mav1234

the "CmC check down" stuff... Man, plenty of those throws are not check downs... They're designed plays to get CMC into mismatches... How can you simultaneously say "his turnover rate hasn't gone down" while saying "2 games worth of passes isn't enough to show his turnover rate has TRULY gone down"? It doesn't make sense. Either his play in these two games shows something, or it doesn't, it can't be that you get to ignore his int% while pointing to his one int as evidence he's "the same." If Darnold gets to a total of 27 turnovers it'll be significantly more turnovers than he's had in the last 2 years by quite a bit, despite a start with fewer turnovers, and with a better cast... Very unlikely.

Anyone that thinks from his first two games he looks exactly like he did on average on the Jets is either not watching him on the Panthers, or didn't watch him on the Jets. Yes, the supporting cast is immeasurably better. But he is making smarter, faster decisions than most of the plays I saw while he was at NY.

Darnold is a tier below Cam for certain in athletic ability and arm strength, but he's also tiers above Delhomme... As to the stupid decisions, through 2 games, Darnold has an *extremely* low percentage of INTs thrown per pass. I don't think we can assume he'll play as poorly as he did with the Jets there.

I don't think we have a QB in our history that is a good comparison to Darnold, assuming he continues to improve... Frankly, his natural gifts put him closer to Cam than Delhomme in terms of raw ability, but he's obviously nothing close to Cam either. It is just that Delhomme wasn't Delhomme because of arm talent or athleticism. Darnold has a rare combination there, although not once in a generation or anything of that sort like Cam was. I think Darnold's leadership ability is heavily underrated by us fans, based on how many times he's been made a captain already in his short career, so we'll see if we get more hints of that as time goes on. That's some of the missing piece of what kind of player he will be for us.

I think some of our fans just want to see fault where none lies... It is really hard to argue Darnold isn't spreading the ball around when it warrants it. Teams are having to choose where they want the mismatch to be. Going to CMC in a mismatch is a big boon for us. Yet DJ has more yards receiving than CMC, and our WRs have a total of 341 yards in 2 games. Given we've also had two TEs active in the passing game, this offense IS more than CMC through the air. Darnold is finding the right target consistently, IMO.

This is such a stupid take this early. There is no point in reading into measures like that based on so little data. Are the Panthers really playing bad teams or are they making teams look bad (probably one of each)?

It takes time to learn to pass block. It wasn't always a strength of CMCs, either. Given the state of the OL we need to be a bit patient there. I think these guys can get it together with reps. They will never be CMC, but they don't need to be.

I wouldn't say we struggled to beat the Jets... It was closer than we as fans want, but I don't think that final score reflects the game. We should win Thursday but I wouldn't be surprised if it's much closer than we want. Although I'd love to finally stop making rookie/backup QBs look like All-stars...

Thought I'd share some love our players are getting from USA Today, https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/lists/derek-carr-sam-darnold-rashawn-slater-underrated-players-nfl/amp/ ... First up... Darnold is one of their secret week 2 superstars. "Darnold has officially become yet another player allowed to excel once freed from the clutches of Adam Gase. In his first two games as the Panthers’ starting quarterback under Matt Rhule, Darnold has been a revelation." Next is Morgan Fox... "Phil Snow is in his second season as the Panthers’ defensive coordinator, and Snow — a longtime college defensive coordinator who Panthers head coach Matt Rhule took from Temple to Baylor to Charlotte — throws as much weird stuff at opposing offenses as any coach in the NFL. This was the defense Aaron Rodgers called “strange” last season, and Snow now has more players who fit with his schemes. One of those players is defensive lineman Morgan Fox, an undrafted free agent out of Colorado State-Pueblo who spent his first four seasons with the Rams, and signed a two-year, $8.1 million contract with the Panthers in March. If Fox plays as he did against the Saints on Sunday, this could prove to be an almighty bargain." Check the link for some videos and additional thoughts from Doug Farrar. Nice read overall, love the attention our players are getting!

It's why he isn't here. If he'd manage to lead a few game winning drives... He had so many opportunities. Of course he then threw the coaches under the bus, which was also weird.

We do know that mid game he can bounce back from a bad series, and get points on the board to keep us up by 2 scores at least. But I think you'll be right, we will need to see those two items to have a better idea what we have.

What a weird thread. I guess this makes more sense to people that live in Charlotte? Ah well.

The bit about differences in the offenses between Gase and Brady was maybe the most interesting to me. It does make Brady's offense sound much easier to get into and process quickly. I'm very happy with Darnold and optimistic he can be the guy here. Still need to see more, especially in high pressure situations, but it's hard to argue his first couple starts could have been better given where his starting point was (2020 was simply brutal for him).

Yup. Darnold looks much improved and clearly can still play football despite the misery in NY. But can he be the guy in the clutch we will need? We all harp on Teddy's arm strength but the real issue was his inability to find ways to win the game for us in all those one score games... He folded under pressure. Darnold will get his chance to prove differently and I am hopeful he can be.

I think they were up front with Luke this was a longer term rebuild and he decided to retire given the concussions etc. I kinda doubt he heard the scheme ideas and bailed... I think he wanted to either win or keep his health intact. Concussions are serious and every year we hear about more former NFL players dying young. If you're totally set financially, why risk it?

That explains the crap that's been floating around here lately

Agreed, on both counts. What we do know is that Darnold was not totally ruined by his years in New York. We still will see more through this year, but the first two games have been full of encouraging signs.

Don't forget that 1 rushing TD. Great performance yesterday imo. We will need him to carry the team from behind or in tough situations at some point this year, and that's when we'll have a better idea if just how much he's grown. But it's clear he survived the Jets and has more than enough in the tank to be a player in this league.

I have to admit I thought Snow was some kind of weird Rhule charity case from his bio... But man, that's why Rhule is in charge of a football team and I'm on CarolinaHuddle from my couch. Snow has surprised so many ways. If he keeps this defense flying around the field it'll be one of the best we've ever fielded.

What a win. Darnold saying all the right things, too. Much more balanced yesterday on offense... This could be a very fun year to watch this offense grow.

Sometimes it's great to be wrong. (I was too, in case that looked like a dig on you)

What the fug, some of you people are insufferable. 2-0 doesn't mean a superbowl but I'm going to enjoy this victory for at least a day or two before I get dragged into another "Sam Darnold sucks we're doomed" argument.

One could argue that he had accomplished a rebuild at Baylor all things considered. Hard to say the same of the Panthers ATM.

Timing isn't right I don't think. If Rhule had a dismal first season, maybe, but he has this team playing and competing hard and it just seems like he will want to see it through. That, and I get the feeling he prefers the NFL anyway.

The problem with Teddy was NOT that he played overwhelming short fields. It's that he couldn't make the throws the defense gave him to go deeper than that on occasion, which this offense needs. In one game, Darnold displayed more arm strength than Teddy ever did in a game. Darnold does need to improve for sure, but Teddy's problem was he stopped taking what the D gave him if it wasn't within 15 yards. Darnold doesn't seem to have that issue... But could as time goes on. We don't really know. And anyway, it appears Darnold had more 20+ yard past the LoS completions than Wilson... Fewer 10-20, true. Meh, I think we need to see more from Darnold.