kungfoodude

We actually don't have much in the way of quality depth. That is one of our biggest weaknesses and is the reason it is critical to nail the next couple of drafts and/or do well in the offseason. The quality of our starters is decent at some positions but we can't go very deep(if at all) before we start hitting guys that aren't really NFL starting caliber. That is why it is pretty important for some of our critical moves in free agency to pan out both this offseason and next offseason. We definitely don't want to get into a "rinse and repeat" cycle, which we are at OL and QB currently.

Definitely not as good as here. I suspect quite a bit better than Darnold.

Better team, yes. Better coaching, most likely. Better organization, very debatable.

I don't think any team interested in him is likely to offer him a starting opportunity barring injury. But, I wouldn't be stunned if he did perform better than Darnold. He performed waaaaay better than him last year.

Well, given that we have reports that they have been shopping him for weeks with no luck and that we gave Teddy the chance to pursue his own trade.....are we sure that Fitterer deserves any credit?

Why do we have to keep reminding everyone? Bill O'Brien got fired.

Frankly, a conditional 7th would be fine for me. Just get as much of that off our cap as possible

I suspect it would be the 5th or 6th. Very much hope I am wrong.

Why did you just KOD us?

Source?

I mean.....look at the best if Winston and the best of Darnold. What makes Winston be "what he is" and not Darnold?

The staff really needs to hope they are right on Darnold. If he is....still Sam Darnold, I think they are gonna start getting some heat next offseason for these bad QB positions.

I hope so

Depends on cost, TBH.

We aren't gonna know what this looks like until next season. We can have our respective takes and predictions but until he takes the field, it will be an unknown. We are also not getting a complete picture at the moment. Let's say we draft a QB that ends up beating him out at some point. The trade might not look good but if we find our guy at 8 or another pick in the draft, is anyone really gonna care to gloat about it?

I gotta be honest, they both probably have more "upside" than Darnold, as well.

Yeah, I think we did start to get desperate after the first three options clearly weren't going to happen(Stafford, Watson, trade up). I don't blame them for not wanting to pay a mega price to move up in the draft either. That is really betting a LOT on your evaluation of a prospect. The thing that really makes me scratch my head is picking up that 5th year option.

I am not sure that is official yet but everything seems to indicate we are going to.

It looks like he has a stronger arm than Darnold. IMO, anyway. And, let me be clear, I don't think arm strength is the primary issue with Darnold.

I would agree. Usually those effective gunslinger have crazy arm strength. FWIW, your future QB is likely to have a cannon.

Yeah, that's the thing.....if you hate on Fields or Lance for not being ready, this dude has three seasons of NFL reps and STILL isn't ready. Honestly, not many guys get this deep in and just suddenly "figure it out." I suspect this will be a problem his entire career. I don't know how many people read the ESPN article about the Goff/McVay saga but they mentioned in there that one thing that caused McVay to sour on Goff was that he struggled to process the reads at the rate that Sean thought he should. I think that probably happens more than we realize when some of these guys fail.

Ooof. I feel your pain on that one. I agree, though. I would take Darnold last in that group at the moment and would take Winston over Trubisky. I think all three are fairly standard gunslinger that lean towards the "WTF" end of the decision making spectrum. At least Winston and Trubisky have some games where they are just clicking and torching people. Darnold doesn't really seem to have that. I think it's unfair to completely lay that on Gase and/or the Jets. Some of that is Darnold too.

Yeah and this was the same thing we heard last offseason but Teddy remained Teddy. Additionally, the success in college isn't something that should be a real point of reference anymore now that Brady has a full NFL season under his belt. We will see what happens but I am not too hopeful about Darnold. It would be nice to be wrong, I'll say that.

We are in a "win now" mode. It is pretty clear the way the franchise is operating that is the case. Why that is the case is a mystery to me, but it is what it is. I don't think the Stafford and Darnold deals are really even comparable. Stafford is an established and elite QB in the NFL and Darnold is just a first round bust on his journey towards being a career backup. The OT needs to be addressed but whether we attempt to do it remains to be seen. It has been many, many years since the Panthers prioritized the OL and this staff/front office seem to value it about the same as previous staffs have. I don't hate the Darnold deal because it will mainly cost us a potential future starter(2nd rounder) and a couple of potential depth guys, at worst. I don't like the Darnold deal because I don't think any amount of maturing or coaching is likely to fix what is wrong with him. I definitely am not going to be happy when we pick up his 5th year option. That will be a mistake.

Yeah, apparently we are a big payday for every future journeyman backup QB now.