Khyber53

You're right, but Fitterer and Rhule signed on for next season, too with $18.8 million that isn't going away, so we better be about finding a fix.

That's the perceived pressure thing. Honestly, he may just be shell shocked and can't shake it.

You can certainly make a case for that, but I think that more than anything else the issue comes to the forefront when he is under pressure or perceives pressure is imminent. How do you train him to become bombproof?

I don't think PJ will or should be retained. Let him roam. If we need him after training camp, his price might be reasonable. If not, perhaps he'll catch on somewhere else. And all back ups have issues of one sort or another. We know Sam's. We might be able to fix them in time or can at least plan around them.

No doubt cute worked. But you can't rely on cute forever.

We have trouble at times getting the right personnel on the field when we aren't switching out QBs and the plays they can work with. Let's not get cute with it. Put Cam in the driver's seat, hit the gas and move on down the highway.

I'll say that I think Sam, minus the salary, is what you look for in a back up QB. He's no threat to take over the locker room, he doesn't push your starting QB, he knows the playbook and the tendencies of the players involved. He had some games where he was successful and in an emergency he might be able to go with the game plan and hold his own. He doesn't belong as a starter, he gets rattled when the game is planned to exploit his weaknesses, he's had some injuries but nothing that knocks him out of the league. That pretty much sums up the second string QB on most teams. We're paying him already next season, no way around that. We can't realistically trade him without basically giving up more draft picks on top of the ones he's already cost us. Might as well let him ride the pine and be able to make use of him in a pinch while he hopefully gets better at film study and quits seeing ghosts. We may have to find a good starter next season, we sure don't want to have to look for a back-up as well while paying someone big bucks to sit at home.

Let's not count any chickens before they've hatched. WTF just beat the Bucs. MIA just beat the Ravens. Those supposedly bottom-end teams have serious defenses and coaches they will fight for. Our defense was spectacular last week and our offense, too. There was a lot of extra energy on hand for our side, and all we can do is hope it is still there. Washington will be tough. Let's just get through that first.

Dang. New guy is doing well, but Charlton was, too. No team has the luxury of carrying two punters, though. Good luck to him!

I don't think anyone ignored it. I think everyone decided not to get involved. That's how little togetherness there was on the team. The fanbase called Robby out.

They've said that or just speculating?

Yep, but that team leader has to be the not just the right person but the right position. On offense it has got to, got to, got to be the QB. If not, there's trouble. We ran into that this season -- Darnold wasn't that guy, it just wasn't in his makeup. CMC isn't that guy by nature, either. Then you get Robby Anderson throwing a fit on the sidelines and there's no one to step up and put him back in place. On defense, it's a bit more open, but generally your best position for it is at LB, bridging both the line and the DBs. Shaq has really stepped into that role fully now and it shows.

I think Rhule has always been worried that it would be Cam's team, not his, from the get go. And there's the thing about good coaching, errrr great coaching, in the NFL. The Patriots had always been Brady's team. The Steelers had always been Big Ben's team. The Seahawks are Wilson's team, the Chiefs are undoubtedly Mahome's guys. All of those teams have master level coaches and are always contenders. There's a subtle thing there about leadership and command, that in the best of situations the two can be different entities. All of those coaches empower their QBs to be the leader of the team. And when there's a question of "Who runs Bartertown" so to say, you can end up with a situation that we've seen twice in Green Bay, once when the organization let McCarthy go for Rodgers and this spring/summer when Rodgers laid down the law for them again. Both of those situations were tenuous and it's a marvel that they didn't explode in the franchise's faces. Or look at Houston and really see how bad it can get.

