SCO96

I think Burns is good...not great. Top tier passing rushing ends are getting around $20 mil a season. He's not worth that. He's still young and has room to improve, but if ends the season with less than 10 sacks , and the his run defense doesn't improve , then you have to begin planning to let him walk if he wants a top dollar contract.

I hope He plays lights out for the rest of year. But’s, if Brown doesn’t start living up to his draft spot this season, there is no way on earth I’d pick up that 5th year option

Say what you want about how bad we’ve looked today, but that was a good drive and just what we needed to get back in this game.

I have a feeling that teams are gonna run the ball down our throats all year. Their opening drive took up half of the 3rd quarter and their offense didn’t produce one explosive pass play.

Never liked the pick. He wasn’t a dominant pass rusher in college. If you can’t you get to the QB in college, you probably will have a harder time in the pro because the lineman are significantly better. You don’t spend top 10 draft picks on run stuffing tackles and/or defensive ends. You spend those on pass rushers.

Bogus personal foul call on the Cleveland d-lineman. Im actually glad we have to punt on this series. Things need to start looking better by halftime. If not the boos are going to start.

“There's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired.” -- Bum Phillips

I'd feel better about your prediction if we had a different Head Coach.

I was listening to Colin Cowherd one day and he said that every year about 4 or 5 teams will make the playoffs the prior season since early 2002, which is right when the divisions were realigned.

Are you referring to TMJ, Robbie or both? If you get your wish will you start busting a move with rest of the Peanut Kids?

We don't know how things will shake out , but I agree with you. The Rams don't look like shoo-ins to win their division this year. The haven't had the smoothest off-season. I think they're going to have a bumpy ride in 2022. SF and Arizona aren't pushover teams. I think the NFC West is the one division in the NFC that could actually send 3 teams to the playoffs.

If the Panthers win the NFC South this year then that means we are going to see a serious implosion in Tampa this season. I'd love to see it (especially since it's Brady's last year), but I find that highly unlikely. We've won 5 games for three seasons in a row. An above .500 season would be a great success. If we made the wild card this year I'd call that a tremendous success. If we ended up winning the division and hosting a playoff game in the postseason, then Rhule would be a legit contender for coach of the year.

You know, if that prediction comes true, and Christian can get over 1,000 yards on the ground (and close to 1800 in all purpose yards) we'd have one of the best offenses in the NFL. That doesn't guarantee a playoff spot or winning season, but the team would still be a lot of fun to watch.

With the exception of the Bradberry pick in 2016, our draft that year was terrible. But, if we had held onto Josh in 2016 AND STILL picked Bradberry, we would have a had a top 5 CB duo for the next 3-4 seasons.

I don't believe in drafting DTs in the 1st round if they can't collapse the pocket on consistent basis and make life miserable for quarterbacks. You can find "run stuffers" in every round of the draft. If Brown doesn't make major strides as a pass rusher this year I'd be very hesitant to pick up the 5th year option.

I saw a video of Corral highlights on YouTube. A BAMA guy was commenting. He said he was glad to see Matt leave Ole Miss because the BAMA defense had a hard time dealing with him. He felt Matt was the best QB they've face that past two seasons and has the tools to be a solid NFL QB.

I don't think the NFL is set up for a QB to succeed in the 3rd round, which really is quite unfortunate. Imagine this scenario: The team has another bad year and things go south once again. Matt gets some playing time around the middle or the last quarter of the year. Let's say he plays ok, but not spectacular. Tepper decides to hire a new coach and we end up picking in the top 10 again. This draft is supposedly going to have a good class of QB's. There would be a lot of pundits (and fans) saying that we should take a 1st round QB in 2023...and maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing. A new QB deserves to have the guy he wants at the QB because his success will ultimately depend on the guy taking the snaps. If we did get a QB, any chance of Matt ever becoming a franchise QB is all but gone. The team would have a lot more invested in the 1st rounder and would get him on the field ASAP, even if Matt is better. Corrall would probably at best end a journeyman QB or even out of the league of years. People would be saying "3rd round QB's don't make it big in the NFL". That may be true, but it isn't always based on talent. I think more teams are willing to give 1st rounders more chances to prove themselves than the lower round draft choices.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post. Going high in the 1st round should have the young man set financially for the rest of his life. That's great for him. In terms of his actual career as a NFL QB, he should have stayed at USC for another year to get more reps at the position. He would have had more experience coming into the league. This would have probably resulted in him going to another franchise instead of the Jets, who were definitely going to take a QB that year in the draft. Coming out a year later, could have resulted in him going to a better franchise with better coaching. It's also possible that he could have been allowed to sit a year, maybe even two, before seeing the field. All that's water under the bridge. If Corral isn't ready, I hope Sam can successful this year. He seems like a nice guy. I still think if he received some solid coaching from a coach like Bill Walsh, Andy Reid, Mike Holmgrem, etc he could become a serviceable QB in the league.

