KSpan

Jimmy Bridgewater (slightly exaggerated since he did have a one-hit wonder 27 TD season a couple of years ago) won't be the guy to get the team over that hurdle though. Of these two I'll take Mayfield, but it's one of the many less-than-ideal scenarios facing Carolina at the QB position right now. They really screwed the pooch with this stuff these past years.

Neither are any of this year's QBs.

Yeah, but can he do this?

I don't know how much has to do with Tepper overruling/stripping power from Rhule, though I do believe that has happened to some degree or another this offseason, but the moves seem more competent and competition-level than his 2020 and 2021 offseasons.

And if these are the results of the Appaloosa Way, may heaven help us all.

I'm not defending Darnold per se but the same thing happened in 2020 too. I think it has a lot to do with the poor coaching and strategic abilities as well. Perhaps the new assistants help that.

I think it depends on what that involvement looks like in Tepper's current structure. Voicing your desire as an owner and participating to shape the 'culture'? Sure. Meddling in actual football evaluation and potentially altering what the football people will do? Not so much.

My Madden 10 team is still undefeated. Pick me.

Neither of those were underperforming here at Carolina, which is a dimension of OP's question. 'Spoon was overshadowed by Dan but was arguably just as good at what he did, and though the bar is extremely low for the Panthers Grant is overall perhaps the second-best safety Carolina has ever had, and definitely the second best they've ever drafted at this point in time. They've had a number of flash-in-the-pan type guys (McCree, Harris, Coleman, perhaps Mitchell [overrated IMO]) but no one with the consistent talent and production of Grant. Heck, though they were slightly different player types I'd even entertain arguments that Grant was as good as Minter, if not better.

Maybe they asked him to take a pay cut.

Unless they're playing KU and Bill Self.

He signed with the Commandskins at the start of FA, but word is that Hakeem Nicks was driving down the street and Jason Worilds bought a house there in NC.

I recognize it might just be me and my defensive inclination but that play really irritated me. Even if it wasn't technically illegal it was still a blatant exploitation of the rule and kind of a b**** move. I would've liked to see a flag thrown on the play for an obviously unsportsmanlike act (abuse of the rule) and/or him get lit up on a slide later in the game but it is what it is and the NCAA closed the loophole thereafter.

Marty, is that you?

FWIW all but one team they faced (Clemson) ACC fielded some of the worst defenses in their tier of football last year and their non-conference was the same (bottom third), with UMASS giving up the most per game of any team. To be fair, they did score 20 offensive pts against Clemson (the 2nd best scoring defense last year) but they didn't play NC State or BC, the 2nd and 3rd best ACC scoring defenses either. The rest of the ACC they faced were 54th or worse in ots allowed. I say this as someone in Big 12 territory who has seen offense year in and year out from players not mean much since it's typically defense-optional. The lack of consistency and big year only against weaker competition may be a flag compared to someone like Burrow, who also only had 1 year but did it against the best competition.

This is one of the most inane things I've heard said in a very long time.

It's the same people saying it, and those are a small (but vocal) part of the total from what I see. I am definitely a Rhule pessimist and expect to keep losing, but am not actively hoping that we lose even if I accept the possibility. That seems the more common opinion.

For the hundredth time, fully expecting to continue losing based on years of experience is not the same as 'rooting to lose'. There are comments here and there about someone hoping the team loses so Rhule is fired/the team tanks/etc, but overall it's just people not expecting lead to suddenly turn to gold. It's perfectly reasonable to change an opinion if Rhule manages to become a good coach but let's be real here about Ron. He had 1 great season, 1 very good season, and 1 good season here all while riding true generational talent on both sides of the ball. The rest of his time here was average or below. He was not and is not a consistent winner, and flashes in the pan don't change that.

They know better than to make such a thing public right now. I'm joking, but only mostly...

Call it what you want, but the point is that he was not one of the starting 2 safeties his rookie year. He was towards the line in a Joker/OLB type of role, and backing him out constantly will continue to neuter the playmaking skills he showed as a rookie. Will they figure out some balance and ways to get him more into that role? Perhaps. But hearing that the team continues to view him as a safety/starting safety is not overly encouraging.

At this point yes, firing Rhule would do nothing except placate people. It doesn't discount that the move reasonably and arguably could/should have been made months ago. Also, expecting the worst and frowning on what seems an inane decision doesn't mean someone actively wants to see the team fail. I'm sure most on here that believe keeping Rhule was a poor decision (myself included) would love nothing more than to be proven gloriously wrong should the team actually make a legit deep playoff run and/or win a Super Bowl. Unfortunately, such hope just doesn't make any kind of sense in the current reality.

Rhule is of course the guy who touted his sports science program as if it was something revolutionary, which we've heard nothing about since they figured out that every NFL team already did those things to the extent they're actually useful...

Bingo. Weak look to be out there like that and then vanish when the going get rough. Maybe he'll take something away from this and be less visible when the team (someday...) starts winning again.

Who buys this stuff?

Exactly this. I said in another post that I'm not averse to it, but only if the cost is right. I'm not arguing that at all. I am saying that investing further capital into a player like Jimmy is pointless for the greater goal of actually winning a Super Bowl, as much for his own limitations as for a complete lack of faith in Rhule, so it shouldn't be done at the cost of any future assets. We've seen what a Jimmy-led team can do with actual NFL-caliber coaching and team construction and even that team didn't/doesn't think it was good enough, so why should Carolina? I'm not even claiming it's a slam dunk that Lance will be markedly better, simply saying that SF clearly doesn't believe Jimmy has what it takes to keep the team competitive against the best competition. I don't care if he's good enough to win a couple of games next year in Carolina - that's not the goal. The goal is to consistently win games year in and year out, and spending draft capital and/or making a big investment on Garoppolo is penny wise and pound foolish.