Rhule and Co. swallowed a lot of pride last week and brought Cam back. This was not their plan going into the season and probably wasn't even close to their radar screens before it was apparent that Darnold could NOT be sent out there again, because of injury. Let that sink in a bit. If Sam hadn't been hurt again and been obviously unable to play, we'd have trotted him out again against the Cardinals. On Monday evening after Sam's MRI, there must have been the start of a very difficult conversation that carried over into Tuesday and probably early Wednesday morning. On Thursday the decision was implemented, the appropriate calls had been made (including the most important one between Rhule and Cam) and a deal was very quickly signed. Whoever pushed for Rhule to accept the change and go after Cam did not just the right thing, but offered Rhule a second chance right then and there as well as a huge learning moment. Rhule was apparently wise enough to take it. Let's make no bones about it, had we kept going the direction the team was, Rhule's days were numbered here. Brady would probably be pushed onto his own sword first and then Rhule would follow... contract be damned. His desire to hold onto the idea of Darnold and Walker as QBs was not playing out and was killing the team and the fanbase. In the off season, Darnold had been a cute, smart gamble but when it quit paying out it put a lot of blood in the water. Any other advances made by the team were completely swallowed up by how bad the QB situation was. Gosh, even I wanted it to work out for Sam, but there was just no doubt in even the most ardent supporters minds that the kid was nowhere near starting QB capable -- those ghosts were real and they were running all through his house. He couldn't read the defense, he couldn't work with the line (which was atrocious) and he didn't have the leadership skills to make his linemen or receivers accountable for their mistakes. It was a train wreck, week after week. And through all this, Rhule may have learned one of the most important things that makes the NFL and college football different -- star power at the right position can elevate the entire team. On the defense we've seen Shaq Thompson's star rise along with the leadership he provides there (there's no doubt after seeing them play when he was out) -- he elevates that unit. On offense, there were some excellent players but there wasn't that person in charge who could bring the power levels up by force of personality and actions. Cam, whether he has a noodle arm or not, has three truckloads of charisma and a massive amount of experience putting that to use. So, now Matt Rhule may understand that mojo makes the difference in the right hands. And Rhule had to eat some crow to learn that. If he's the guy we thought he was, then Rhule will grow from this and become a better coach. Tough medicine to swallow, but it might just cure what ails us. Lord, I sure hope so.

Nah, I want that game back to even it up. They embarrassed us that day, we need to return the favor.

Yeah, there was some magic on the field. When your star player is that happy about someone else scoring, then the chemistry is going to be just right.

It may be that Brady is just terrible down there. His best bet was shown this weekend with the smart assessment, "Cam, what do you think you can do best with down there?" And then he called the plays Cam felt best with. That'll work just about every darned time. The only issue, the only wrinkle, is when Cam and CMC aren't sure who is supposed to be the hero at that moment. The RPO does NOT work with them in that situation. It has to be decided before they ever get to the line or the two just cancel each other out. We've seen it happen enough times to know.

Or when they have to prepare for CMC moving out of the backfield, moving back into the backfield, taking the handoff, taking the snap, catching the pass, making the sturdy block on a blitzer, calling in plays from the overhead booth, driving the team bus and doing on-field play by play commentary. Cam was electric on the scoring plays and he grabbed the attention of the defense on his other two plays, but the line was helped by CMC being a real threat more than by anything else. He's one guy but he changes the math on everything out there. Now next week, with Cam and CMC out there... just remember that used to give Luke fits in practice. Imagine what it would do to mere mortals.

You just got back together after a two year hiatus and a bad, bad break up where you went out and found not one, but two new folks. Maybe we should have more than a first reunion date before we set a wedding date for this bunch. Let's let it marinate a bit and see where it goes.

Yeah, there are some big, big, big ramifications here at the QB position, both now and the immediate future. Personally I'd like for us to spend more time on answering the Cam capability question for next year rather than chasing the ghost of Watson in Houston. Walker did better than expected, but everyone was up for that game across the board. Let's see how it winds out next week with Washington.

Let's see some more. I'm hoping he's had plenty of time to rehab it and heal up. He's 32 now and if he still has some velocity, or has developed touch, then he's going to be a threat for years to come. Reality says, however, that it gets harder every year to come back from such injuries and rarely does a player at this stage regain their prior strength or find a new wrinkle. It does happen, every once in a great while and wouldn't it be epic for it to happen here and to him?

If this year has taught us anything, it's don't look at the schedule and mark down a W until after that game has been played. Yesterday was so much fun, but let's not trap game ourselves right outta the box.

At the time of the throw, it actually looked pretty steady. I chalk it up to being a bit short because the two haven't had much time to get their timing down. It didn't look like a wounded goose, just looked like his spot was a bit shorter than DJ was running for.

Let's not lie to ourselves. That schedule ahead is pretty daunting. We've got games against WTF and Miami coming up that should be breezy wins, but both have had a bit of a resurgence in November. The rest of our opponents are a murderer's row out there. If we win half of our games coming up, it's going to be pretty amazing. If we win more, then we're playoff bound and could do some real damage. Yesterday was great and by God we needed that as a fanbase. Where we go from here is still a mystery, though. That ride, however, has gotten soooo much more interesting all of a sudden. Welcome back Cam! Welcome back CMC! Welcome back Panthers!

Well, we sure didn't have to worry about that!