SCO96

I could be wrong, but didn't Tepper "influence" Ron Rivera to transition to the 3-4 shortly after he took over the team? I didn't like the idea then and I don't like it now. I know quality 4-3 DE's don't grow on trees. It's hard to find guys who are stout enough to stop the run and quick enough to rush the passer. But, it appears to be just as hard for Carolina to find a 3-man front to stop the run and pressure the QB. Based on his 7 year track record, if Tepper is in favor of something, then the coaches and FO should do the exact opposite. I agree with you. We need to go back to a 4-3. I think D. Brown would be more affective as pass rusher in that scheme.

I think I'd be willing to sign off on a deal if it was one of the first 10 picks in the 3rd round and a conditional late round choice.

Let's look at this from a positive point of view. 1) Our O-line is actually good. All we are really lacking is a "young" and "healthy" player to man the CENTER spot. Injuries have caused our problems in recent games. 2) If Brooks fully recovers we may have a dynamic back for the next 3 years. 3) I think Legette and Sanders have potential. One of the reasons I don't want to see BY behind center is that he'd only stunt their growth because he can't get the ball to anyone more than 10 yards downfield. Coker looks like a keeper. I think Mingo is headed down the same path to obscurity as TMJ. 4) If we had a solid QB our offense would be respectable. No positives on defense. 1) Outside of Horn we have no real threat at DB 2) Our LB's are pretty much a group of JAGs at this point. 3) Our D-line can't stop the run or rush the passer. I don't think we have a healthy player who could start on a contender. I think D. Brown is good but not great. 8 sacks in 4 seasons is pretty lackluster in a passing league. In his defense, I do think he would be better if he had better players around him. That said, I don't think he'd ever be the best player on a GREAT DEFENSE. 4) If we pulled a 2020 Rhule move and spent the entire draft on DEFENSE I wouldn't be too upset. If Brown returned to his 2023 form and If we could find a playmaker at Safety, 1 of the LB spots, a legit pass rusher, and a solid cover CB to complement Horn, our defense could improve in a hurry. I'm sure there are GMs around the NFL who could rebuild this defense in 1-2 seasons. Unfortunately, I don't think our FO is up to the task.

Tell me who on this team is worth a 3rd round pick for another team? Johnson's contract is expiring at season's end. If someone really wants him they can wait until he's hits FA. He's good, but he doesn't make any team a title threat just because he joins the squad. Hubbard is also going to be a FA at the end of the year. Besides, isn't the current thought around the league (and this board) is that RBs are a dime a dozen. They supposedly aren't worth a 2nd contract. Why would anyone trade for Hubbard if RBs are so easy to find in the draft? Outside of possibly Jaycee Horn, who do you think another team is going to be willing to part with a top 100 pick to acquire a player from arguably the worst team in the NFL? I agree with drafting the BPA in every round when your team is terrible (and even in some case when it is good), but when was the last time the Panthers did that? They can't even get it right when they have the first pick in the draft. No series of trades is going to help this team. They need to start drafting well. Unfortunately, I don't think any of us have faith in the FO to do that.

This is the only time you guys will ever hear me say this. I wish Marty Hurney was picking our 1st round player in 2025. Picking 1st round talent was the only thing Marty was actually good at.

Yep. All of these people are yelling "trade, trade, trade". We have nothing of value to trade. If draft picks are so valuable to building a franchise, why would a good GM give away draft picks to acquire talent from one of the worst 5 teams in the NFL? We'd be lucky to get a 3rd round pick for the best player on our roster. Acquiring an extra 3rd (an most likely a lower pick) isn't going to make result in a big roster improvement. As you pointed out bad drafting has caused this. We have traded away a several 1st round picks (CMAC, DJ Moore, and Brian Burns). What do we have to show for it? Our record speaks for itself.

I'm not saying Chubba want to resign here. To be honest I don't know why anyone would ever come to Carolina unless it was for a boat load of money and that person had no interest in winning. As for keeping Hubbard, I don't see a problems with it if the deal is reasonable pricewise. We have a 2nd round back coming off an ACL tear. We have no ide how he is going to play upon his return. These days you pretty much have to have 2 backs to ease the RB workload. The days of the 25-30 carry per game are long gone. Brooks contract is pretty cheap. If Hubbard came back around 4-5 million for 3 seasons that wouldn't break us. And, if you did trade him at the deadline, what are you expecting in return? Most likely a 4th. Is that really going yo move the needle? Nope. If a player want to be moved this season and you can get a good return, that's one thing. But the idea of trading "all expiring contracts today" is unreasonable. We don't have anyone on this roster who is going to fetch more than a 3rd/4th round pick. I don't see a player on our roster who is going to put another team over the hump. Furthermore, it's not like we have a FO with a good track record nailing their draft picks. If they did we wouldn't be in the current predicament.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Trading away all your good plays in order to get "more draft picks" is very short sighted; especially when you look at our draft classes under Tepper. You can't trade away a Chubba Hubbard or Jaycee Horn and automatically assume you are going to find a better/comparable player in the next draft class. As bad as the BY trade was, we have our #1 pick in 2025 (probably a top 5 selection) and 8 other picks. We have LA's #2, our own 3 and 4th selections, two 5th round choices, a 6th round choice, and two 7th. We have plenty of choices already. Improving the team is going to boil down to whether or not the FO picks the right players this spring, the 2024 class stepping up, and improving the play at QB.

