CRA

I mean, there are old threads that go into the deep bomb foundation of Wilson in Seattle, Geno's comeback and Baker's success in Tampa. All kinds of old statistical dives into the deep ball for those QBs and their success. The chunk ball downfield is the common denominator of all that. League leading stuff. Bunch of old deep dives on that when we hired Dave. Bryce runs much closer to being the polar opposite of what those guys found success doing w/ their arm and style. I mean, Bryce is nothing like Wilson the passer . You could find some comparison in wiggle and extending plays but not what they do with the ball and their passing style. Russell Wilson was only a comp in the fact they were short, got some creative wiggle to extend plays and stuff. Baker got that too to a lesser degree. Those QBs aren't comps in terms of the actual pass games or mindsets. Heck, Russell spent most of his career w/ a gigantic rabbits foot up his rear end. Wilson was a huge gambler and LOVED the deep ball downfield. Even washed Russ loves his moon ball.

DJU was bad. But he also just flat out never fit Clemson's offensive scheme and that was the BIGGEST issue. It was always round peg/square hole. DJU didn't fit the mold of what Clemson does offensively. And love them or hate them, Clemson does what Clemson does. DJU never officially got benched. But in practical terms they did finally bench him for the ACC Championship Game and Cade made a big difference then. Always felt like over loyal Dabo had made him a promise that he would never bench him (DJU technically did everything the right way). Which would have been very Dabo-ish. DJU officially got every game he was at Clemson. Dabo pulled the trigger after the first possession in the ACC Title Game and it was largely understood DJU was done there (his side wanted out). Agreement met I guess. but I always said, DJU felt like a throw back traditional QB being asked to run college junk while at Clemson.

I mean, the Giants suck. Don't get me wrong. Neither of us have much. They got the best player as of right now on both sides of the ball though.

If you were to take the Time Machine back though.. DeVante Adams had less yards, less TDs, and a HIGHER drop % than XL as a rookie with prime Aaron Rodgers throwing the ball to him. DeVante Adams was never going to be “DeVante Adams” either. Adams had a rough start to the NFL. In fact his next year was worse than his rookie year…and was regarded as one of the worst WRs playing in the NFL. people forget that journey to the top. One of the best dig yourself out of the grave stories of the last couple decades given he made it to largely being regarded as the best in the business. *not saying it happens with XL, but DeVante is an example of why you don’t count someone out, not one of why someone is hopeless.

It's his time in Tampa and all his time in Seattle. And what he did in Tampa was very similar to what they did in Seattle. And many supported XL because he fit into what Canales has always did and been about everywhere. It's deep passing. It's chunk plays. Everything he has been about. and then Carolina moved on from BY in just 2 short weeks. The one thing that didn't fit what Dave did. And it was done. Over. No one, no one could of predicted how BY messed up their vision/plan last year when they basically were forced to put him back in. I mean, that is what happened. I still contend I was cool with BY. But you got to be all in on that. We never were from the very start. I was cool with Canales. But be all in on that brand of football. I don't like no man's land and random parts and "making it work". That's been the approach that got us to being the worst org in all of pro sports.

well, my position hasn't changed since right before we drafted XL. It only made sense if you were moving away from BY and going all in on what Seattle and Tampa did in the pass game. If they weren't, you needed a different type of WR in that draft.

it's not even about a better QB. It's about fit, offensive scheme and what you are asking and expecting out of folks. That how you get success. where you land matters in the NFL. It's one of the most important aspects of success. We all knew XL wouldn't fit a BY offense. He fit the classic Canales one. And we simply do not throw those balls. And those balls are not about being a polished WR. The ones BY throws are.

I mean, when we were talking about that draft...I think most conceded XL fit the classic mold of the Canales tree and we wouldn't really start to max that pick until BY was replaced (and most assumed that was the likely outcome). And it basically played out exactly how we thought. Until it didn't. But yeah, 100%. The day we drafted BY I started screaming for a great slot WR (which isn't slow AT) and a great rec RB. That was the easiest way to start maxing BY's skill set. We didn't do that. In fact, we went out and spent a boatload on one of the worst rec RBs in the NFL in Sanders. BY needs YAC players. And a YAC offense. Football doesn't have to be as hard as Carolina makes it. my position was always clear. I'm cool w/ BY pending we attempted a BY offense. I'm cool w/ Canales pending we move on from BY. Instead we get this inbetween whatever. The no man's land and not being all in on a direction is what I detest and that is largely my collective irritation with the org for some time.

Fun fact Puca Nucua had basically an identical drop % his rookie year as XL. Rookies drop passes. And you can look at XLs entire draft class for confirmation that it is normal. The biggest issue for XL....we don't throw the ball in a manner to max his usefulness and potential given we have BY as a QB. We drafted him to do X. We don't do X. When we drafted him, it was basically universally agreed he was to be a DK Metcalf/Mike Evans to chunk it downfield to that fix Canales' deep chunk ball O (which is his tree). Which again brings me back to Carolina's biggest problem in Tepper. The random parts theory. We consistently put things together that contradict. I think they tried to solve that in quick fashion last year. Bryce is really the puzzle piece that didn't fit. They moved on. Quick. He was done. Then BY sort of screwed the entire plan up. Now I think we are back to man's land. We got a head coach that at his core does X. He spent his first draft pick to do X. Then BY muddied up the works. So they went right back to the draft and got a BY WR in Tmac.

