Khyber53

Oh yeah, that I know. Been here through it all. We've given into the hate many times. And we've hit magic twice. Man, it's about time we had some magic again.

We're eventually going to have to let this go. We need to let a lot of stuff go. Jon Kasay and one particular kick. Jake Delhomme's really bad playoff game on his birthday. Julius Peppers heading to Chicago. Steve Smith, Sr. whooping a teammate's ass. Steve Smith, Sr. whooping another teammate's ass. Maybe a third time. Steve Smith, Sr. in Baltimore telling us to take our asses back to NC and mow his danged lawn. The whole Dave Gettleman thing. We need to let Cam coming back go and remember him for the ascendent talent he was while he was. We need to let our bad feelings about Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield go... maybe it wasn't them after all. We need to let go of carrying hate for Matt Rhule and let him spiral off into the cornfields of Nebraska. We need to let the trades of CMC and DJ go, We can't hold onto these things. It just hurts ourselves, the fans. We might, however, have a right to be mad that a know it all Yankee hedge fund guru bought this club and has made a hash of it all so quickly and so decisively. (Can't just throw all the bitterness away at once I guess.)

What has been done is done. So... here's hoping he proves to be our John Lynch. Good luck to the man, he knows the mess he has walked into, maybe that gives him a leg up on fixing it.

Well said and illustrated. Sometimes I feel like that, a dinosaur just watching the proto-possums scamper about. I'm an old print journalist now working to write scripts for a YouTube channel. My audience has changed soooo much I started working in 1992 at it. Sometimes I hit, sometimes I miss. And I'm paid by a 21-year old guy from India who is remarkably even keeled and supportive. This newest generation taking the stage... they may well be onto something. I like them, I wish I fully understood them, but there's a lot of good stuff there. Maybe newer, younger coaches in Carolina can reach them and set them to soar. I sure hope so.

You may have hit on exactly the problem we had this season, and it is a generational one that stems from communication of coaching. Hadn't really thought of that before, and it explains a lot, especially if you look at the product on the field. Just as some teams seem to age out of their best years, so too do coaches. Look at New England... Bill may have simply been the coach who went from esteemed guru with the players hanging on every word to the "Okay boomer (eye roll)" level very quickly without Brady to translate for him. It's a crazy thing, but it's a real thing, too.

He seems to have forgotten that football at the pro level (and college, too nowadays) is a billions of dollars business in its own right. It can be just as, and possibly more, complicated than running a hedge fund. He's been finding that out the hard way.

This is just a tragic fail of a trade. So much went into the pick that there was almost no way it could pay off in the long run. Not only did we give up DJ Moore, but with the loss of the draft pick we got for trading away CMC, then we pretty much gave him up as well. That's the teams top two receivers and starting RB. We gave up our two best scoring weapons. And then the draft picks, too. And could have done as well, or better, with the QBs that were left to us at #9 had we just stayed. We were suckered many, many times before draft day.

Here's the winner. And draft some linemen with our few picks. We need depth and we need the possibility of grabbing a diamond in the rough to push these other prize hog mollies. And scheme appropriately. Sheesh.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, behind that line, with those receivers, poor play concepts, constant tee-ing off by defenders, and no real running game... even peak Joe Montana and Tom Brady dropped into that situation would have collapsed. I'm not sold on Bryce, and haven't been since the pick was made, but dang man, got to give the kid a fair shot at it. And woof, he got screwed about as bad as the fans did this year.

The print industry was killed by consolidation and private equity groups who knew nothing about their products and the communities they thrived in. Then Rupert Murdock came along and made it a point to destroy journalism to make room for his tabloid bullshit, and that basically was him putting his cigarette out on the forehead of writers and editors around the country. Then AI came along and the powers that be-having-checkbooks thought that would save them from everything, including having to pay and listen to actual human beings. Luckily, there are newer outlets out there where there's room to create and do. And they can be pretty rewarding, with a lot more freedom, but fewer safety nets. Still sucks to watch the old battleships sink one by one beneath the waves.

Latest script I did. Possibly the dumbest murderer so far.

Good for Derrick. Dude gave his all for us this year, no matter how things were going for the rest of the team. He's one of about 10 guys that did so.

