Khyber53

Prayers sent up!

Oh, I fully understand that. And you don't make the list if you didn't do anything of real note last season. There's stuff we took note of because, well, peanuts in turds, but the rest of the league's fans overlooked it, as well as the serious sportswriters. If we want to make these lists next year, then we've got to actually do something and win some games.

None of our folks are making a top 100 list until both they individually, and we as a team, prove that we are worthy of consideration outside of an area bounded by Gaffney and Asheboro. You don't get accolades with losing records year after year. And not just slightly losing records but bottom quarter of the league losing records. Sometimes the worst of the league. Ask anyone who cheers for a pro team in Ohio how it feels. They have decades of that. Well, unless you count Ohio State. They're pro, right?

I've been pounding the drum for seven or eight years about this: Our scouting and evaluation department is crap. If we don't show marked improvement this season, it's time to blow the whole thing up from GM and HC on down to scouting and trainers. Clean slate, no "hey my buddy from back in the day is perfect to join us" crap anymore. This poo has to end somewhere.

Let's be completely honest about this... Our WR room is AT and a bunch of question marks. Thielen is the only guy we know who knows the route tree completely, understands play calls and can regularly get open/beat close coverage when necessary. He's long in the tooth, isn't the speediest guy on the field but he plays like a pro, starting level wide receiver. Xavier, last season looked great at first, but man he kind of petered out down the stretch and would disappear in a number of games. He wasn't reliable on routes or getting open and where he was supposed to be a king at contested catches, he often looked a bit intimidated. I'm not saying he's a washout by any means. Anyone with his size, speed and catch radius could make it big in the NFL, but can he do it? He'll need to show more than he did in the preseason before we can really rely on him as a WR1 or WR2. Coker was a revelation last season, he really played way above his (non)draft status and flashed multiple times in games and was a steady performer. What we need to find out, though, is whether he was benefiting from being an unknown that wasn't getting maximum effort from opposing DBs or if he was just outworking and outhustling everyone on the field. We should find out this season. We sure as hell didn't find out much in the pre-season (from him or any receiver or QB for that matter). He's still a question mark, but I think he has the look of the real deal. He might be this generation's next Thielen. Now, let's talk about Tet. High first round draft pick, first true WR off the board this year. Stellar career out west in college. Has the swagger of the WR1. And man, y'all are going to get mad about this but... he comes across as a mook. And in the pre-season he performed, well, not so great against poor opposition of second and third stringers. Yeah, he caught that one moonshot ball in the first game but really, nothing else lighting the place up. Rookie endzone drop in that game, too. He's still young and adjusting, I'm sure, but I was hoping to see something of a breakthrough kind of guy. I'm still looking. Hunter Renfro? Gosh, I hope he can make the team and make a comeback to his old form. It would be such a great story. But maybe neither one of those happens. We won't know until Tuesday and then, if he makes it past there it could be weeks. So, TL;DR: AT is all we can bank on right now. We couldn't afford to let him go considering the number of unknowns we'd be throwing out there for our QB, who himself is still an unknown. One thing to add: Our receivers coaching group has their work cut out for them. I hope they are up to the task, but the pre-season gave me little reason to believe in them. And I really need something to believe in here in Carolina.

That wasn't vanilla. That was dishwater. I hope you are right.

I'm not seeing much change and that makes me feel less enthusiastic than last season. I hope what we've been seeing is a big deception.

Just bought Jesse Wells' newest album. The kid is good, really good.

Dang. Still using my hotmail address. I am an old fart.

Nope. He has completely washed that out for me over the last couple of seasons. We have not built a defense, he hasn't seemed to have developed any of the talent we've drafted or lured here. Our defense plays with lackluster effort many times and I've noticed that since Shaq was gone (after he was injured and all) that players were often out of place. Shaq appeared to be coaching on the field at times. Honestly, I want to see us transition back to the 4-3. We've never successfully transitioned to the 3-4 and we've been trying hard to do it since Tepper took the reins.

Stumbled across this guy. Really like his style.

Greg Olsen got shipped off by Chicago to us because they didn't realize the time involved in making the transition.

Me, too. I was expecting to see some single digit scores there. Still, really glad to see Tremayne make the list. He played very well while he was in there. Big guy. And good grades for our ILBs. We need some hope there, even if they are second and third stringers. That QB room, though. It's going to need realignment by next season if not sooner.

