d-dave

Yeah, good luck with that Houston. If the Panther do that...oh man... That could be a franchise killer. Not just the PR, but you would take away all the assets to build around Watson with his expensive cap number. Not a good move. Why would Watson want to come and play for a coach for a season? No. If Watson has to make a choice, figure out how to get the Steelers to pony up the assets. Watson has some serious legal issues that are going to start to get heard as well as all the civil cases. Watson has some bad personal decision making. @CPantherKing made some really important points about Watson's wins and decision making. He might be more hype than anything at this point, after sitting for a year. Hopefully, we don't go down that rabbit hole and make those mistakes. I'm fully on the roll with Darnold and clean house for 2023.

I wouldn't be surprised if we drafted Willis. Who knows how good he can be? Lord knows he has the tools to be a high level NFL starter. It's going to be a bumpy road for him in the first year or two. But that depends on how we manage to address the OL in FA. Can Brady C be a NFL LT? Who will play guard? Center? For me, I'd be thrilled to draft a stud LT, trade down and draft more OL help, or even trade down and pick Willis in the late 1st. Who knows. This is prime smokescreen time. Everyone has nothing but good things to say about everyone...

Of all the news shows, the is the one I want to watch again. They hit humor and action so well together. John Cena has really matured as an actor and is going to be fun to see what else he does. I love he doesn't take himself seriously. I love this show. And it introduced me to Wig Wam (the intro song). They f'ing rock if you're into that power/hair metal crazy from the 80s but with an updated sound.

Cousins will always put up good looking stats, but he doesn't help you get over a hump. Look at Minny's record over those four years: 33-31-1, 1-1 in the playoffs. How do you throw 124 TDs and only win 33 games? I was listening to the Locked On Panthers show when they had a dude from Minnesota come on and talk Cousins. He was not very high on him. The long and short of it is that Cousins wants to get paid and he doesn't care how that hurts a team. He's going to put up great stats, but when you need him to make a play, he's going to check down. With our shoddy OL, I'd rather not have to trade first for Cousins when we already know that he's a short term bandaid. For what? Keeping Rhule in a job? No thanks.

Why not just trade Moore and Burns? Not like they are proven NFL players. The more draft picks, the better, right? I enjoy the thought processes and mental games here, but I don't see any reason to trade DJ at all. DJ is our best WR, and one of the best weapons we have. He plays hurt, and he's not a diva. He's had to deal with some absolute poo regarding QB play. He's also losing RZ TD chances to CMC. I just don't see an avenue for improvement that's going to cost less than keeping DJ Moore. It's about the QB, which will happen in the next two years.

But what will I do with all the free trials with $5 of Crypto I have? I was holding those as a great investment! I never understood the appeal of any of the currencies.

Considering our OL and the NFL in general - you are going to get beat up in the NFL. Corral has a slight frame and has been hurt a lot. Then you add in his personality... Yeah, that's a hard pass here. Fix the OL. Then trade up a bounty for a franchise QB.

There a long way to go before training camp. Here's where my arm-chair idiot with a keyboard thoughts are: 1. Allow Morgan and Fit to do their jobs. Look, Rhule's played god for two season and we have won 10 games. At a point, you have to step back and let pros come in and do their jobs. Even if Rhule is still making the final call, just rubber stamp them because you fugged up two years in a row. 2. I'd like to see some solid pros come in. I don't think we're going to be paying out of this world cash for FAs. There's just not the room. We need to pick up some competent OL who can be coached well by our OL coach. Unless something crazy happens, BC is our LT for 2022. 2a. Who do we keep? Pick two: Reddick, Gilmore, Jackson. It's going to depend on what the FA market is, but we'll see. Ideally, we should be able to keep two of the three. The rest are mostly JAGs to be honest. 3. Trade down into the Mid first. Look, there are a lot of talented players out there, and teams do dumb stuff annually. I'd love for the panthers to trade from 6 to 15ish and pick up a 2nd or 3rd round pick, both would be amazing. Then we can still pick an impact player, or Tyler Lindebaum - which would be a great impact player! 4. QB - Look Matt, you wanted TB, and he underperformed. You spent a fair amount of draft capital on Darnold. I think it's time you coached your boy up. Since Matt plays patty cake with Sam's criticims, it's time for Matt to own Sam Darnold's play. If it gets him fired, then he gets fired. He made his bed and now he can sleep in it. This leaves us with: 1 - a Solid (hopefully) OL, 2 - some good pieces on the D, and 3 - a good opportunity to see if one of our former HCs can right the ship. I'm rooting for your Wilkes!

