d-dave

No. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble. If Hooker is out taking snaps, then THERE IS A MASSIVE issue beyond how poor we've played. Why not? I'm a reactive person! Make changes for the sake of changes! I get it. But why? Because of Bryce and off season trades. First round QBs usually have value, even if they suck. Bryce is the same way. Bryce does have talent, and I could absolutely see some teams in the off season kicking the tires on Bryce. Benching him for a practice squad QB after two weeks will tank his value. May as well release him then. The rest of the team will not be happy, and I don't think anyone wants to deal with that. No one wants to waste a year of time. The guys want to win. It's very possible we do move on from Bryce this off season, but we don't have another option which will help us win. Bryce almost lead an extremely improbable last minute drive. He didn't get it, but the play calling did him no favors. So just drop him and plug in someone who they see in practice who doesn't have the skills to step in? No.

So I had a night to sleep, read about some of the other games, and reflect on what I saw. The first half was just horrific by the Panthers. Heck, I was ready to call it quits completely. The second half was a MUCH better team. The problem was we were down 20-3. That's not a good way to try to get a win. But I will give the Panthers credit for clawing back. Look, it was closer than it should have been. The Panthers have to STOP giving other teams turnovers. Bryce - He did have some really great throws today. He also had two fumbles and a pick. On top of the four from week 1... Dude, this is not acceptable. Bryce is still up and down. Part of it is definitely him. Part of it is the coaching and scheme. The fact there were almost zero plays where they moved the pocket didn't help him at all. Dave - C'mon discount youth pastor. He talks a word salad to avoid throwing his players under the bus. I can appreciate that. But in the meeting room, you have to sit folks down. You also need to call better plays. The last drive was a completely doable drive. Instead, we had the world longest dead drive. We had ONE play out of (20? it felt like 20) that gained yards. What's going on there??? You're supposed to make teams defend every blade of grass, but the entire game was pretty predictable. EJ - I'll give him a few props for breaking the 200 yard rushing streak, and generally holding AZ in check. BUT his D let the Cards march down the end the first half and start the 2nd. For fugs sake - figure it out! Your job is to put these dudes in places to be successful. T-Mac - You are a beautiful Hawaiian god! He's a f'n DUDE! He really had a fantastic game. Much love for T-Mac. XL - Do you need to go eat some raw racoon or something? I know he's enjoying his bumpkin bit, but it's only going to work so long as he is a decent player. Where's the summer XL who was mentioned as a breakout candidate? Have some pride and go get the ball. This is still not a good team. We have some good players sprinkled out there, but we lack talent in a lot of areas. We have to play perfectly to be able to win, which is not sustainable. The coaches need to figure it out.

What I was coming on to say, except Bryce's fumble-6 and pick were pretty back breaking. What was getting me at the end was how there was no plan to move the ball in that last drive. We had 50 yards, and only really moved with penalties. Did anyone have a catch (forgive me, that last drive took 4 hours lol)? For me, I feel less bad since we tried to fight back. Bryce did battle back, BUT he still didn't deliver. Canales did not call a particularly good offensive game. His seat needs to be hot, and I'm find letting Bryce deliver us a new QB and coach.

It's not over. There are plenty of other teams with hopes and dreams. Not us though. Just pain. More pain unless you just let it go. This is a record for me, 6 quarters and I'm done with the season... At least we had summer lol.

Man shoot, I could do that over the summer, but Sunday nights are a no go during the school year for me! Good luck finding more players!

I don't disagree. I'm getting awful tired of watching Bryce Young come out and play poorly. The last half of the season, there was some kind of magic. They couldn't find that this off season I guess. I want my Panthers to be fun to watch, to win, and for all the players (even Young) to do well. If Bryce doesn't succeed off to swing at more QB chances again. Thankfully, it's not my job to fix that. If I were in a leadership position of the team, I'd be having some very frank conversations (and possibly polishing off my resume if the season continues to suck). On the hopium side, I hope that this was just "week 4 of the preseason." Maybe they can get it right next week. It's a nice fantasy until I get bludgeoned in the face by reality

I think it would have to go true dumpster fire for us to clean house. Week One was pretty alarming. All the talk of how different and improved the team was only to come out and look like utter garbage is not going to win anyone over. I like that there's synergy between HC and GM, but there also has to be results. We're not seeing the results. The NFL is a result oriented business. Now, if the team plays a lot better in the coming weeks, great. But let's see it first. I think that Canales should start to see the hand moving towards the seat heater clearly.

