BrianS

I didn't even think about the Skip Bayless angle. OMG - that's gonna be priceless.

Pretty much what we should expect. No good coordinator will want to come to a team with a coach on the hottest seat in the league. There are not that many great OC's in the league anyway, let alone willing to risk their employment on Matt Rhule's regime. The entire report that Rhule's job security for next year hinged on a "rock star" OC hire never made sense to me. I just don't see how we could possibly hire one . . . as an OC. Now, get rid of Rhule and offer one of those rock stars the HC position, that's a different prospect entirely.

I mean, I guess I understand, hard to fire a coach who got you to the playoffs. But yesterday Jones is saying that the performance is unacceptable with the quality of the roster. Now he's saying it's not on the coaches either. So . . . . what? Is he all in on blaming the refs? I don't get it.

Don't think the announcers were taking their side at all. Romo said "You can't spot your own ball, he should have been looking for the referee".

Bitch about the refs all you want, but how many of those 14 penalties were even controversial? Maybe the Cowboys need a DBO sign.

That's Jerry being Jerry. Once again, taking no personal responsibility. Hey Jerry - remind me again - who hired the coach?

Colbert has already said he's staying through the draft.

I think Jimmy G is actually better than average. Perhaps significantly so. And there's the rub. No one is really sure what to make of him, because the guy just can't seem to stay healthy. In his two healthiest seasons, he's 13-3 and 9-6. I could sure stand a little of that in Panthers land. Also, in his two fullest seasons he has 4 and 3 fourth quarter comebacks. Yes please. Unfortunately, that's two seasons out of five. Even this year where he did play 15 games, he missed two. And while Jimmy can slide a bit in the pocket, he's not high level elusive. The 49ers have a pretty good line and he's missed a lot of time . . . imagine with ours. Yikes.

This is exactly - EXACTLY! - the case. There is no player more valuable than a franchise QB. There is nothing more valuable. Look at what was being talked about as the cost for Deshaun Watson before his legal issues came to light. Just to have a conversation the cost was three first round picks!

No. Incorrect thinking. It's not a question of desperation. It's a question of evaluation. The first question is trust. Do you trust your scouts? If the answer is no, get new scouts. Assuming your organization is functioning in a responsible way, the answer should be "Yes, we trust our scouts". Again, I'm commenting at a philosophical level here. I'm not making any commentary on the Panthers organization. Once you've established that you trust your scouts, you simply ask them the question: "Do you see a clear franchise QB in this draft?" If your scouts say "Yes, we do" then there is absolutely no excuse for not drafting the guy. It doesn't matter what pick number you may have. If your scouts tell you a guy is a franchise QB, if your team doesn't have one, and that guy is available when your team is on the clock, you draft that guy. It's when your scouts say "No, we don't see a clear franchise QB" that you start to look at other things. The point being that there should be NO PLAYER on your draft board rated higher than a clear franchise QB. Ever. There is no more valuable player in the NFL than a franchise QB. It's not even close. You can't think of a franchise QB like any other player, because he's not. There is no such thing as a "draft ranking" for a franchise QB. Franchise QB's exist on a board all their own. If you have a player on your franchise QB board, you draft him. Simple as that. College QB's who are not clear franchise guys (according to your scouts) can certainly go on the "normal" board. Franchise guys are different gravy.

Can our spanish language guy learn english? That'd be fun and different.

You're asking the wrong questions. What you, me or anyone on here believes about any of these QB prospects is completely and utterly irrelevant. All that matters is what our scouts think, and then, assuming the organization is structured and run in a responsible way, our front office acting on those opinions. If our scouts look at ANY of these QB prospects and say "This is a franchise QB", it would be irresponsible in the extreme to not draft that guy. Even the best scouts and evaluators are wrong regarding QB prospects half the time. Who are we as fans to think we know better? It's a coin flip man.

Coaches and players are a symbiotic relationship. I think the player side is somewhat more important. Good players can more easily carry a bad coach than a good coach can carry a bad player. Ideally you have both sides. Consider that LSU had all those studs on the roster the year before Joe Brady showed up, and yet Burrow was a 58% passer with 16 TD's to 5 INT's. Brady arrives, Burrow becomes a 75% passer with 60 TD's and 6 INT's. Same players, add Joe Brady, magic. I think we had a good coach in Brady. I'm not sure he was ready to be an NFL coordinator. I suspect that when we look again in 10 years, Brady will be a successful coach.

