CRA

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.

young man's game. because it's a spot teams don't want to spend money at. Unless you are Carolina. That might as well be our motto.

Panthers technically blitzed more than most teams in the NFL last year. They just have mindboggling bad results from it. Think they had the 2nd worst % at actually generating pressure despite going to that well a lot.

well it is projecting 2025-2027 window it says. Hubbard and Rico would be old RBs at the end of that window. 29 and 28 I think. 30 has always been the graveyard in the NFL.

there is literally one team that has 2 running backs that both ran for 1k yards on different teams in the year 2024 lots actually have of have multiple RBs that have hit 1k yards. the initial statement I don't think was super specific. The fact check seems to be specific. Not sure it really matters. We got 2 solid RBs. So do other teams.

I think this is people viewing the claim as two different things. Texans got multiple guys that have hit 1k. Heck, the Falcons got multiple guys. The Panthers specifically have 2 that happened to do it in the year 2024

Top half of the league? We had the 29th ranked offense in the NFL last year and that was with the highest paid OL

but to an extent, it's the whole Double Trouble aspect that sounds better than it sometimes actually is. Having 2 featured RBs back in the day wasn't really a formula to be good. It's great insurance. But you can only play one of them. So your ceiling at RB is really just how good is your best RB to a degree. It's like having a great backup QB. It doesn't carry that much weight. Just means if things get bad, you don't drop off as much.

Nothing wrong w/ be excited about the potential. But Nabors and Tmac ain't going to fair the same in a head to head ranking like this. One still waiting to log a real NFL catch and the other has put in the books already. and we have been so bad, I just don't see the point of being offended we are last. We deserve to be defaulted worse when it is close based on our proven track record of late.