KSpan

The offense was atrocious. Bryce himself sucked badly. Both things can be, and are, true.

I'm sorry, but underthrowing a receiver deep like that rep - in a straight line, with no pressure in your face - is not impressive and most any QB better make that throw in this situation. Johnson slowed up noticeably when the ball was in he air and waited on it. We are talking about a practice rep, not something that happened in a game, but if it DID happen in a game like you say there could absolutely still be questions about a QB's arm strength. Regarding Cam, your comment is entirely irrelevant and non-equivalent. No QB is perfect on every throw and it's unrealistic to expect that - I sure don't expect it of Bryce. Since you brought it up though, Cam threw that with a much lower trajectory than Bryce's pass here and Steve was streaking wide open so it could very well have been a 'just don't miss this' decision. I have nothing to back that up and Cam just likely underthrew him, so don't twist my words, but those types of throws are definitely a thing with guys that open. However, there was no question that Cam had a cannon, and there are very valid questions around Bryce's NFL arm strength. Entirely non-equivalent.

Not really sure what you're getting at here, as I never said anything about this pass before you asked for nitpicking and I offered a suggestion that could have perhaps increased the odds. I'm pretty low on Bryce in general but this pass is not a reason to be; it was a losing proposition from the start for most anyone.

I haven't made that type of comment you're indicating, at least not recently, but any NFL QB can do what he did here - throw a rainbow that a receiver bides his time under. I do agree though that yes, this throw travelled many yards downfield. Would be fantastic to see it in a game in the near future.

Yes, that is an actual deep ball. It was also still underthrown/Diontae had to wait on it. That's the thing - every NFL QB can put the ball 55 yards down the field. Hell, a lot of adults can do it. How many can do it accurately and how much effort does it take to do so is the differentiator..

Horn on Thielen in this scenario is an absolute physical mismatch, disadvantage offense, and any QB would have a hard time. Maybe Bryce helps a bit by placing that ball deeper and in a position more to the right where it's right over Thielen's head, effectively turning Thielen into his own screen against Horn, instead of trying to lead him and letting Horn close, but that would be one hell of a hard catch to make. No obvious better option here IMO.

If the QB can do it and consistently keep it outside yeah, absolutely. Very hard to defend. But also very dangerous and the easiest pass to throw a pick-six on if throws lag/aren't on point, as we saw last year.

Right, but as a general rule if you can't/don't do it then you get the Teddy Two-Gloves effect where the defense just sits closer and closer to the line until they are just smothering everything. I've taken some heat for my position that arm strength is a critical aspect to being a winning QB and team in general in today's NFL, and it's not because you have to do it all the time but because the defense has to respect it or else the QB has to make them pay when they don't. Mahomes' average depth of target has crept lower and lower, for example, but dude can absolutely hit the homerun when the opportunity is there. IMO and IME if you can't do that you won't win in the NFL, full stop - late career Drew Brees is a very real example of this. Won a lot of games, racked up stats, but couldn't take advantage of the best defenses second half of his career. With respect to training camp I'm not seeing anything that points to things being different from last year in that regard. Time will tell.

Absolutely. Whole year of that on tape as well. Not every throw needs to be a rocket but the threat needs to be there and the threat comes from being able to do it, just like the deep ball.

In all objectiveness, it's like 3 days into camp so there is perhaps the slightest bit of leeway still here. My thing is that we already have an entire year of Bryce tape now, so what we see in camp is perhaps more likely to be the reality. This particular throw was just one rep but we sure saw him underthrow plenty of deep balls last year. Will be good to see the team finally hit the field for real in September.

Go watch it yet again, because you are flat out wrong. Quick start, quick break, then Johnson started jogging once the ball was in the air and slowed down even more at the end before his steps for final adjustments. It's only one rep anyway but man, we saw it all year last year.

I was not flexing for Dalton at all. Simply commenting that the runner had to speed up and chase the ball. Whoever that was, he looked slower in the first part of his route than Johnson did so no surprise he had to run faster.

Yeah, no. Go watch the Dalton throw right after that. That's a guy that sped up.

Applauds a receiver having to slow up on an underthrown deep ball, you say? Alrighty.

Did you even read that before posting it? It says absolutely nothing about actual play, just that they need him to perform. After 2 whole days of camp, sounds like Donte's doing fine. Here's a snippet that talks about real play. https://steelersdepot.com/2024/07/so-far-so-good-for-cb-donte-jackson/

Yeah, but I don't care about that if it's the ceiling, which it is with Dak. Understandable though if some just prefer any kind of progress.

Blech. Locking Dak in for all that money is a death knell for the next few seasons after. At least if the QB wheel keeps turning there could be legitimate hope.

That's's cute. With respect to OP's question, if Tepper is rational then he gets the entire season. The wild card is if he continues to suck, can Tepper handle it?

The most unified this fanbase has ever been. Legend has it that Dameshek's sleep paralysis demon shows up wearing the Carolina alternate uniform.

No point worrying about it then.

It's impossible to say anything definitive either way based off of one play in shorts beyond that Sanders and 'explosive' are two words that don't typically go together, which is why I worded it as I did. That said, Clowney did get trapped upfield (and looked a bit unhappy about one thing or another at the end), the guard did a god job of stopping and then getting around the DL to move 2nd level, the MLB sucked in/was a step late/got caught by the guard getting around that corner, and the lane created was a great one that any Huddler would have gained yards from as opposed to Sanders being 'explosive'. It's the exact type of defensive look that Carolina has deployed and been giving up yards in for years now. Will be interesting to see how things play out when everyone is in pads and going full speed.

Oh good god, anyone here on the huddle would have had a 20 yard gain there too. With respect to the team, it's just one play but man, looking like that off-tackle/edge defense from years past on that one.

Horn is 201... there is zero chance Bryce is 204 lbs. I wouldn't put him an ounce over 190, closer to 185 or less in-season.

Moton at both left and right tackles? Bold AND daring.