Stuart Smith

I will never forget Bountygate. Remember Cam Newton was on their “bounty list.” Payton got suspended a year and rightly so. That speaks for his character. Hard pass.

I just don’t see the pessimism I have seen the last two days. The Panthers have retooled the OL, McCaffrey will be helpful. Much stronger coaching staff and and the quarterback room has improved. This will be a much improved team. The tweet by Skip Bayless about the Panthers being dysfunctional and the one place he did not want Mayfield to go will come back to bite him like so many of his comments. Career wins: Deshaun Watson 28 and 26 Losses. Baker Mayfield career wins 30 and 30 losses. Cleveland paying $55.5 million for 2 quarterbacks this season. One is in Charlotte and one will be suspended. Who is dysfunctional?

Duke would fit in the big East which is predominately a basketball league. Wake and Va Tech?

I may be alone in my thinking, but if another team has a quarterback go down in trading camp I can see Darnold being moved. This may seem unlikely, Carolina would have to take back a lot of salary. Also, is Sam considered so damaged no one would come calling? I know the “competition in training camp” is being talked up, but I believe Mayfield was brought in to be the starter.

I cannot think of another team in the NFL that has changed their quarterback and offensive line as drastically as the Panthers in such a short time. I know there are some negative Nellies but I am impressed.

PJ hoping Sam goes elsewhere now or he’s (PJ’s) gone.

Good question.

Few times the way this team played you could have said that, better days ahead!

If McCaffrey stays healthy this is a 10 win team. I believe it.

I think he has some performance incentives in his contract. How do you put them in someone’s contract, he has to be starting.

I don’t agree they are far superior without Watson, we will find out quick enough. A lot depends on who the starting quarterbacks are for both teams.

Will we be able to get a compensatory draft pick for the loss of Stephon Gilmore? It seems like I remember that was mentioned as one factor that went into signing him.

Anyone care to predict any Panthers moves at quarterback over the next 2 months? Will they be conservative and sign a lesser known back up? Or, are we set with Darnold, PJ, and Corral?

I hope if Bozeman performs as expected we keep him more than one year. We still need depth, as soon as training camp starts in earnest injuries across the league will happen.

You are correct, thanks for the correction.

Chris Collinsworth, Brian Billikens. But you are right, most did play.

Exactly right. Some of the best announcers of any sport never played, or were average at best.

Whether or not he starts any games this year we need to give Corral some playing time. Even if Darnold gets the majority of the snaps we need to see if we feel comfortable moving forward with plans for Corral as a future starting quarterback. We do not need to repeat the Christensen experiment with Corral. Bringing Jimmy G. On board will complicate that. Besides, we still may need cap space to sign a couple of players on defense.

I do not think they will cut him and pay the salary. If no trade partners are found they may do like the Texans did last year with Watson. Keep him, but apart from the team. Some team may have a major injury and need a quarterback before the season is over.

The factor here may be Baker Mayfield. I know no one wants to hear this, but are we truly satisfied with the quarterbacks we have? If Cleveland offered to trade Mayfield for a 4th round draft pick and agreed to pay 10 million of his contract would Fitterer do it? Until a hard decision is made here it might complicate the Panthers pursuing Clowney. I am not advocating for Mayfield, just a random thought.

I think in the past Rhule might have made the decision without deferring to advice.

I know the past few years have been frustrating for Panther fans. It has been a long time since 2015 when many of us watched the Panthers destroy the Cardinals to win the NFC. I get that. As fans There have been many issues we have all found fault with, and rightly so. However, at some point I have come to 2 conclusions. Whatever happens, I feel Matt Rhule will be here for the immediate future. Hopefully with the former head coaches on staff he will learn from them. I believe the coaching hires were told Rhule would be here or they would not have signed on to be with a “lame duck” coach. I feel Rhule will be here at least 5 years. I also believe Tepper has changed the “Chain of command” and Fitterer is more in control of the draft. I also believe this was a solid draft. We filled positions of need and did not make foolish trades and mortgage the future. We also have cap space that hopefully we can use to retain our best players. I honestly feel like we are tremendously better than we were 2 months ago. Maybe I am just a “glass half full” person, but I like where the Panthers are much better than at the end of last season.