It's hard to shut down a potent offense for 4 quarters at the NFL level. The rules favor the passing game, Defenses get fatigued, and as you pointed out sometimes the offenses are able to make adjustments after 3 quarters of play. Seattle had a 10 point lead against the Pats before they let Brady throw two TD's down the stretch to pull things out for the team. NE dominated St. Louis defensively for 3 quarters in their first SB win, but they had no answers for the Rams offense in the 4th quarter; which is why that game almost went to overtime before the Vinitari FG iced the game. The Atlanta pass rush was gassed in the 4th quarter when Brady rallied the team from the 28-3 deficit. If you're not getting a strong pass rush all game long and the DB's can't keep up with the receivers then no lead under 20 points is safe in the 4th quarter...especially if the offense begins to bog down.

Every QB is different. You can't make rash decisions when it comes to starting a rookie QB. Some QB's enter a league in a good environment and have enough talent to start immediately make their teams playoff contenders or participants (Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Russel Wilson, Andrew Luck, and Dan Marino are examples). Other achieved success in a the league and ultimately ended up in the Hall of Fame put had miserable/lackluster 1st seasons (Bradshaw, Aikman, Elway, P. Manning). Some players just need to sit and hold the clipboard for year before their given control of the team. The two most successful QB...in terms of SB wins...since 1981 sat their rookie seasons (Montana and Brady). If a kid understands the playbook, can make the throws, and has a solid line blocking for him I think its ok to start him, especially if he's better than the other QB's on the roster. But, under no circumstances should you throw him out there if he isn't ready. We've all seen QB's fail in the league because the coaches threw them on the field to soon. Personally, I think Darnold should have set a year with the Jets. I think he would have been better prepared to play QB at the professional level if he had.

I think I'm starting to get your proposal. Year ONE: 20 million (guarantee) Year TWO: 20 million (guarantee) Year Three: 20 million ($5 guaranteed, 15 million )-----$60 mil received in total...guarantee met. Year Four: 20 million (non guaranteed) Year 5: 20 million (non guaranteed) If the above player was jettisoned after year 3 would any of the remaining salary be considered dead cap space? Or, would the team be able to walk away with no cap implications since the last 40 million wasn't guaranteed?. You didn't mention anything about a signing bonus. I know that is received upfront an prorated over the life of the deal. Years ago I thought the signing bonus and guaranteed money were the same thing. After seeing the how things contracts are structured on SPOTRAC a couple of seasons ago I realized that they're not. Look forward to your reply.

I went to bed a little too late last night and I will admit that my reasoning is a bit amiss this morning. Can you breakdown your scenario a little bit more. I don't understand the part about the 3rd year having a $5mil guarantee. Wouldn't that be each of the first 3 years be $15 mil?

I always believed (and said on this forum) that we were looking at a 3 year rebuild when Rhule was hired. Year 2 was so bad that we're now a year behind. I think 2023 is the year we make some noise in the division and the conference. I just want to see some progression this year. A strong 2023 draft class could put us in a position to challenge for a conference title over the next 4-5 seasons.

I really wish we still had the 16 game season. I think 8-8 would insure his job for another year. Now a lot of teams going forward will be one game over .500 or one game under .500. I could except an 8-9 season if the team showed a marked improvement on offense. The 2020 (5-11) was almost identical record wise to our 2021 season (5-12) record wise. But the games were so much more entertaining in 2020. We lost 8 of our 11 games by one score or less. We had a chance to win all 8 games in the 4th quarter. I never got bored watching the game despite the losses. Last years offense (especially in the 2nd half) was arguably the worst we ever had in Carolina; and is why so many of us were ready to hop off of the Matt Rhule train. Everything about this year's team looks and feels different. If CMAC can return to form and play 12-14 games and the QB play at worst solid, then I really believe we'll be competitive in the NFC and be in wildcard contention at the end of the season.

The last two years have been quite humbling for Matt Rhule. Maybe he's starting to get a better understanding of just what it takes to be successful as a HC in the NFL. Listening to the counsel from others in the building as you pointed out is a sign that he's maturing and gaining wisdom on how to run the team. It took Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys from 1960-1964 without a winning season. The Cowboys didn't achieve a .500 record until 1965) The team didn't have a winning season 1966. After that Landry wouldn't have a losing season until 1986, and the Cowboys only missed the playoffs twice from 1966-1985. We certainly don't want it to take 7 years for Rhule to post winning record, but it appears the guy is learning from his mistakes, and you really can't ask for more than that...except more wins of course