Khyber53

If it hasn't been said already, Jake frikkin' Delhomme.

That's a good read, thanks for sharing! I hope this all works out well. There's nothing better than a redemption story and hopefully the kid can thrive here. Get him some protection and then all the pieces are in place for success. We're going to learn a lot about our coaches and management this season, based on this trade, draft picks and development of the team. Let's hope a real off-season is in the works and they can produce something championship-worthy and enduring.

The guy was the best center to ever play for Carolina and was true to the team throughout his career. He played under center with Delhomme, McCown, Moore, Claussen, Cam, Allen, Gilbert, and then Darnold in New York. He understands what to expect from QBs good and bad, he was in the league long enough to know good coaching from bad. He's a smart guy and a football guy. The team didn't make its decision based on what Kalil said, but I am sure they sought out his opinion and considered greatly what he had to say, along with what Josh McCown had to say. That brought the team more real, direct knowledge of Darnold than we could have of any of the top QBs in the draft. Will Darnold pan out? I sure hope so and you should, too. He's a Panther now, so he's our guy. Right?

From what I am seeing, the only knock against him are his arms might be an inch or two shorter than you'd typically want in a tackle. Everything else works out, particularly his mobility, vision and ability to work on an island if necessary. He's capable against all types of rushes and is strong in the run game, devastating when he can get to the second level. Sewell beats him on pure power, but Slater stands out as more polished and experienced. As to playing Guard, he is more than capable of having a fistfight in a phone booth for a whole game, but he ability as a tackle (and he has played both sides of the line) is top notch. Or so they say.

I'm optimistic, there's a lot of activity and it looks like they are actively continuing to try and build a team. But I'm wearing out. Last year was a lousy season. We invested our entire draft on defense and played like a bunch of old ladies -- we couldn't stop any team that wasn't already on the verge of firing their coach. There were games where we never stopped a team from converting a third down. It was the softest I've ever seen a Panthers team play since the organization began. And I saw an offense that couldn't bail us out, even with three players netting over 1,000 yards each. Our offensive play calling seemed, well, amateurish and that was coming from one of the most heralded OCs to come from the college ranks. We looked sad last season. We can't do that again. No one expected an overnight turn around but we've got to see some progress this year. I saw more fight out of the John Fox "making me coach out this stupid contract" Panthers team.

If you have a team that can play defense (and with the exception of against the Lions, we couldn't) and has a decent to good line (which we didn't have), Teddy can work really well for a team. He won out with the Saints when called in to duty, partly because he played solid football and had a team that was built to win. Here, in Carolina, he didn't perform as well and a good part of that was the team around him was not yet built to win. If Carolina carries the guaranteed money, some team can come out of the deal with a solid back-up who can perform well under the right conditions. New England could certainly get him to back up Cam. Tennessee could use him behind Tannehill. San Francisco could easily use him to back up whoever they draft to play QB. He could back up Rodgers or Dalton in the NFC North, Mayfield in Cleveland or even Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh. Because of the way those teams are built, he could come off the bench and thrive. Just because he didn't work out here (and I had hoped he would back in the day), doesn't mean he doesn't have value elsewhere. The Darnold trade didn't just make changes to our QB situation, but it shuffled the riders on the QB carousel that this off-season has been.

Hmmm.

If Bonnafon has healed... the guy can do the job and do it well.

@JetFan Thanks for the good words on Darnold. While many of us think this was a pretty good move, it helps to hear that the fans in NY hated to see him go. Hopefully we can rehab him from the damage done.

Crazy as it sounds... it would work.

The game is, was and will always be about the trenches. Build your wall(s).

Let's not break out the champagne yet. Hoping he is a good one. Hoping Rhule is a good HC. But let's not sound like we expect wedding bells after the first date. I know we're desperate and all, but let's let things play out before we start picking the bridal gown, k?

Let's put a truly optimistic spin on this. Carolina picks up a young QB from the trash heap and rehabilitates him. Darnold reaches the potential that had Daniel Jeremiah pre-draft saying he would be a top 3 draft pick and have a good career. We get a #3 pick quality QB without giving up a first round draft pick, still have our #8 pick to grab an OT with AND still have our first round draft picks for next year and beyond. All for a reasonable salary. If this works out, then we get the value of a #3 pick without having to sit through another lousy losing season. If it plays out well, then we won't pick in the top half of the draft again for years, all for a fairly reasonable trade situation. The best case scenario in all of this is actually pretty darned good. The worst case scenario is we may have a top 3 draft pick next season in the draft and on the roster.