I would have had more respect for him if he had thrown pick while trying to push the ball downfield. Or, trying to pick up the 1st down with his legs. What I did not want to see was another check-down pass that travels less than 5 yards in the air. Good grief

I think he’d be more fun to watch than Bryce Young. Mariota has the legs and arm strength to at least keep things interesting.

We have become the laughingstock of the NFL. Here’s the sad thing about his post, I think he may be right.

You can’t stop Ian Thomas! Defenses can only contain him!

Here’s an amazing fact: Ian Thomas has outlasted our last 3 head coaches and our last 3 GMs. That’s Incredible!

Im beginning to think Jerry Jones & the Dallas Cowboys have better chance of winning a Super Bowl in his lifetime than David Tepper & the Carolina have of achieving a winning season in Tepper’s lifetime.

I think last year’s squad was worse…at least offensively. This team is probably in the top 10 though.

I think his lazy route running led to the INT that changed the momentum of last week’s game. Now, he’s missing crucial blocks on short yardage running plays. He’s outlasted our last 3 head coaches and last 3 GMs. I can’t believe we haven’t been able to find a more productive TE to suit up on Sundays.

I can't remember a the last time the Panther had a draft class that significantly improved our win total and/or our ability to compete for a playoff s pot in the NFC. Our FO has botched draft after draft by picking mediocre players and trading away premium draft choices. Despite the above fact, I'm surprised that people on this board think "tanking" is going to turn this franchise around. 1) We had the 1st pick in the draft two years and blew it 2) We've picked two massive underachievers at WR high picks in the 2nd round. We traded down twice in round to pick TMJ who is no longer on the team at the expense of missing out on several caliber O-lineman. Mingo has proved nothing in his two years. He was off the team right now it wouldn't affect or passing game because he brings nothing to it. 3) We picked a LT in round 1 a couple of years ago (Ikwonu) who regressed last season. He is playing better in 2024, but I think we all agree that he hasn't lived up to his draft status. 4) We picked his teammate Zavala one year later in round 4. He was so great that we had to spend millions of dollars to bring in a FA to replace him this season. 5) We made bad trades to move up to get Matt Corrall (no longer on the roster) and DJ Johnson (a JAG). I have no problem taking a flier on these guys, but we didn't have to move up a lose picks to get them when we probably could have got the by sitting still. Based on our draft history under Tepper, what make fans believe that trading away guys who can actually play is going to result in the Panther nailing our next couple of drafts?

The Cowboys had a chance to draft Mike Singletary in 81'. He grew up a Cowboy fan, went to Baylor...a Texas university, and was the best LB in college football. Dallas passed on him in the draft because he was 5'11. In those days, Dallas never drafted a LB if he was less than 6ft tall.. Gil Brandt admitted this to Singletary when Mike asked him "why did you guy pass on me?" Singletary went of to have a Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears. I don't think Dallas had a LB make a Pro Bowl until Jimmy Johnson took over in and revived the team in the early 90's. The "Doomsday Defense" of the Dallas Cowboys started to decline rapidly after the 1979 season. When Danny White took over from Roger Staubach in 1980, he never had a defense that finished in the Top 10. In contrast, Staubach never had a defense that wasn't in the top 10. Dallas still had a great pass rush in the early 80s and several ball hawking DB's...but no difference makers at the LB spot. It's probably why the lost 3 straight NFC title games from 1980-1982.

The Bear game was a disaster offensively. The other 3 games haven't been bad from an offense standpoint. A defense giving up 34 points a game is hard to over come. Carolina lost 2 top players last season when Luvu and Burns left. We've have been decimated by injuries, have no pass rush, cannot stop the run, and have no impact players at LB or S. When the offense steps on the field they know they have a chance to score some points with Dalton under center. Bryce threw 11 TDs in 2023. Dalton has thrown more than half that total in 4 starts. BY hasn't thrown a TD in his last 4 games and only 1 since Nov 2023. There's a big difference between Bryce Young and Andy Dalton when it comes to keeping the team competitive on the football field.

I don't know about NFL History, but you have a very strong argument for "Carolina Panther History" You can tell Scott thought he was wiser than the other GMs around the NFL. He thought he could trade down in the draft, trade up in the draft, and trade away players and end up with a more talented roster because of his perceived ability to evaluate players. In reality, was a poor evaluator of who would perform well on the Panthers at the NFL level. He and Rhule seemed to be obsessed with RAS scores. I remember us having a draft (2021 or 2022) and a pundit noticed that most of our guys scored on the higher end of the RAS. But, none of those guys ever made a real difference on the field. Sometimes you just need to pick the most productive college player based on the game tape. Jerry Rice is the greatest all around WR in my lifetime. He ran a 4.6 40 at the combine. HB Terrell Davis had a similar time, possibly worse. Both are Hall of Fame players...and you hardly ever saw anyone run them down from behind once they broke into open. "Football/game speed" trumps "40 speed" every time.

I think the following topic came up last week...or the prior week. It was in regard to our scouting department. Someone asked if we thought the scouts were giving the FO bad intel, or if the FO was ignoring their input. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when our draft board is being compiled year in and year out and when our final rosters are completed. I don't see why Fitterer traded down twice and passed over several caliber lineman to draft a WR we didn't need. Was he simply in love with the player? Did scouts over-hype him? I can see spending a 4th round pick, or late 3rd round pick on TMJ. But, I never understood him being picked that high after signing Robbie to a contract( after he was coming off of a 1,000 yard season) and we still had DJ Moore. Then he drafted another underachiever in Mingo. I'd love to know what our personnel department saw in either of these guys to make them top 60 picks when we had so many other holes on the roster and more talented players at the WR position still on the board when they were selected.