While I am hoping like crazy for Bryce to lead the Panthers to sustained success, the proof isn't there right now. Did he make some good throws Sunday? Yes. Did he make some bad throws? Yes. Did XL (and others)let him down? Yes. Did he make some stupid decisions? Yes. Bryce wasn't good Bryce, and the team was pretty poopy. Now the PFF grades...I don't know much about analytical math. OK - but my eyes saw a team that wasn't prepared to play, not just a QB. If we're going to count drops at competitions and missed yards as actual yards...Then I'm the king of England!? Right?

That's pretty cool, when do y'all play? I'd be down for sure depending on schedule.

Terrible? No doubt he was Sunday. Will he ever get gud? No clue. Listening the Panther's Playbook (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K8QW-k4du0) the guys made an excellent point: there is no trust. Bryce isn't trusting his line, WRs or the system. That's not good at all. When Bryce has trust, we see what happened after the bye last year. The biggest question is "where did the trust go?" That's something that Canales and Co. need to figure out ASAP. Look, I think Bryce is a nice guy, and I'm glad he's generationally wealthy. But I want my Panthers to succeed. If he's the guy to do it, great. If not, be the guy we need to help us get that top 5 pick.

It's easy for us fans to toss the baby out with the bath water immediately. Tepper created a shitshow. He's been extremely quick to fire guys who aren't producing and continuing to have the same result no matter who the coach is. If Tepper goes full nuclear today, no one half way decent will touch the Panthers while he's the owner. That's just the reality, and @Tbe points it out well. You need to give these guys time to show their incompetence after you gave them all the rope you could. I think Morgan and Canales will get to draft a guy if Bryce continues to play like Sunday the rest of the season, but if there aren't early returns, then we could see it all blown up before the end of the '26 Season. I don't think anyone would fault him if year three, even with a rookie, goes terribly. That being said, Evero has been given more than enough opportunity. I'm tired of the excuses, this is year three. Either you get it, or you need to get out. I have no idea if Evero has any (coaching, he seems like a really sincere dude) redeeming qualities, but his time here hasn't been great.

Well, he'll lead us to wins or to a top pick. If we pick up top, we can find our next QB. Sucks, but that's just the way it is.

We can all dream

Most EVs are in the 90+ e-MPG meaning some measurement house somewhere compares the EV to a similar ICE model and works out how much is costs to charge (on average) versus fill up as a point of comparison. Talking long term, in the hundreds of thousands of miles? No clue. Some early signs are that EV batteries maintain 80% charge over 400k miles. So there's that. The challenge and charm of an ICE vehicle is being able to park it under a tree, get your jack stands out and tinker with your engine. There's just not that same level of complexity in an EV. I saw someone estimate there are 200 or so moving parts in an EV, and 2000 in an ICE vehicle. I'm not a part counter so I can't really speak to that. I think that the EV is more the future than any type of combustion engine. Those will still be around in specific purposes, but for most people - an EV will be the superior option in terms of efficiency. I say that as someone who loves stupid horsepower numbers out of turbo 4 bangers and inline 6s... I am one of those tinkers when I can be. A bigger issue for EVs is going to be the ownership versus lease. Right now, there are INSANE leases on EVs, which is great, but what do you have at the end of that lease? Nada, maybe some equity if you're lucky. Where as I'm almost done paying for my car, and plan to keep it until the wheels fall off (or my son wrecks it when he starts to drive). Will EV makers do the smartphone thing and build in planned obsolesce? Stop updating software? I love the tech in EVs, and I think getting more cars and trucks off the road is a good thing. But I am still just a little concerned. Capitalism has gotten far too extractive.

