CRA

I don't know what a pro style O in college is at this point. Everything sort of morphs including what a NFL O now. There was a time when no one would have considered what Colorado did pro style. I still think Colorado choose not to run more than anything and did some token running. I can't be convinced the whole scheme and playcalling wasn't simply to tie every amount of O back to Sheduer Sanders. I mean, then his dad immediately then retired his son's number at Colorado? That jersey retirement IMO sort of gives the game away about what they really were doing in Colorado IMO. Think overall Deion's help really started to hurt him. I don't think he was a 1st rounder but also not a 6th. Probably inbetween.

I think games rarely meet hopes and what we want to see. I think most are wanting to see Tmac do a bunch of things and go off or something like that. I'm not sold Canales gives us a lot of the "main" guys. I think the MVP of the game will be something like Etienne grinding through the 2nd half and busting one.

Lamb and Pickens playing together in their primes. we never really had prime 89 and Moose though. We basically had them paired up in 89's intro season to the NFL in 2003 and they paired back up when Moose was in year 13

then it's followed up by a long pass to Dionte Johnson for a touchdown board crashes

pretty much. I only watch the Panthers. I would tune in to see Ward and Sanders in a preseason game for a minute or two though. Only rookies would ever have me tune into another team's preseason game. I'm sure media is just playing the proper promotion card because they can get people to tune into this one.

TMJ presents the issue w/ drafting role players on powerhouse teams. You don't know how good they are. because they are almost in can't fail situations. His best season was with Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase.......heck, I could go out there and catch a pass because no one going to think about me.

eh, blaming XL for the losing the Eagles game is like blaming a kicker for missing the kick at the end of the game and ignoring all the other massive bad play that came before the final bad play he should of caught the ball. That drop IMO has been drastically over sold in the XL hate. Given the QB play on the year on his role and situation he was in as a rookie. after that drop, we still converted the next play on 3rd down to setup a first. We then essentially gained 1 yard in the next 4 attempts. Philly took over after our failed 4th and 9 attempt. Lot of ugly in that game.

Panthers really got to get better on 3rd down. If you take a weak D.....and then your O can't stay on the field. It's going to be a really really bad D. Carolina was horrible on 3rd down and the O was 31st in TOP. They Oput a bad D on the field over and over. I don't put that all on Bryce. We need O skill guys that actually can do something with the ball in their hands. YAC play hasn't existed in Carolina. But that's also the Canales/Bryce conundrum. Canales is largely from a chunk play passing tree. Bryce best suits a YAC small game. And before anyone says it, yes, you have to do everything to some degree in any offense. But the key pieces aren't really natural fits. Obviously there is adjusting but it's sort of forced adjusting IMO

if Hurst or Tremble gets injured....neither injury should be brought up for why your team isn't getting it done. League is full of those type bodies. Even remotely well built teams should already have another of that calbier largely ready to roll. Or can just go get one.

The Wilks OL only got "improved" when they started playing 1970s football. They had showed exactly how flawed they were before that when asked to play like the present day. That's 1970s survival ball wasn't going to be played in 2023. Nobody really saw AT overperforming. I'd give you that. That was a super bland cast of done nothings and should be backups put into starting roles (Chark, TMJ, AT). Which was a legit worry for a rookie QB expected to start day 1. The main mental gymnastics done about the WRs is that since we didn't actually have anyone actually good.....it would be tough to defensively scheme to stop people with super point guard BY. With the all star staff, it was loudly stated by the minority it was actually just a bad retread hire (who didn't fit w/ BY at all)....largely only looking good given the comparable to idiotic Matt Rhule. It was also discussed about the random parts and too many chiefs in the kitchen. A Tepper arrangement of random people. Which isn't really how coaching staffs work. Hayden Hurst was just a NFL JAG TE. That's why we were his 3rd team in 3 seasons. Accounting for 400 and 200 yards in the 2 seasons prior. Expecting Hurst to matter is part of the gaslighting.

all star coaching staff best FA class of all time PG draft pick at QB. No D will be able to lock in on any WR. OL gonna pick right up from where Wilks left off so basically a top 10 OL Now, I do think the gaslighting was largely offensive. I don't recall much of the talk being on the D. *gif of me when I told people Miles Sanders was a bad add for us and at stupid price tag....because he was a bad rec back and was a product of the best OL in the NFL (and the Eagles had actually told the world that in their own actions).

