Khyber53

He's interesting, especially after that read, but... we've got a long wait after pick #6, what chance does he have of still being there when we're finally able?

If they are hunting unicorns, then Willis will be the pick. The thing is, though, you can't catch a unicorn, you can only stumble across them. Willis is the wrong play for this team and we aren't going to reincarnate 2015 Cam with Willis.

Yanno, chances are good he can parlay this into a coaching gig, running backs or special teams. The guy has done right by himself.

Good for him. Could you imagine if you were 10-year old Kenjon and someone told you that in your future you'd quietly have a 10-12 year career in the NFL and get three Super Bowl rings how great that would sound? I think we'd all sign up for that. Congrats to him for hanging in there and really living the dream. I hope he gets a few more years and another ring along the way. Wish it had been when he was with us, but them's the breaks.

Dang, that is tempting... so incredibly tempting. Late first round picks can be very good ones and the Oline depth in this draft makes it possible. I'd really say have them on the phone until that fifth pick is made and if our number one choice on the draft boards isn't still there, or one of the top two LTs isn't there, then pull the trigger and trade.

As long as everyone else is lining up to take QBs, let 'em! We may luck into the best OT in the draft this way.

Barring a few odd phrases he liked to use, I always like Mixon's work. It was great to hear how big a part of your Panthers experience he was.

(I didn't actually. I really have no interest in that complex at all.)

I sure hope they do that. I really don't think Willis is going to live up to the hype. If the Saints or Falcons trade up and snag him, we will have dodged a bullet.

So, let me get the gist of this, Tepper's just as good at real estate development as he is at football?

This, 100%. Zappe might be the real deal, but if he's not, then he's going to be an inexpensive but decent back up for the QB we draft next year. Zappe holds the record for NCAA yardage and TDs in a season, and that's playing out of WKU. While it's not the SEC, he was against better competition than Jerry Falwell U. (Liberty).

The guy had some of the greatest movies of the last 35 years. Die Hard. The Fifth Element. Unbreakable. Last Man Standing. Bonfire of the Vanities The Sixth Sense. Pulp Fiction. 12 Monkeys. And Hudson Hawk is a movie I dearly love for all of its fever-dream goofiness. I wish him and his family well.

The South has been tough for us for a while now.

I think that's fair, if it'll just cost us a 3rd in 2023. Anything to send him and his butter fingers elsewhere.

Grammar.

Do NOT want this to happen, no sir. No way. Now, if we gave him a call, I wouldn't mind a bit.

You may very well be right. And looking at how our defense just completely fell apart after the Dallas game, a strong case could be made for the best edge or LB available. Still, I want to see us grab the best O-line player available at 6.

Around here, stuff like that just goes missing.

This silence thing has all the hallmarks of the Jerry Richardson / John Fox dead man walking final season. I expect about the same results, except that Fox could coach and lead men, even if he was obviously, grudgingly phoning it in.

Dang. Why cheat the golden goose?

I think the kid is good and is going to set someone's line for a decade. If we were trading back, I'd say go for Linderbaum. I'd advocated for him even at 6, but with recent pick-ups he's maybe not as necessary (depending on if our new center is worth keeping). Still, a good center doesn't, and shouldn't, be the biggest guy on your line. He needs to be the smartest one and have the best technique. Linderbaum's main knock, imo, is that he's not big enough to also play guard. He's a center and that's the only place you're going to be able to use him. If you've already got someone in place there, it's a hard sell to pick him up. We now have Bozeman and unless we want to move him to LG game 1, there's too much redundancy to take Linderbaum. The kid is going to be great, somewhere. If we take him somehow, we're going to be getting a foundational type player.

Honestly, Darnold's biggest problem was that he became the guy they said he was. He held onto that potential through our first three games, then almost did in the fourth and then completely lost it from there (except for almost single-handedly bringing us back and winning the Minnesota game). He was the guy who got scared, who got rattled, who saw more ghosts than the Sixth Sense kid. Maybe a Belichick could have fixed him, but our guys couldn't. Now, considering what we've paid for him and the alternatives this year, trot him on out again and get us a high draft position next season.

Good, it's going to go either one of two ways: 1) he's going to start the year and hand the reigns over to a younger dude or 2) he somehow finds what he's been missing and becomes a winner here. Either way, it's probably the best thing we can do right now. Use that first round draft pick on getting the best o-lineman available and develop something that works. If Darnold doesn't work out at all, we'll get a back up some experience (we need to pick someone like Zappe up in the late rounds) and we can wade into the next draft with a high pick, new leadership and a much better pool of QBs. And if Darnold somehow makes the connection and plays lights out? Well, we can go back and say it was a great move back in the day and pat ourselves on the back like we knew it all along. Everyone wins. If we pick a QB in the first round, chances aren't good for his getting a winning season here right out of the gates. Rhule will probably be fired after our fifth loss and the new HC will come in and be saddled with a QB that doesn't fit his needs, was drafted too high and has been badly coached. That's a recipe for misery stew.

We'll either hold on to what we've got and make two picks that will contribute, potentially start, or... We'll trade back and forth, give up some from next year, and come away with two picks that will contribute and potentially start. Really, that's kind of what most teams end up with, plus some special teams contributors for a year or two.

Man, I am sooo not ready for a work out date. Too many cheeseburgers in the off season.