Khyber53

Synchronicity is the key. And it is a frikkin' hard key to get. The teams that have/develop it, win and win big: Chiefs, Eagles, Lions (can you believe I'm saying that?), Bills, Ravens.

Teams that only get one or the other going successfully peak at being competitive but sputter out in a couple of seasons... it just can't hold together.

And what happens when you have neither one working? I give you the last half decade of the Carolina Panthers. 

Four Panthers selected. Jared Allen, while only here for a single season before retiring, really helped us get to the Super Bowl in 2015.

Chuba: 

Chubba:

Good to know the difference before calling a handoff.

I wish him a great comeback. Knee injuries are tough on big guys, but he's young, motivated and has been getting the best medical attention that money can buy.

If we get him back, that defense jumps six or seven spots in the rankings alone, if not more.

Good for him! We're a couple of years away from being where the Bills are and his years are running out. He can be an asset there and hopefully get a ring before he retires.

Best of luck to him, sure enjoyed watching him play here. We were blessed to have him.

Another new video. I'm the scriptwriter behind this one. Complex case that unfolded quickly.

At the most, a prove it contract would be advisable.

Oft injured DBs often get contact shy and that can be an issue, actually leading to more injuries.

Personally, I was impressed by how Horn came back last season and wasn't just great in coverage but became much, much more aggressive in tackling and run defense.  He apparently learned that it is better to be the hammer than the nail.

Sometimes you've got to make do with what's in the cupboard. Improvements on D-line can go a long way to helping out those DBs and Safeties. 

He needs help. He's needed help for a very long time. Instead, he gets football, big bucks, then MMA and little bucks, now just what his family has and a new arrest.

He needs help and not the kind he has been getting.

There's something telling me Rodgers doesn't make it out of training camp healthy.

There's a reason they are dangling him as trade bait right now rather than installing him in preseason OTAs.

Let the buyer beware. If he were a used car he'd have had mid mileage, but many owners.

If he keeps making it around the curve, I'll be happy. He gave us some reason to look forward to this coming season. He has a good chance to come roaring out of the blocks with the schedule we have ahead of us.

If he gets something to build upon, who knows where we can go. It's too soon to hope for playoffs, but wouldn't it be nice?

18 hours ago, frankw said:

Kind of bizarre Hubbard is already on the cusp of surpassing McCaffrey considering how comically overused he was at times here.

As much as I'd like to see Hubbard get over 4k this season the priority should be offensive versatility. We have a nice RB room and it's a long season. Spread the ball around.

McCaffrey was also such a huge part of the passing game here (and in SF) that it's easy to think he'd have a lot more rushing yards, just because of the impact he had on games (and sometimes he was it, all of it, the only guy doing anything it seemed).

But good for Chuba! Here's to seeing him climb the list, at least past Cam. No slight on Cam and his historic career here, but if your franchise's third leading rusher of all time was a QB, you've had some issues.

Let's make it happen.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... when your star player is a wide receiver, you've got problems. When it's a receiver with a reputation for being difficult to work with, it's even worse.

Couldn't have happened to a better team. I'm still bitter about 2003.

If one of these guys with guaranteed money doesn't make the team and then goes to another team, does the guarantee still hold? Do we pay part of their salary at another team?

Or does it work the opposite way and tell them hey, we paid your salary for the season, you can't go elsewhere and keep that guarantee? If so, doesn't that create basically a second practice squad of reserves to call up from?

So looking forward to this season.

On 5/23/2025 at 11:35 AM, Mr. Scot said:

 

I didn't honestly think Center was the most ideal spot for him (still not sure) but that's cool.

 

I think that most NFL centers have run into that exact situation at some point in their careers, going back to high school. No one really wants to play center starting out. 

I hope there's a good competition for starting center this season. Since we have a young QB who is still very much developing, this is a massively important role to get set in stone here.

Good luck to Cade!

Yeah, this has been a need for some time now.

19 hours ago, Bear Hands said:

I’m gonna go out on a limb to say this bc he doesn’t get enough recognition — Hunt is the best player on our team and one of the most impactful locker room guys in the league.

I think he has been a huge reason for how things have changed. Even if the grades you find online aren’t world beating, he is proving to be worth it from what I’ve gathered and seen. And watching how different Miami looked last season without him helps see this as well.

Really hope he can lead this offense into a well tuned machine for 2025. Paving roads for Chuba, giving Bryce time to hook up with McMillan.

If we were going to change the culture, we needed just that kind of guy. Good thing we got him. Stars are great, but cement builds empires.

20 hours ago, WhoKnows said:

It really doesn’t. Go look at the Lions draft history from 2021-2023. They turned around their team from joke to SB contender by picking 6 pro bowl players in 3 drafts.

Look at the 2020-2023 Houston drafts. Started with 2 pro bowlers in 2020/2021 as a base and then added Stingley, Stroud and Will Anderson in the last two drafts along with a bunch more starters and depth. Houston had a terrible massage parlor culture and a couple greats drafts getting 5 stud players turned them into a winning culture.

This slow burn win a little more and more works far less than just drafting well and in the cases above tanking a bit (trade Tunsil, Watson, Stafford, etc. and not after losing value) actually helped. There aren’t many, if any cases of bad teams trading up and being great. KC doesn’t count as Alex Smith had them in the playoffs every year.

Go look at a larger window for each team. Losing leaves a major, major lingering stink. 

And Kansas City had a massively large losing streak between Len Dawson and Alex Smith. We're talking decades. 

Losing franchises often have issues that are sooo much deeper than just the draft that it would take a miracle pick like Peyton Manning or  Elway or (I hate saying this) Brady to pull them out of their muck and mire they were lodged in. 

"Tanking" often just gives bad management, team building and coaching a pass for a season, maybe two. Just look to the Jaguars or Cardinals for examples. I'd say the Browns, but they built their own selves one of the most remarkable karma loops in NFL history with the Watson trade after a decade of tanking.

21 hours ago, Waldo said:

He isn't going to play better just because he got paid and he has already been in a SB with a great team that they lost.

They did lose it to another great team, though.

I think he's a good to really QB and he handles the system they give him very, very well. When he has his weapons on the field, the team is one of the best in the league. Without them, well, they still outperformed us.

I think we'll see him and them in the playoffs regularly over the next five years, maybe another run for the trophy. If so, money well spent. If not, they're no worse off than say Dallas or Atlanta, Cleveland or New York (take your pick). 

13 hours ago, PadresPanthersFan said:

We had our close losses last year to playoff teams. Ill take winning any day. Fug a couple draft spots. Gimme a couple more wins and a playoff berth all day

Because losing sticks to a franchise, it gets hard to shake it off. High draft picks don't always provide the soap that gets rid of the stinks.

Win, win some more, win most of them, then win the big one. That's how good franchises progress.