The bar wasn't set very high. The bar might not have even been lifted off the ground.

At this point, either would be good but I think Slater is probably the better choice for us right out of the box. Sewell has massive potential but he needs more coaching and experience. Slater started as a freshman and has effectively played left and right sides. Honestly, I think with Sewell you work up to getting Taylor Moton type work from him. Slater may work up to Jordan Gross level. We'd be sitting pretty if that is the case. If somehow Pitts falls and he's still there at 8, I'm still thinking we take a hard look at snagging a game-changer TE. Then again, who knows who may fall to #8... it's not as far down the list as we sometimes think. Darnold could be the bridge guy and we take a QB. Things sure got a lot harder to predict yesterday.

Well thought out!

If Teddy ends up going back to the Saints, starting and playing winning football for them, then it's going to tell us a lot more about our coaching than it will about Teddy.

Honestly, I don't know WTF is going to happen with this. It looks like we gave a few minor-ish draft picks for a chance to kick the tires of a former #3 draft pick who has at least seen the field. When he saw the field, he pretty much couldn't compete. Then again, no one on those teams could compete and the Jets have been the poster child for the worst coaching in the league. They basically destroy all of their high draft picks... and all of their draft picks are high. It is a sign of a bad organization. So, we get a one-year test drive on a guy that probably should have been at least a decent QB. He doesn't have a lot of injuries, doesn't seem to have any legal baggage and has a built-in fifth year option that we can make use of if he performs decent to great here. Had we waited until after the draft, chances are the Jets were going to release him at some point. And we could have gotten him cheaper, probably, if we could get him at all. Someone was going to take a shot at him, as a back up at the least. So, we kind of got ahead of that line (and it might well have been a very short line considering his stats). The line on Rhule is that he rehabilitates broken programs and brings them back into respectability. If he can do that with Darnold, we might see this as a brilliant move. If he can't, then we aren't out a whole lot, but we may need to start looking at buy out options for Rhule's contract. Hate to put it that way, but this is the NFL and you perform or you find new employment.

There's a plan at work here, and a long term one to boot. Just wish I knew what it was.

That's exactly what I am getting at. The current Jets have been so monumentally bad, across the entire team, that there's just no way to know what we've got here in the Darnold trade. I will say that Rhule and Co. made Anderson into a star-level performer last season after the Jets had done him no good. I'm sure he might have had a voice into what Darnold's capabilities really are. Honestly, though, I'm just pulling stuff outta thin air here. Never really saw this coming and I have no research on Darnold.

His familiarity with Robby Anderson could be a very strong point in his favor. The kid had the tools and experience coming out of college. Can our coaching staff repair the damage the Jets did and get him to reach his potential or is he just a placeholder for a year or two? As usual, Rhule and Co. have left us with some head-scratching to do until the season starts.

He's a Panther now, so here's hoping he finds his groove here. It would be great to have a Drew Brees-like resurgence here, or even a Ryan Tannehill one would make it alright. He's still pretty much just a kid, so if it works it could be a good, long term thing. In the guy's defense, I think that Jets coaching and capabilities would have ruined Joe Montana right out of college, too.

Thanks for the perspective. You make good points.

In the end, winners win games. Winners win big games. Winners win the biggest games. Winners wear the rings and eventually the jackets. The guy who can see the field, understand the field, keep one move ahead of the opposition and deliver the ball survives and becomes one of the greats. Arm strength is a definite assist. Mobility can help some. But in the end, it's what is inside the helmet that counts more than anything.

Just out of curiosity, did they somehow factor in how many times that first look was just to look off a defender? It's an interesting statistical glance, but considering the crop of players they were working with, both Lawrence and Jones had receivers so above their competition that second reads weren't as necessary possibly. In the end, stats give evidence, but they can't give any proof when it comes to this. So many moving pieces in the college game, and it only becomes so much more complex at the pro level. The worst thing for all of these top picks is that most of them are going to really bad teams, with really, really bad coaching staffs and they will be facing the toughest competition in their lives. There will be a couple of really good QBs that will be destroyed by bad coaching and bad protection before this is done who could have been super stars had they ended up on a better team. There's actually a chance we could be one of those terrible destinations right now.