I think Canales has us in the best culture from the top down vs those other years. Rhule was a fraud. Frank was cashing checks. I think there is also an overall plan in place that while missing parts….we are sailing into year 2 of it. So that also makes it different than those prior years. Vision. Consistency at coordinator levels. I think we flirt with middle of the road-ish. Weak division helps. 7ish wins. Maybe more similar to that 2020 team in terms of how we compete overall on the year. Respectable overall even though we might not hit the win total.

I feel better going into this season than I did in 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024. And I'm largely deemed a pessimistic poster. So there is that for anyone keeping score.

I think we should bump some 2023 threads from this time of the year, right before preseason started. People LOVED that 2023 team. That was probably the highest the huddle has been post Cam. Now in hindsight.....people rightfully trash it.

What actually wild is that it is more acceptable to bash XL around here than Bryce. Mitchell, Worthy and all the other top rookies last year had high drop % too that play out on the outside. XL also had the nicest TD at Fan Fest.

We ran our 1st team vs their backups and had to go for it on 4th down ….that was a red flag going into week 1. Lot of the board didn’t breath a sign of relief if memory serves actual worst case scenario is Sanders has success vs our weak D and hits Dionte Johnson….and the Panthers stall on their one drive my hope is XL shuts up the majority of the board. I still think he is the dude this year that provides the biggest pop to the O

Table is at least set for a huddle spaz attack and the media to have a field day. I mean if Sanders looks better than BY in limited work? Oh wee mayne. Would be wild times here.

Goff was a pro bowler by year 2 and his first prepped as the starter going in….and comes with textbook check marks physically. That’s not a BY comp. and BY had the best staff in Panther history…..until BY stunk as a rookie.

I’ll concede I can’t literally see into the future…. I don’t think it’s disingenuous to give my outlook on Bryce….and use his play, physical tools, etc as the reasoning for such outlook. Bryce Young is 100% a unicorn in terms of the tools he brings to the table as a NFL QB…..and not to the positive side of the spectrum. Which makes the gamble on him insanely high if we are being honest about it IMO (factoring in what we did with that pick). and I think Goff and Baker are bad comps to what is going in here. Don’t really see them as similar outside of just using Goff’s rookie year and ignoring the rest. That’s fairly similar.

I think the D is going be bottom 3rd. And that's ok. We can make decent strides and that still be the end result. Need time there and a group to emerge. D isn't like O where one player can drastically alter it like a QB could the O. I think Bryce's biggest issue won't really be a Bryce issue. And it's really one I already apply. It's his draft position and cost. He won't live up to it. Which is basically an impossible bar/task. So Bryce is always sort of going to catch shade that really belongs on a FO. when we drafted Bryce, I thought he had the highest floor but lowest ceiling. Eye ball test? That's probably right. Might of just had Stroud's floor wrong in it. Maybe that was more equal. I think Bryce can be be a reliable mid level starter. But nothing with the eyeball test really says much more than that at this level for me. He does have some underrated wiggle legs but hard to get too excited about that given he is also the smallest QB we have seen in some time. Can you have success w/ that type QB? Sure. Finding a Mahomes isn't the only way. But you need a well rounded team for them.....and I'm not sure our defense is really going to align with where Bryce will need it for success before a decision has to be made on him.

we even had a bubble back then didn't we?

Gruden was talking about that in his video the other day talking about how horrible ineffective we were at play action w/ Bryce. I still think Bryce is largely graded on a massive curve largely factoring in how horrific he was to start off his career. And you are forced into deep stat dives to manufacture him being "good" last year. He had a good game or two. But he largely wasn't a good QB even in most games post benching. but to me, this is his year 2. So what he was, was actually fine for a rookie season. So it's not all Bryce bashing from me.

lol. see my edit. Brain flipped it as I typed so fast. You want Bryce and company looking sharp. That's the win. Not the game where we win ugly late and Bryce looks like trash

someone said it best earlier, winning in the preseason isn't a reflection of the final score but it is seen in the games. again, it is simplified to the two choices below: A - starting O is complete garbage. Bryce can't get the ball downfield. Tmac can't get open. Icky stinks. Starting D can't stop the run. Both units sit after two series. 2nd half, 3rd stringers find away to get it done in a half that features bad football. B - starting O is very efficient. Bryce looks crisp. Improved routes. OL is generating great push. D gets 2 3-and outs. Then in the second half featuring 3rd stringers, the Panthers lose in an ugly game of football. B is the actual win. A is the win on the scoreboard. Which one is preferred? The answer is 100% B. THAT is the point.