kungfoodude

Eh, Howell is a traditional gunslinger and those guys are not as high demand in the modern NFL(see Jameis Winston, Trubisky, Wentz, etc). The outliers are guys like Stafford or perhaps Mayfield to an extent. Howell would sort of have to re-invent himself to be a long term franchise QB, IMO. Which, that is through the lens of the modern NFL. He's young enough to where perhaps that aggressive high risk/high reward style of play becomes more acceptable in the future. Most modern NFL offenses seem very much more TO averse than at some points historically. Hence why that style of play seems to be less in favor. All that said, I would definitely take Howell for a mid-rounder. TBH, at this point I'd rather see a Winston or Howell type than I would whatever the fug Bryce Young was doing last year.

He doesn't necessarily "need" to be retained. We aren't going to lose games because he isn't here. It isn't like he has won us games solely because he isn't the type of pass rusher to just take over a game. If he can be retained a reasonable price and IF he doesn't immediately shut down because he got his big deal(I think most of this fanbase should be concerned about this given recent play and comments) then it would be nice to retain him. But if it takes away from our ability to sign bigger game changers on defense, he is not worth keeping. Until he basically becomes an elite DE, none of is should want to see him get elite DE money. That's the thing about most of the upper tier DE's with massive contracts, they showed that BEFORE they got their mega-deals. Burns has not done that.

I mean, he would be 28-29. I would hardly call that "past his prime."

He might be worth a first to a few teams but you have to trade him to a team that will sign him for that bonkers price. That is where you are gonna start to lose potential buyers pretty quickly

Yeah, that is on old school mentality. TBH, we are probably a decade into rookie WR's making instant impacts. The NFL offenses have changed to where the learning curve is not what it once was. It's easier for a rookie WR to play well. Hence why it is so infuriating that we have drafted guys like TMJ and Mingo.

That would actually be a win of sorts. We offered 5 years and $27 mil, supposedly.

I think Burns it not likely to be in that class. He's a very good player but he will never be great or elite, IMO. He doesn't seem to be geared that way. I don't think ANYONE wanted Moore gone. I mean, if they did, they needed their head checked. CMC was very understandable. You can't keep paying RB's the way we have(although we immediately did it again with Sanders). I hope to one day live through an era where the Panthers front office understands the modern NFL.

I know this, I think I have about had my fill of FSU players as a Panthers fan.

He was always going to be one of those outlier of outliers. Those low production but super high end athletes rarely pan out because of multiple reasons. That's why they weren't that productive in college. Very luckily for the NFL evaluators, the current era of basically "free agency" in college football exposes a lot of that as guys move around and either show themselves to be high caliber or show they were not worthy of whatever ranking/hype/etc. You get to see a lot more players at multiple programs and in various settings and systems.

I can appreciate a positive outlook but it's unlikely he is in the NFL longer than the average NFL player's career.

Boy you must really think we are about to have a better offseason than I do. The truth is, most of these guys will make the roster. The money and roster situation isn’t going to improve enough to be cutting these guys yet. Now 2025? TBD. Could definitely see most of them gone by then.

Oh there is no question about the loss. If we sign him for what he wants, it's a loss. If we sign him for what we offered, it's a loss. If we trade him for less than what the Rams offered, it's a loss. If he walks away for merely a compesetory pick, it's a loss. The instant we turned that offer down, we lost. The only thing that needed to be answered was by how much.

The upper end is very, very high. But his medicals are going to be a BIG deal. I honestly don't think many people are that interested in his price tag. That's the big road block.

The fact that he has been healthy for two seasons is the only reason he is being talked about in the draft at all.

That may not be true anymore because of the position we put ourselves in.

I mean, the most on brand thing we could possibly do.

I like the first two picks so there is zero chance that will happen.

Sadly, people rarely get smarter with age.

Sadly, I still believe we are several years away from another winning season.

TBH, I haven't trusted our FO to execute a successful trade down in a long time. I get the idea being solid but I just haven't seen us "win" one of those in a long time. Would just prefer BPA and not to get cute. Let's see what the "new" FO's eye for talent is.

Oh our mistakes have largely been so bad. Critical weaknesses in judgement have been rife in our organization.

I don't really think we are likely to be able to land a game changing weapon unless it's overpaying for an aging veteran looking for one last payday. We will be in a much better position next year with another top 5-10 draft pick(basically an inevitability). On the slight chance we end up #1 overall again, we might be able to get a banger of a WR by trading down in the top 10. I would just say we need to temper our expectations about the ability to improve much on offense. Seattle with Smith and Tampa with Baker had SIGNIFICANTLY better overall offenses than we will in 2024.

I would assume a Moton extension is inevitable unless he is just sick of being here and wants to force the issue.

Taking elite athletes is excellent but if they struggled in college, that should get a TON of scrutiny. Same for guys that are insanely productive in college but are clearly system guys with very low floors. Don't get enamored with any individual thing. Don't hyperfocus on the little things and miss the full picture. Also, don't take a bunch of outliers or "gut instinct" guys.

Agreed. Insane ceiling but I don't think you can risk anything before the 4th round. I will say the idea of he, Shaq and Luvu in that LB corps would be nice. Tons of sideline to sideline abilities and two pass rushers. 2nd to 4th round has a lot of good LB prospects though. I have to say that should eventually pop for BPA.