KSpan

What? No one was within 5 years when he caught that.

Great footwork on that juke, smoothly settled back into a running position.

But not only were they not successful, the effort and general execution have looked poor too. I was already in the patient camp so my expectations are already flexible but are they really that short of ideas that giving a taste or two of 'planning' and schematic success will hamstring the season? Again, I'm just talking here. Not concerned about the preseason results/scores but would like to see some crispness in whatever they do this final game.

A guy that has never been an NFL coordinator/called plays before, a guy that coordinated Vic Fangio's defense for a year, and a guy that has been slightly better than average as an HC is not a proven 'all star staff'. Not saying it's bad but any means, but assuming top-tier performance in year one is unrealistic. Been down this road before though. Y'all can have whatever expectations you want but that doesn't change the reality.

Chark, Thielen, and a bunch of unproven guys and/or rookies in that WR room... they absolutely are depending on Chark.

Wholly disagree that depth is better this year, particularly since Chark has struggled with injuries the past 2 years. Naanee and even Ajirotutu had shown as much as TMJ and Smith, Mingo is a rookie... they are all unproven. Shenault perhaps boosts it but he's not really a traditional WR.

Can't look at that in a vacuum though, as Olsen and Shockey had 150 targets between them that year. I don't see this year's TE group getting anywhere near that.

But I was told McCall was already better than other established D lineman on other teams, such as Denver... In all seriousness good luck to him. Hope he can get it turned around.

Seems pretty clear he thought he had help or that the ball was getting out immediately. A mistake either way, but nothing that isn't correctable.

Is reality setting in for some folks yet? Not that the team is guaranteed to suck, though I think that's a possible season outcome, but that things are likely to take some time to come together?

But it's vanilla

I can agree with the first 4 in general but putting Chinn on a tier with those other guys is a massive stretch. He's a strong safety that gets asked to cover some guys near the line of scrimmage and gets the job done, but he's nowhere near those other true CBs with respect to that position. That said, if only Carolina had a guy like, I dunno, maybe Bradberry to pair with Horn. That would be sweet.

My student discount last year only asked for my college email, which they accepted once I confirmed it via that email, nad my brother did it for years via his college email. If there was more behind the scenes it wasn't obvious.

That's how it was done with DirecTV, yes. Wouldn't put it past Google to see some third-party enrollment verification service come to light for this purpose, similar to how cell phone companies now confirm employment for employer discounts.

No one is raging about anything and, as I said before, Ron dropped the ball on his own in plenty of ways and we saw the team come out flat and unprepared year in and year out. It is what it is.

Student plans, eh?

Without Ron being carried by the multiple generational talents he enjoyed during his time with the Panthers, and Carolina's teams some major talent during those years, his numbers would look much worse and he would not have gotten a chance to be mediocre for 11 years. The wild season-to-season results are the reflection of who he is as a coach IMO, and that is strikingly average.

Yes, that's the definition of 'average at best'. A number are worse, but also a number are better.

There were plenty of example of Ron being a poor strategist, failing to manage clock, making odd personnel choices, etc. It's not slander to say he's an average at best coach - after 12 years and amassing a 98-90-2 record, it's just the reality.

Flashbacks to 2015 and the team almost blowing several massive leads, including the Seahawks divisional game... blech.

Why? I'd bet every coach and player in the NFL feels the exact same in that situation and says or has said simialr things. Just the nature of it.

Everybody has bad reps but man, that was ugly. Got wayyyyyy out over his feet.

Even if he never fully developed as a passer (relatively speaking for him, as he was better than many give him credit for) Cam dragged and willed those teams to wins every year. How many wins the total team had at the end of the year depended on the talent and coaching around him, and Cam did lose some games on his own, but in baseball terms his WAR on those teams was very high. That said, there is a chicken/egg thing with Rivera and how Cam was used. I do believe though that he maximized his unique running ability, to overreliance at times.

I'm just talking in the imminent season, but that is a fair point. Reich may be an average coach overal but if he and his staff help Young develop into a star then that's a huge long-term plus.

That's the point though - 2011 was nowhere near a rebuild. It was strikingly similar to this year, an entirely new staff, new schemes, and a new QB, with similar talent overall... hell, the 2013 offense had 9 of the same starters as 2011 and the defense had 4 (5 if Godfrey hadn't gotten hurt). It's the entire premise of the original post that the real improvements may take a year or two to appear just like in 2011.