got to prove that he can make catches and be something more than just a gadget player whho can moonlight as a running back. It's neat, but can you show us something else, kid? Damiere Byrd. Well. Good luck. We can look at these guys and swoon in the preseason, but truth be told, we need at least two of these guys to prove that they can be starters in this league at this point in their careers. I don't think any of them can be counted on to be superstars, but maybe they can work something up amongst the group. If I were an opposing secondary coach with these guys up next on my schedule, I don't think I'd be losing much sleep over it. Gosh, I hope I am wrong.

This is a building year, but for once I think we've built a good o-line. Last year's was the best we'd had in seven or eight years, so if we can improve on that the sky is the limit. I know it's really old school but I just still believe that the game is won and lost along the offensive line and you can't have a good offensive line without a smart guy at center. Bozeman has really filled the bill for that one, he really brought that group together last season.

Dangit, was hoping it was the other Xavier Woods.

You're very right and I'm going to remove it.

We want to beat the opponents, no their kids. Sorry, too soon?

Chuba has been getting better and better. He's a good back up running back and as long time Panthers fans know, you can never have too many of those.

As my daughter turned 18 this year and my son 15, that has been weighing heavily on me. My great grandfather was in France during WW1 and he had just turned 18. He drove a mule team carrying supplies to the front and I remember him telling me that the mules were more valuable than he was -- in case of a gas attack he had to put the masks on the mules before he could put his own on. At the end of the war, the mules were loaded onto a train and he had to march back to the port. The mules, of course, probably weren't going back to America, but probably to slaughterhouses to feed hungry French people after the war. It was a grim, grim thing we sent his generation and the ones to come into. We should honor them by truly working toward both peace and freedom.

It is so easy to forget the lives lost to give us and others their freedom, lives taken at such young ages that they rarely had time to create their own lives, loves and memories.

Thanks! That one took a lot of work to make it more than just one dude shooting another dude over nothing.

I really can't wait to see how they use him. I think with the right plan, Jeremy can become a superstar in this league. He's smart, fast, strong, a good leader and just about fearless. Rhule and Co. just could never get him quite positioned right.

Well, we had been thinking of getting a vacation home...

It was just this February, so it's still, from a trial standpoint, brand new. We're actually thinking of doing some update shows but I haven't seen something in the rotation yet. Our team of writers, the narrator, video editors and management are scattered across four continents and in seven different time zones, so coordination is sometimes difficult, sometimes a pure miracle. I think it's a really good idea and I'll bring it up with the boss when we chat next. This is just one of the ones we need to follow up on. And if you have any ideas for how we can make it better or cases to cover, please let me know!

Yeap, that's my take on it. When he advanced past the center line of that parking lot with weapon drawn, there was no case whatsoever for stand your ground. He became the aggressor. There's a lot of stuff I can't say in the videos (or write, our narrarator does the actual talking) because I don't have proof of it, but I don't get from the body postures of Garrett's friends that they were being aggressive. I had to figure in, though, that their presence did heighten Lloyd's fear in that he probably had an "oh sh!t" moment when he realized there were three guys, one in front of him and two behind him. But they just didn't look threatening. Also, it's very telling that a local businessman with a decent amount of money wasn't given bail and to this day is still awaiting trial. That means he is well known to local authoritites for having a low character. And being in Key West, it's just a matter of hop on a boat and head out to sea to flee. My bet is that his attorneys will plea bargain this down to negligent homicide if they can, but I wouldn't be surprised if no plea bargain is ever offered by the prosecutors since the evidence is right there and pretty indisputable.

If we have holes in the D we aren't aware of yet, Rodgers will find them. That can be really helpful for us.

How many games was he suspended for and was unavailable again? How bad did he throw his teammates under the bus in an effort to get out of Houston? How bad did he throw his teammates under the bus in an effort to get out of Arizona? He doesn't do well with struggling teams and both picked him up and then let him go for pennies on the dollar because no one would take him for the market value the general public thinks he's worth. There are more problems with Hopkins on your team than we even know. Let's not bring him in when we have a young QB and a team being rebuilt. Not only could he be cancerous to the team, the price tag is going to be way up there. That's a Dallas Cowboys move.

Brand new video up. I'll tell ya, if it wasn't for the state of Florida, I'd have half as many stories to do... And hey, if you are tuning in to watch these, I really appreciate it. I'm still pretty new to writing scripts like this, it's a whole different skillset than newspaper work.

And when was the last time Gruden actually developed a QB? This ought to play out well.

I'm not sure anyone has gotten their money's worth from Nuk in a long time. Maybe it's best we just let someone else take him on.

Honestly, what happened to end the Cam Newton era, more than anything else was opposing teams realized that to stop the Panthers, you only had to stop Newton. Somehow, some way, if you could knock Cam out or tie him up for the majority of the game, we had nothing else. Our defense, even led by Luke, could only hold up for so long (the rules make sure that is the case, no matter what). All those hits Cam took, the all out efforts for jailbreak blitzes while a joker player spied Cam to try and bottle him up, just took their toll on him. Cam was a superstar player and we honestly didn't develop the team and players around him enough to let them take over the game when he would get stuck. It's bad coaching and a bad case of lacking leadership to really create team development. After Cam left, how many people did we develop here on offense that are actually any good? We had Christian McCaffrey and well, they did the same with him. We took his abilities as the ultimate Swiss Army knife and let that be our entire offense, just rotating in underperforming QBs, poorly developing an O-line and letting our one decent receiver wither on the vine. If you want and need to build a team, then sometimes the worst thing you can pick up is a superstar, especially if coaching is desperate to find a miracle cure for their woes. It's how some of the greatest players of the game were stuck on horrible teams. Barry Sanders is a fine example.