Man, there's nothing like getting that right wire/cable management! You spend all that time routing, zip-tying, and making it perfect! Until you realized you left out a fan cable! Then you say screw it, and haphazardly put it out of the way, but in your mind, you know it's messed up... Nope, not ever happened to me....Nope, didn't turn around and tear it down to fix it three days later... That happened to me years ago. My current rig (on el cheapo) is an old i7-4790 based workstation. the first thing I did when I got it was took the whole thing apart, cleaned parts and contacts and replaced all the thermal compound. Then I put it back together, and I was like - yep, still a cheap box. But at least I can let it run Renders for days on end without worrying too much about it. I want to build a new, modern PC for gaming, 3D, and video editing. But I'm in a debt repayment free for all. And I want a new camera... God, I'm expensive!

How many millions did you spend? LOL, just kidding! I know the PC market is very expensive right now! Game Pass for PC is great, and MS doesn't care what box you play from. To them, it doesn't matter what platform you buy from, because you'll still need windows to run that PC. Also, seeing how Sony is starting to understand just how lucrative the PC marketplace can be is fantastic news for those of us who just want to play games. I hope there's some kind of re-alignment where there are fewer exclusives and instead things are more inclusive. Halo on PS, Spider-Man on Xbox? Why not? All of them on a PC...oh baby!

After the Senior Bowl, Willis has become a hot name. I mean, he looks like he can game. Then in the actual game, he showed off his running, less than his arm. He carried Liberty in college. When he played against top competition, he didn't look great. Is that because Liberty was so outmatched? There are a lot of questions, and it comes down to the projections. Can Willis read a NFL defense? Can he make plays? He's got a good arm, great athleticism, seems to be a good dude who has matured over his college journey. Those are all good traits. Can the Panthers be successful with a great athlete, who does a similar one read then run? Or do they cut the field in half to make it easier for him? Personally, I'd rather trade down, acquire more picks, trot Sam out next year and tell Rhule "He's your QB you wanted, coach him." Set him up to do SOMETHING.

Yep, been playing regularly...forever?? I've been usually doing my weekly bounties for a few of the main NPCs to gather Bright Dust. I dabble in the new dungeon, Grasp of Avarice, which is really fun. A dude in my clan and I went through with very limited understanding of wtf to do. We made it to the boss room, but I had MASSIVE wife agro for spending four-ish hours bumbling around in there. It's easy with three and someone with some knowledge, but for two morons, it was a lot of work. God knows how folks solo flawless it...Way better than me!

Yeah, KB was on the road to being a dominate NFL player until his knee was destroyed, his mother died, and he had a hard time dealing with it. It sucks. As a bigger person, I understand the stress it puts on your knees, no matter the shape you're in. His entitled attitude didn't help him at all. It would have been nice if he could have had a Chris Carter type mentor who really knew all the details that could help him have a 12 year career. What really got me was seeing Cam with time... Holy poo, how long has it been since we saw that kind of OL work...and it wasn't even that great at the time.

It will be interesting to see where he does finally get drafted, but let's also remember we are so far away from the draft. There's the combine, free agency and prodays along the way while national pundits tear every prospect down. I also fully expect a team to go crazy and move into the top five for weird pick. I mean, it's the draft, right? Wouldn't be a fun draft without a bunch of WTF moves!

Yep, QBs are a different animal. You either have your franchise QB or you don't. If you don't, you got and get them. If the team believes Pickett can be the guy, then they have to pick him. You can't screw this up. Now if you do, you get fired. But if you don't take your risks, you never benefit if you win.

Don't they all want to go to winning teams? Good luck with that. I'm pretty sure the 49ers will trade Jimmy where ever they can get the most value!