Fair for sure. Though I'm pretty sure I would make it all worse We could also have a team that no one wants to play for, with no hope of ever getting better. I don't think we're in 2000-2010 Browns/Lions territory yet. Now we are the worst team for the 2020s. We're half way through this decade. Will the Panthers turn it around? Maybe. Will they continue to suck because Tepper is poison to winning? Maybe? Back to Moton, he's been a very good and consistent RT for a LONG time. Yes, he's had a few injuries, but I don't think that the Panthers wanted to leave a bunch of uncertainty at the position. Regardless our opinion on the FO staff, they see Moton daily. They have a MUCH better picture of his knees and how much longer he can play at a high level than we can from where we are.

You know how air chair football managers are around here. They all know better. Just no one in the NFL has picked up on their incredible acumen yet.

Very nice! Congrats!

For me, I'm pretty excited. I always am. I want to see a more competitive team that last year's squad. I want to see Bryce continue to play well. I want to see our running game put the hurt on teams. I want to see better play from the defense. Now, am I expecting a Superb Owl in the future? No for 2025. We still have a LOT of weak areas, and we just don't know if last half of season Bryce is the real Bryce? Or was that just a flat in the pan? If the team sucks and is unwatchable, that's fine. It sucks, but I'm not going to cry about it. If we're better, then I'm all aboard the excited to see fun football again.

Hendrickson is going to be part of this negotiation. No team is going to trade valuable assets for him without already having a contract agreement in place. I don't think the Panthers have the ammo outside of draft capital. And I hope they don't. We do need to get better, but we also need to develop our young players.

It's funny that some people think Perkins is going to change things. He was fun to watch in the XFL. Great athlete, but there's a rather substantial difference between Spring and Fall football. He's going to play a lot against Pittsburg, hope he's a quick study. Look, if Perkins became the next great rags to riches QB story, please serve me up the crow. I'll eat all of it. But remember what happened with the last XFL MVP QB we had...

This is Bryce's year to put up or shutup. That's just the reality. Either he proves himself a high level starting NFL QB or we trade him and move on. What I saw (as an idiot with a keyboard) to finish out the season was a young QB who was starting to get it. He made plays with his feet and with his arm. He threw some insane dimes! Now, the production wasn't eye popping from a numbers perspective, but the dude made plays. Its up to Bryce and Dave Canales to make it all work. I hope it does! I want to see my Panthers succeed! Conversely, if Bryce stinks it up, let's work on drafting an upgrade. But, right now in May, I'm full of Hopium and will continue to choose that line of thinking for now. I HOPE that all the moves we made this off season lead to a better record in 2025!

Thank you for all the release metaphors! It's helped make my morning But no...just eww..

I agree. Father Time is undefeated. Linebacker is a physical position, and Shaq's injuries are piling up. Sometimes you have to just know your time to hang'em up. I don't think anyone should denigrate Shaq's leadership or his history with the team, but that's all in the past. If it's week 4 and we're down all our LBs, sure, bring him in. But for camp and the season, we need youth. Jewell is the elder statesman here, but even he's had his fair share of injuries. So at this point, I'd rather live with youth and mistakes while they learn instead of older vets who will get hurt more frequently.

I wouldn't be surprised given how the NFL swings, but I'm not getting my hopes up for that. Regardless of win totals, I want to see the following in 2025: 1. Continued development and improvement of Bryce and the offense. This is coaching and player-related. 2. An improvement in the defense from historic bad to mediocre. Anything beyond that is great. Even at mediocre, we could have pulled off a few more wins last year. 3. The development of a strong core of leaders and a team identity emerge. Wins? I expect 6-8, some improvement, but we're not quite there yet. Injuries are the greatest equalizer in the NFL, and we lacked depth across the board last year. Maybe we're healthier this year? Or our depth shows well when injury strikes. I don't know. Now look, we could go on a tear and win 10+ and the Division. I wouldn't be sad at all there, but I also don't see it as being likely. But it would be cool!

20 years or so here... God, I am getting old, this sucks lol