KSpan

For teams that had been completely overhauled like Carolina was? Absolutely.

Option 3: just chill out and accept the reality as it is. See what happens, recognize the crappy reality but still hope for the best, and don't sweat it. Controversial as it's seemingly been, this has been my approach for years now.

All fair, and to use your foundation my point is/was that the staff being amenable to losing any progress at all in this manner given the circumstances is unfortunate.

Because 1 of them isn't available the other 4 can't work together? Nah. It wasn't just the OL though - not playing the starters at all appeared to be a mistake from the start and yesterday's performance sure supports that opinion. Doesn't matter at this point though. The bar has been set and we'll see if Canales can get the trendline pointing up from here.

He was under contract and not allowed to leave. Whether he wanted to or not may have been irrelevant

If only there had been an opportunity for the starters to play together and work those kinks out before today. Something that happened *before* the season... a preseason, if you will, where the intent is for players to develop rapport on the field and familiarize with the scheme.

Oh there were those for us that did. However, we were derided for being 'haters'. Lolz.

My comment is obviously somewhat tongue in cheek, but some commentary around it and this article was... entertaining. https://www.panthers.com/news/jonathan-mingo-wanted-the-truth-he-went-to-the-right-place-steve-smith "The second-year wideout has looked much sharper working with the ones in training camp and shows moments resembling savvy. Wednesday, it was making a play during a scramble drill, the kind of play that requires instincts and instruction. It's perhaps a play he doesn't make a year ago, and coach Dave Canales visibly brightened when asked about it."

But I was told he transformed with Smitty this past offseason.

Laetitia.

There's optimism, and then there's labeling 3 rookies that have yet to play a real NFL down, one of whom who hasn't even practiced and may not play this year at all, as 'top'. C'mon now.

I feel like that philosophy was more in reference to in-season injuries/challenges where the question was always if they would go sign XYZ player off the couch or play their depth. In that regard no, it probably isn't.

You're saying that my opinion differing from the opinion of others is somehow a sign of narcissism? I'm curious where you're pulling those quotes from - are those actually my words, and if so can you link them? The first one is definitely something I've said and an opinion I hold, but why does my opinion have to align with others in order to not be 'narcissistic'? Putting more weight on NFL film than college tape is somehow narcissistic behavior? You can't be serious. Opinions are not emotions and the 'rebuttals' you mention are no different than the evidence/bad tape that exists the other way as well; your tossing out of words like 'victimhood' is absurd. I have no idea where you're even trying to go with that but if anything seems anchored in 'emotion', it's your line of thinking. This is a game and it really makes no difference to me in the end because, as I've said before but am apparently a narcissist for thinking, Bryce's performance either stays on the course I expect and never shows much or he develops, the team has a QB, I am proven wrong (always possible in life) and say as much, and the team and fans all win from the better QB play.

Agreed about the doublespeak but the ability to review objectively-available information, such as Bryce being a physical outlier at the position and consistently showing issues with throws all of last year, to see where data points and still support hope for a different outcome than the one data points to is... narcissism? By what leap of nonsensical logic is it narcissism to note that a player faces an objective uphill battle to achieve expectations (in this case draft cost and position, which isn't necessarily Bryce's doing) but still hoping they do? I'm generally taking it easy on Panthers stuff until regular season since it's so close but this zinger is on another level.

But the 'explanation' is wrong as it applies to the play. Not saying he should have thrown it to Johnson here but the QB is not 'reading the backside' to make that decision. He's reading the safety and knows that Thielen is underneath and Johnson will be crossing in this concept, so if the safety comes up and the CB bites on the hitch the read is then Johnson crossing into the frontside. That pass would always be thrown ahead/to the right based on the safety and CB position. There is no backside read to even make because it's completely irrelevant. As an aside, Thielen seeing the CB dropping into deep third and pulling up was a great read as well. He and Bryce saw the same thing and the ball came out quickly. It was a good outcome.

These are all the same points that I made about the play and I never knocked not throwing to Johnson either. No disagreement. The concept itself, however, is used to open up the deep cross as much as the underneath, and the read is the safety as much as either of the receivers. That's the whole point - the decision is likely made based on the safety and coverage, and if the pre-snap coverage shows to be advantageous to the cross then there are QBs that will lean that way over the shorter ball if it unfolds and that doing so is the type of capability that wins games. Again, as far as Bryce goes, IMO the question isn't so much of he can be an NFL QB of any caliber. It's if he can be the elite QB his price tag and draft status aligns with, the type that teams need to win Super Bowls in today's NFL. Those QBs are the guys that turn this type of play into a TD. Interesting to see this unfold and only time will tell.

Y'all are sadly mistaken if you think winning football teams don't take that end zone shot when it presents itself in the right situation, as it was arguably doing here. Against top competition converting those opportunities can be the difference between a win and a loss. That's the biggest question by far with Bryce and it has nothing to do with the BS mad-bomber nonsense that your post insinuates. You'd think Carolina fans would understand that after if was made crystal clear by PJ Walker of all QBs vs the Falcons 2 years ago, how the ability to execute far downfield changes games, but I guess not. For the millionth time now though, time is the only thing that will tell the story. Regular season is 2 weeks away.

Who says Thielen is the primary? You don't know and neither do I. I'm sure the pre-snap read factors into it and yeah, they will look for the deep shot of the safety moves such. Buffalo was in 1-high coverage and that's exactly what you want for a deep cross like that to DT, can he cross the safety's face? In this case the safety came up but not enough for Bryce to take it, either by choice or by scheme.