I'm kind of surprised the rest of the board hasn't made a bigger deal about the NFL. It's a corrupt league. Great sport, great players and personalities, but the business aspect is so freaking dirty.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-01-31-sony-buying-bungie-for-usd3-6-billion But it's not to be exclusive.. Bungie maintains almost all of it's independence. I think this is much more about Sony helping Bungie develop other other media for Destiny (TV, Movies, Books, etc)while Bungie helps Sony develop more than "walking simulators" (ok, I thought that was funny, but those PS only single player games like Last of Us, God of War, Horizion Zero Dawn are great!) in their eco system. Some folks think that this is part of the larger "reset" of the publishing system where Sony and MS buy a bunch of stuff, folks leave and start new studios and develop new ideas. I'd like that for sure. Looking at the various reports and press releases, it seems like Sony is going to play ball with being multi platform. It's kind of what I think Xbox will do with the Activision catalogue. Keep them multiplatform, and collect your 30% on each sale. At the end of the day, both MS and Sony want to sell software and collect their piece of the pie. Game Pass is still a great value, and I think those subscription models are going to be key moving forward. The issue for Sony is that they are just a MUCH smaller company than MS and don't have near enough cash to spend like Windows-Daddy can provide for MS. I'm not sure how their service will compare. But if there's a PC plan for it....oh boy I might have to think really hard about it so I can go back and play all of those fantastic games...

Well, his history suggests he's done a good job. Maybe he can help clean things up on the OL front. While I do really feel the straight up desire to fire Rhule and toss 2022 down the drain, I also want to see my team succeed. The fan part of me just wants to see us get better.

Look, I'm not a scout - I just summarized several things I read online. The general consensus is that Pickett has above average athleticism compared to Burrow's sneaky athleticism. Pickett has a stronger arm, and Burrow knows how to work with all of his tools. I'm just trying to make sense of the desire to copy the Bengals, considering that Pickett is not the same level of prospect Burrow was coming out due to the intangibles.

While everyone wants to comp Burrow to Pickett because of their size, age, and internet buzz; there is a MAJOR difference between the two: Burrow is a straight up baller. Burrow has the professional arrogance and processing ability to make great plays. Pickett has better physical tools, but he's not on Burrow's level of confidence and decision making. Pickett is interesting. And someone we should strongly consider at 6, but on the flip side, he's not going to be a Joe Burrow for us. He's going to be Kenny Pickett. A guy who can make all the throws, is a good athlete, but who isn't as cerebral as Burrow. It's going to depend on the coaches if they can develop him. Now if people start trading up for QBs in the top 5, let's try to get on that trade down energy. We need more than a rookie QB. We have legit needs a long the lines. We could use talent everywhere. This draft doesn't have the quality of QB that we're looking for. So to me, let's look at him, but let's also make good choices for the rest of the team.

It comes down to tools and coaching. We've seen coaches who have maximized limited QBs to be successful in the NFL. While there are guys like Rodgers who can do what he wants because of his success, there are so many more who need to be propped up by a system. Would Mahomes be as successful on the Raiders? Or Josh Allen in Jacksonville? Much less anyone in Detroit? You have to have a good coach who creates an environment for the player to be successful.

Daniel Jeremiah was saying that he used to fear the hate from fans. Now he just embraces it (because it drives clicks and helps him keep his job). Mock drafts are an intellectual exercise at best. Entertainment. Just something to pass the time before the real decision makers fug it all up

Well, as we say about Tepper "not my billions." lol It remains to be seen. Can MS clean up the culture and improve morale the greater Activision environment? Can they take a franchise like COD, which sells millions of units each year and tons of microtransactions no matter the quality of the game, and keep it profitable on game pass without sales to Sony? That's why I think that MS is going to continue to push for Game Pass on Sony, while still allowing the sales of CoD and other activision/blizzard games on Sony products. Just add a Microsoft Game Studio in front of each loading screen. I'm very curious to see how it all works out. I've been an Xbox guy since the 360 (even though I had the PS1, PS2, and eventually the PS3 for the blu ray drive) so putting my not very rabid fanboi-ness aside, I really do want gaming to get better for everyone. The world sucks enough as is, I think we should all be able to escape into some gaming, regardless of platform.

There is no pitch for Rodgers. Matt Rhule has the ultimate ego, and he won't allow someone else to come in and interfere with his "process." So aside from all the other reasons Rodgers would never come to Carolina, Rhule and his ego would be one for sure.