kungfoodude

I don't think we do. Of our current front 7, I suspect only 2-4 of them will still be on the team in 2 seasons. Like Mr. Scot already said, we appear to have built a defense that revolves around pass rush/speed at the expense of run defense. I just don't see a scenario where that get better with the acquisitions this offseason.

In fairness, Peyton Manning was easily the worst QB in the NFL when he won his 2nd title. That isn't hyperbole.

Cam has a very low ceiling at the moment. Baker still has a high ceiling. That ship has sailed. I don't want to see Cam back in uniform until it's celebrating the retirement of his number at the stadium.

I think there are better reasons to watch but I can't jump on the bandwagon expecting big improvements. At least the season SHOULD be more interesting than last season.

Yeah, good comparison. Baker just has to figure out if he wants to be an elite football player in the NFL or not.

Yeah, unless Baker ends up having a top 5 performance in 2022, it isn't going to make sense to sign him immediately to a long term deal. I'm okay with having a difficult decision to make if he does have a good season though. Better than the alternative that we were staring at.

Corral doesn't have anywhere near the arm talent Baker does. Very few NFL QB's do. If he ever put it together, he could be great. But....that hasn't happened yet so the odds of that seem to be rather slim. IMO, TC should be 1. Baker, 2. Corral, 3. Darnold/PJ/whoever Invest in players that might be your future, not players that are about to be your past.

Not as long as the list of guys to never get hired as an NFL HC again. Like I said, Carroll had NFL success in his first stop. He got a raw deal. 1 year at the Jets(0.375%) and 3 years at the Pats(0.563%). Rhule has a 0.303%. That is one of the worst starts for a two year coach in the last 15 years. Guys like that don't often get HC opportunities again.

I don't think you will see Rhule in the NFL again. He's already said he could get the money he wants from a college job. I think he is another Saban/Petrino case. He will bolt and never come back. It's not like Carroll, who was given a raw deal or even Belichick. Rhule is the worst part of this franchise at the moment(we may later learn it's Tepper, TBD). If you can't show progress, the ability to build or have some level of success, you don't often get more chances at head coaching roles in the NFL. Those are currently categories that Rhule is batting .000%. He's like a lot of the college guys that are just over their heads when they get into the NFL after jumping too many levels. Had he cut his teeth in the NFL for 10-15 years and worked his way up, I might agree with you. He didn't. Nor is he some offensive or defensive wunderkind.

Everyone might want a Pete Carroll/Mike Tomlin/John Harbaugh but you can't keep your Hue Jackson/Matt Patricia/Urban Meyers hoping they will become one. That's the problem with Rhule. He's on the Jackson/Patricia/Meyer end of the scale, not the Carroll/Tomlin/Harbaugh end of the scale. Unfortunately we don't have leadership capable of seeing that yet. The best we can hope for is that Tepper isn't as dumb as he has been so far and he really is learning from his never ending stream of mistakes.

Yeah, I mean they are still human beings. Robby might have a completely different things to say about Darnold privately to his friends but you kind of have to be a real POS to just trash a teammate publicly.

Actively rooting against the team for that purpose I just don't understand. Drinking some "well it's for the best in the long term" copium/hopium I can understand. Very different, IMO. One is more about coping with a poo situation and trying to keep some future hope at all. One is just turning on your team completely. Also, losing to spite an owner isn't going to work. Owners either figure it out or they don't. It doesn't take that many years to determine which type of owner you have.

I mean....is Bear in the equation? Last I heard he was suffering "long COVID" symptoms, which doesn't bode well for next year. Most of the people that have had that battled it for a long time if they aren't still battling it.

I hope he can channel his "fug you" energy into a "I'll show 'em" direction. It isn't encouraging that he had run-ins with previous inept coaches because this could very well be the most inept coaching staff he has had in his professional career(history will tell that story so still TBD). To me, that's obviously the biggest concern. If he starts chirping at Rhule, I don't think Matt is going to take that well. We saw how the Bridgewater very, very mild criticisms went. In the end, at least it will be a highly interesting season versus the highly depressing season we were headed for. Even if the results may not be dramatically different in the end.

That's me. The franchise has used up all of it's "this will be our year" good will until I see them start winning. Unlike OP, I don't want any specific Panther to fail. Free agents, rookies, bust players, etc. I want them all to succeed and I never root against them. What purpose does that serve? Does right about a bad move win us games? fug no. Any "I told you so's" are fueled by the frustration that even as a layman I could see how bad of an idea something was, but the paid professionals aren't seeing it. Anyone who gains satisfaction from just being right about that at the expense of our team success.....that's some modern Internet mental illness. There isn't a Super Bowl of "I told you so." There isn't an "I told you so" MVP. I'm tired of paper arguments for why we will be good or even just better. I have heard those for four fuging years now. I don't give the flyingest of flying fugs about how much better we look on fuging paper until we start actually winning real fuging NFL games. It's fine to debate and discuss but you will NEVER get me convinced of any improvement with this coaching staff regime until I see it on Sundays that matter. I will watch because I have invested enough time since the inception of this franchise that I feel somewhat obligated. I will cheer for us and/or jeer at us based on how we perform. Otherwise, I am just waiting until the franchise can show me they are worth a poo. Still waiting.

I don't mind cockiness if you can back it up. Rodgers is acknowledged to be an arrogant prick but he is also the best QB in the NFL. Cockiness mainly bothers people when it isn't warranted. In Baker's case, it hasn't been.

Well, I mean....we did cut one owner already....

Teddy was pretty close to his ceiling here.

At this point all the chaos has to tie in to Rhule at some level. He is the common factor.

I was very clear about my view on that prior to the trade. With Baker or Jimmy G, there is at least something to WATCH. With the Darnold/Corral situation, there is a high likelihood of seeing more of Darnold than any of us ever wants to. IMO, that isn't anything that is worth watching. Saw that story last season. No reason to watch the redux. So, even though I think Rhule is an idiot that will have anothet losing season, a new starting QB gives me a reason to watch. Especially one with the insane talent level Mayfield has. Doesn't even have to succeed. I will watch because it's interesting. Low bar, perhaps but that's where I am.

The anonymous quotes about us doing a bunch of "college stuff" were very telling. I don't think that will change until Rhule is gone. It might get better with more NFL minds in the building but our DC is still predominantly a college guy too(a few years in the NFL under his belt).

You can't simply "out talent" people in the NFL. In college football that is the most time tested, successful strategy of all time.

Yeah, I framed the question that way intentionally. That was basically what I wanted after the draft and free agency. Just something to make me interested in even watching in 2022. I think Baker makes that almost a definite since we couldn't count on seeing Corral.

You are definitely the little spoon. Rusty also applies in this analogy.