No rookie QB would have looked good on our team this year. And I don't just mean the 2023 rookie class. No rookie QB who ever suited up in the NFL's history could have looked good behind that line, with those receivers, that listless run game, poor play calling, ineffectual coaching and the weight of an entire franchise sitting on their shoulders. Honestly, I don't think peak Tom Brady or Joe Montana could have made anything out of our team had you set them down into what we managed to "create" here. Will Bryce ever be able to do the job here? Hell if I know. No one can know and no one can even have an educated guess after what we've seen. All we can hope for is that the next coach and GM can sort through this mess, pick out something to build on and roll with it. It's not like we can go in the first round and have our picks of QBs again...

Just kinda glad to not hear that we're rushing into anything.

This^ 100%.

Tomlin, hands down.

Sheesh, Peacock is like $6 for a month, carries a crap ton of great shows (and many new ones) on demand, has a ton of sports, carries all of the WWE pay per views (at no extra cost) and grabs some of the new in-theater movies very quickly after release or at the time of release. Grab a Roku, pick five pay channels you like and cut the Cable. You'll save nearly $75 a month doing so. Or whine about $6 when a beer at an NFL football game can cost you $20. poo, a ticket to a dang movie itself is $12 and they sure won't hit the pause button when you need to go take a whiz or grab a beer.

This is a massive deal right now. Investment groups buying up real estate left and right have been a major factor in our country's inflation and housing crisis. And they are making money hand over fist by then renting the properties out to people who no longer have a choice but to rent. They really found a barrel and just put everyone else over it. And the insurance rate hike, in great part, is to cover the asses of those invested in this. And we must also remember that of any group in the US, the insurance industry has traditionally owned more real estate than any other group... including more than actual real estate developers. It's not that the fix is in, it's that there's always another fix being found to do us in with. I believe in capitalism but I believe it requires a cop on the beat to work properly. They bought the cops around here a long time ago.

It was frikkin' epic!

Also, we shouldn't forget that Fitterer was trying his best to get in on each of those deals, too... And yes, the Bryce pick was possibly a bust of epic, legendary proportions. We'll know next season. Might as well hope he magically improves and gains an inch or two in height, it's not like we haven't managed to get ourselves mightily stuck here.

Mike Lynn, Minnesota Vikings. On Oct. 12, 1989 he traded with the Dallas Cowboys to get Herschel Walker. Minnesota received Herschel Walker, a 1990 3rd round pick from the Dallas Cowboys, a 5th round pick from the San Diego Chargers (because the RB that Minnesota sent to Dallas, Darrin Nelson, wouldn't play for Dallas so they sent him to San Diego in exchange for their 5th rounder), the Dallas 1990 10th round pick (10th round... those were the days), AND Dallas' 3rd round pick in 1991. Here's what they gave away for it: Darrin Nelson (see above), Minnesota's 1st and 2nd round picks in 1990, their 6th round pick in 1990, Minnesota's 1st and 2nd round picks in 1991 AND THEN their 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks for 1992. They also gave them four players, each of whom became some of the aforementioned draft picks when they were cut from the team. Herschel would go on to have the second biggest failure of his career (counting the ill-advised run for Senate in Georgia as the worst), Minnesota would be relegated to more than a decade of decline and degradation, while Dallas would go on to parlay those picks into even more picks and grab players like Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson. Fitterer was bad and was regularly played for the sucker by other GMs, but no one has been taken advantage of like Mike Lynn before or since. Then there's the guy who traded everything for Russell Wilson to go to Denver, or the guy who gave up everything to get Deshaun Watson in Cleveland and maybe the guy who got suckered into taking Aaron Rogers to the Jets. There's always someone worse. It's just that Fitterer was our fool and that makes it hurt more.

Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield are all still in contention to get Super Bowl rings this season (albeit two are back ups) while every single person that was part of the Panthers this season is either working on vacations or brushing up their resumes. We've had problems here for five years and have managed to run a team into the ground. The three QBs I mentioned have found freedom and purpose out there. I can only hope that we can somehow make that our environment here this next time around. Hoping the same, again. Or we go back into the pit of despair, again.

I was really into the USFL on it's first run in the '80s, but I was just like in my early teens. I followed the Breakers as they went from Boston to Portland to New Orleans. Was really hoping we would get a team in NC and even had one of the hoodie t-shirts promoting it. And then splat, it just crashed and it was all over.

Nope. Happily married and always faithful. Not that that's anyone's business either.

If he were the only case... but he's not and there's a lot of work that needs to be done to right these old wrongs.