I haven't even tried to keep up w/ all those changes. I get all the teams mixed up conference wise now. Maybe that will be a good things then. Because the PAC12 did us dirty in the top 2 rounds. And sometimes they even gave us some fools gold before pulling that rug. Especially Colbert and Carruth. and I was high as Jarrett coming in. That is the pick I got the most wrong of all the wrong ones.

BY at the end of 2024 didn't look like BY at the start of 2023. There was undeniable improvement few could see coming. that said, Carolina in 2024 was still a very bad landing spot for a rookie WR. We had bad QB play still in 2024. So when bashing WRs, you still have to factor they have been setup to fail coming into the league by Carolina drafting them. I was a LOUD XL advocate. But even when I was doing that I always put a disclaimer on basically every single post. I wanted XL under the pretext we would be moving on with Bryce Young. Leading into that draft it was always obvious XL did not pair up with BY. I was 100% certain we would move on from BY fairly quickly and we did just that. No one saw that rise from the dead and IMO that wasn't in the Carolina plans.

I have PAC12 WR trauma as a Panther fan when we go there in the top 2 rounds.

how this dude was able to get on a roster for even a chance is mindblowing. I have never been more wrong on a college football take in all my life than DJU. I still can't wrap my head around how he can go from his college debut game.....to being what he was/is.

TMJ and Mingo combined for 0 zero TDs there rookie year. XL got into the endzone 4 times. And again, people are distorting his situation with what games of BY they choose to remember and erase from their memory. XL in large part played with really bad QB play on the season. Like league bottom QB play on the year. Coleman, Worthy, Mitchell etc. all had pretty comparable rookie years and were in better better spots. Ladd plays slot (easiest life with a very good young PB QB) Does he need to show growth? 100000%. I just think the collective huddle is going way to hard on him and probably is way to high on Coker present day.

I still feel the XL hate is way over the top. People are acting like he just put up the WR version of Bryce's rookie year. Did he have a high drop %? Sure. That needs to be fixed. But literally every rookie in his class that plays on the outside did too last year. And XL landed in one of the worst passing Os in the NFL with questionable QB play. It was also said by many here when we drafted him that if we stayed the BY route.....it wasn't really going be an ideal setup for XL given BY style and what XL was. I do think XL setups up to highlight peak huddling. As in, all it takes is one good game this weekend and the board will swing the other way on him. I do think he has the highest homerun potential on this O.

Norman did play though. He was super bad early in his career

Problem with that draft is we were sort of fast tracked to move on from BY IMO and XL was the closest things to a traditional Canales WR. I only wanted XL under that context. He and BY didn’t pair up. Ladd was the ideal BY WR IMO. Then BY did what no one expected. Including Carolina IMO XL is not polished enough for how BY plays. But you could use him in an aggressive downfield chuck it up scheme

I mean you can….few teams are interested in a Josh Norman ride. Before he hit that crazy season where he was arguably the best corner in the NFL…..he spent years in the doghouse being garbage. helps to be a later round pick too. Top picks get no patience.

Tune in this week for totally different hot takes, heroes and bums. Such is life this time of year. All it would take is XL housing one, Renfrow alligator arming a ball, Moore being clutch and the huddle will redo the depth chart quicker you can imagine.

No good team that would want his “skills” wants 10 million cap hit for Ricky Prohel to come off the bench.

Renfrow’s health really was all tied to a diagnosis that got figured out. It’s not like he is is the Clemson variant of Jaycee Horn where he can’t stay healthy. Renfrow to me is just niche play. Do you want that or don’t you in your O. To me to historically doesn’t fit Canales but it would be ideal for BY’s natural play style. What hurt’s Renfrow the most is they paid AT to hog up slot reps.

You can add TMac, XL, Coker, Renfrow, Horn and Moore all together and their cap hit is on par with AT. Morgan literally just paid him. I was against it. But Morgan taking that big dead cap hit right after paying him would be admitting a pretty big mistake…which doesn’t seem very front office-ish.

I'm still an XL guy (for now), but I wouldn't be mad if they sent XL a message with maybe giving Coker a symbolic start over him or something this week.

XL needs to be spend every second he can with Renfrow. Renfrow got where he is today because he does all the fine arts way better than most of his peers. Renfrow has been the least physical gifted WR on every roster he has been on dating back to HS where he might of not been the bottom of the totem pole. He just isn't talented enough for it really to expand out of the slot at this level. But route running, the subtle stuff, fundamentals....Renfrow has all that in spades. I still say he is the best route runner on the team and I don't think it is that close. But he does probably get too creative but that's a product of NFL film being something that matters and he has to evolve his routes over and over.

I'm really not invested in the ST game but the broadcast crew seemed to think that was a major issue in Carolina to figure out. Sure sounded they thought the coverage teams were really a place to earn a spot. I think Hunter just be the PR guy at least to open up the season. I don't like rookies opening up the year trying to figure the NFL speed/return game out. and sadly, that might be where Moore has an annoying edge. I do think he runs on those coverage teams.