Khyber53

You may very well be right about that.

Talk about a Confederacy of Dunces.

You mean there's still a "hold my beer" moment after the decision to keep Rhule was made?????

Good! Now if he can settle in and pick up where he left off, we're going to be fine there for a while. Reasonable price, too.

fug no. Let him take care of his legal issues first. All of them. And then get some counseling. And then get back into football shape. Then prove that contracts mean something to him by playing a season for the Texans before screaming for a trade. The guy did shitty things to women, to his team, his teammates and their fans. Let ol' Handjobs and Histrionics sit there in Houston.

We could have gotten another team's cast off for a lot less and probably gotten the same production (or lack thereof). For the life of me, I'm not sure why they spent actually manpower on working out this deal, much less cap space.

The smartest play is to go with what we've got in the QB room now and let it run its course. They traded real things for Sam Darnold and we need to trot him back out there, win or lose. We'll lose but that is what they built here. And before we get into the Deshaun Watson crap (and it is pure crap and would saddle us for years with no first round draft picks for a guy who may never see the field again), let's just realize that any QB brought in here is going to lose behind this offensive line and this team's coaching. Whoever comes in is a dead man walking. No top end free agent is going to risk that. Maybe a mid to low grade starter will if we put enough cheddar down, but no one serious. Play it out, don't mortgage tomorrow to save Rhule's sinking ship. If he can pull off a miracle, we might believe in Rhule again. But that's what it is going to take for us to get behind this coach. Grab a late round QB and throw him out there mid-season if we must. Get him some experience with an eye towards back up QB at a reasonable price, because neither Newton, Walker or Darnold are inexpensive back up options or are guys who can really be called upon to win one or two games in a pinch right now.

I think we need to start from the Center, but this guy wouldn't break my heart if he was the pick. That mean streak he has is something we need on the line.

Doesn't everyone start a podcast nowadays? Was really hoping to hear his real broadcasting gig was getting a promotion. Oh well.

Let's let the next coach decide if this is a good idea.

You're right about all of this. I do think, however, we have from Burns what we will get (unless the attention he garnered from o-lines was what broke Reddick free). And if this is what Burns gives us every season from here on out, he'll be fine and have a long career. Peppers was never the same without Rucker on the other sideline. If Burns is this generations Rucker then, yeah, we're good with that. YGM, I believe, is going to just be a rotational guy, but an important one. Fox as well. And Brown needs to make this his biggest year, either as a disruptive force or an immovable object. Leadership along that line is needed, too, as evidenced by the lack of strength vs the run. Luuvu was good, better back there than any LB not named Shaq Thompson. Can he be a starter for a whole season? I think I'd be willing to see it and see him develop. But I also want to see Chinn move back to LB where he had the biggest impact. Still, we're only going as far as our coaching and team building and that means we're not going far under the Rhule regime. Sad, but true.

I've wondered about that and thought maybe it was partly a case of New England wanting to get Gilmore off the books and out of the locker room, so we did them a solid in hopes of building a trading relationship for the future. Or we just kinda overpaid for a short-term resource because we weren't very savvy . That could just as easily be the case.

Um, not in the least. Cam couldn't function behind a bad offensive line during his career (2015's line was better on the field than it was on paper) and no one can mentor you on surviving behind a line when play designs take five to seven seconds to develop. We shouldn't take a QB this year unless it is late in the draft as a future back up. They build the line, they might salvage this coming season.

I'd postulate that sometimes bad coaches get players hurt. And Taylor's coaching should be commended. He and his staff made a team that was supposed to be a year or two away into something really remarkable. Burrow is amazing, but Matt Stafford was too in all those years in Detroit. Coaching matters.

So eloquently and efficiently put. You are exactly right on all counts here.

To quote Yeats: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," Without a great center, you'll never have a line that lives up to its potential. Take Linderbaum.

Thanks for trying but we hired a rank amateur as a coach and he is showing signs of regressing. We also were bought by a rank amateur and regressing or not, we're stuck with him. On the management side, he may also be a dud but the other two guys are so bad a clear picture can't be made of him yet. As to the losses of stars/coaches on other NFCSouth teams, there's still better built, better coached and better motivated teams in each of those cities than in ours. And that hurts. Years back I warned before we jettisoned Ron Rivera that while the change was needed, what was coming might very well be worse than he was, just because that can be the nature of things. History has so far proven me right. And I really want to be wrong about this.

Honestly, though, how much positive is there to talk about? I'd love to have something to talk about on the good side, but we're in a tough straight right now. Three years of five win seasons and some honestly embarrassing play on the field hasn't left us with a lot to go on for upbeat discussion. And by God, I really need something upbeat about right now. In truth, so many of us are just stuck wanting to see a change because what is happening in Carolina right now doesn't seem to be working... at all. I want us to be pushing deep into the play offs, I want to be excited about upcoming games and the draft. Heck, I'd be excited as can be just to say we were competitive. Maybe there will be a miracle this year. Maybe not. I just don't know. Wish I did.

We'll take anything we can get for him.

Wins the thread. Hands down.

Exactly the same arm length as Ryan Kalil. That'll do. Spend the pick.

Am I not right in thinking at one time recently we had a decent amount of cap space? WTF did we do? It's like we sent the kids to the store and they came back with a six pack of Tab, two bags of Cool Ranch Doritos and $1.38 in loose change. Is this the crap we have to show for close to $200 million??? Of the top 3 we have effin' Sam Darnold and Robby Anderson??? I know, I know Shaq Thompson is #2 between those guys but he's more valuable than the two of them put together! Do I read it right that we've got $14 million in dead money tied up in Matt Paradis, Haason Reddick and Tre Boston???

He had some successes. So far, Tepper hasn't had a one. Hate all him all you want, and it may well be justified, but you still have to give the Devil his due.

I'm beginning to think of the trio, Tepper was the worst.

Man, that was a great article on technique. A bit of jiu-jitsu and a lot of physics there. Thanks!