And a linebacker who was the management student of the last guy who was GM here. That guy wasn't exactly football Yoda. And Morgan was never the brightest bulb in the bin. Remember how he used to make sure that he took the head off of every rookie LB during the first training camp day? Ended one guy's career. Then, well, Morgan himself had to call it a career because of concussions himself. We could have done better somewhere out there for a manager choice. We just let the last guy fall on his sword and promoted his caddy.

Okay, I'm not sure what you are getting at here. Are we not allowed to look at the product that has been put on the field and say "That doesn't look good, not good at all."? And the comment about the owner and picking coaches that aren't intimidating is actually a very pointed statement about potentially why we aren't doing well and, GOING BACK TO THE TOPIC OF THIS THREAD, might very well explain why we have an effort problem. Football is about imposing your will on the other guys, it is about extreme effort, guts, toughness, determination. It is a street fight every game at this level. And, well, we've had some real, well, pussies for the last couple of coaches. I'm still holding out that this one might have something to whip our rather lackluster team into something competitive. But, I think, I see, that Tepper has chosen analytics guys and confidence builders over hard work and culture guys. And I think it's because those first types make him feel more in charge. But hey, I was on topic, but you dragged the other thread into here.

No, I disagree. I think that it reaches right to the core of what is happening with the team, the fanbase and then filters down to the Huddle. We're all in here just gnashing our teeth because, well, there ain't much cheering left to do at the moment. Give us something to believe in and this crowd will be back trading high fives and being all rah rah. Right now, though, I've been on this board for 16 years and I've just watched the fanbase slide into this malaise. It sucks.

Nah, our last three head coaches were a bag of wet socks. Fox, Rivera coulda whooped all three in a fight by themselves. Heck Capers probably still can and is waiting for a shot. Seifert... maybe.

Oh, and I think we hire coaches that the owner isn't physically afraid of.

We'll know by week 3 if it is time to just blow this whole thing up and try to get in on the Mike Tomlin bidding wars. We've been the most lackluster team in the league for almost a decade now. Remember when we tried to win pre-season games because YOU fuging TRY TO WIN EVERY fuging GAME?????? Now we just want some smooth vibes going into the season.

We've been worn down. Ground to nothing. I've always been one of the "it's going to work out, have some faith" guys on this board. Last guy off a sinking ship and all that. Folks, I've had a lot of health issues this year and it dawned on me after the last preseason game, I may just not have another year left in me, and I sure as hell don't want to spend much time from it watching this same old poo go down again. I've loved this team, still do, but there's got to be something from them for me to continue with this. This relationship has become toxic for me and well, I may hit the eject button early in the Panther's season to go and see other things in life. I don't believe in Mushy-head Morgan building a team, he was the dumbest linebacker of his group here. I sure as hell don't believe in the team ownership, just another bunch of carpet-bagging Northerners coming down here and telling us how we were doing it all wrong. I barely believe in Coach Canales but think he's been saddled with terrible OCs and DCs and position coaches because that's all that would come here. I'm just fuging tired of this. And from the sound of the board, I'm not the only one who is feeling ground down.

Like it would even help...

I sure hope you're right.

I think Bryce needs to play again next week anyway. He looks great in training camp where people are barred from hitting him. He looks meh in preseason games where second stringers are allowed to take shots at him. I'm feeling pretty antsy about his capabilities. We can't wait each year for him to kick in during week 8. Especially not with another "defense" by Ejero. Only DC in the league that doesn't believe in tackling practice. Just hands the players a pamphlet and hopes that they read it.

Yeah. I didn't want to say it, but if your team is putting out this kind of effort, even in a preseason game, you need a coach on the sidelines chewing out someone and letting them know their careers are literally on the line here. If you are trying to make it on one of the worst teams in the NFL over the last five years and you can't show out, then you aren't going to get chances elsewhere. Mr. Friendly-friendly might not be the answer here.

Well, right now looks like we will be looking at a clean sweep of QB positions next season. And OC. And DC. This team doesn't look like it's prepared for primetime. 52 yard field goal is the highlight for our team this game. It feels like that might be a common situation this season. Maybe I'm over-reacting, maybe I've just seen this before. So many times before.