To be completely fair, Cam was never going to be enough in that game. Cam was denied a SB victory by the refs and by an offensive coordinator with no ability to make a simple adjustment. After 2016, I'm not sure Cam was ever the same guy. Injuries took their toll and he just didn't ever seem like he got himself back on track. I think mentally, Cam is a far, far better player now than he was in 2015 but without the physical tools to capitalize on that knowledge, it just doesn't matter. And since we're talking about great QB's who didn't get it done, are you also saying Dan Marino wasn't good enough? For those of us who saw Marino play, there's an argument there that he might be the best passer to ever play the game. A franchise QB is critical. Yes, 100%. But it's not everything. You need other pieces. You need a good staff. This is exactly correct. If you identify a guy who your scouts believe is a franchise QB, and he's available at your pick, you draft him. FULL STOP. Get the guy. Half the time, your scouts will be wrong, but you cannot let that get in the way of making the pick. It's when that condition is not true that you draft to assemble a good team.

The drought is getting long, and that falls on the organization. Sure, we can talk about the fact that we haven't had a franchise QB since 2017. True. But the Ravens have NEVER had a true franchise QB (though Jackson may prove to be that guy). They've won two SB's since 2000, their longest playoff drought in that span is three years. Never in that span have they had back to back losing seasons. I am in the camp that says you need a franchise QB to win the SB. But that doesn't mean you need one to be a good team. You can compete. We aren't.

Come on man, what were they supposed to do? Tell him no? Rivera would never get another assistant if he blocked McDermott's move. It's just not done. Fire Rivera? He was a season removed from a Super Bowl appearance. Two time coach of the year. McD gave us six seasons as a coordinator. He's successful in Buffalo, I'm happy for him. Yes, the organization has made some questionable decisions, but this wasn't one of them. This is just revisionist reaction.

What are you watching the rest of us aren't? He's a sleazy dirt bag. He's no stellar athlete. But the dude is a gamer. I had plenty of doubts about the guy coming out. But before the draft I did say there isn't a more Belichick QB in that draft. If that safety is ONE STEP further away that is a (*$@ing DIME for a TD.

I've actually seen a couple analysts recently start to draw that comparison. I haven't seen enough to convince me yet, and I hate that there is a Rhule connection, but I'm open to see more. I don't hate the kid . . . he might be the real deal. But I DO hate the idea of this staff being charged with his development.

Wrong. First round QB's are a coin flip, statistically speaking. Whether it's pick 1 or pick 32. The only thing that matters in drafting a QB is whether your scouts and staff believe you've identified a franchise QB. If that guy is available at your pick, and you don't have one, you draft the QB. It all comes down to your evaluation. If there isn't a franchise guy (according to your evaluation) that's your cue to pick other guys.

I get wanting to fire underperforming staff. I really do. I simply think that ANALYTICAL measurement of our special teams performance falls far short of a firing. I have yet to see any analytical measurement that indicates otherwise.

The chart had nothing to do with TD's . . . it was simply about yards over expected. Statistically dominant? By what measure? Once you get past 2015, the most rushing TD's he had in a season while here was six. Yes, he had 10 rushing TD's for New England last year, but he also equaled a career high in attempts and set a career low in yards per carry while also setting a career low in TD passes. No one is arguing that Cam was never a great player. In his prime there was no one like him. But he's not that guy anymore. Just like you can't have throwing Cam without running Cam, you can't having running Cam without throwing Cam . . . and throwing Cam is gone. This doesn't mean he wasn't the best QB on our roster this year. He was. If he's here next year, he'll probably be the best QB on our roster then too. But facts are facts. The guy was on his couch when 32 could have called him. Houston was starting a 3rd round rookie for heaven's sake. The Redskins with Cam's former coach were starting Heinicke - Cam's former backup. The Saints started Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston! I love Cam, but he's not that guy anymore.

This is irrelevant. Those statistics end in 2014. Sure, we all know how otherworldly young Cam was. That has no bearing on today. It was EIGHT YEARS AGO.

No. Zane also (prior to this year) was a career 78% FG kicker. This season he hit them at a 90% rate. The guy we picked up off the scrap heap after Charlton's head went was a career 45 per punt guy. This season with us he averaged almost 48 per punt. The main argument against Blackburn seemed to be the coverage unit. Well, that was also largely false. Check this out: We were 8th in the league in average punt return yardage against. Our kickoff returns were not wonderful - but that was always going to be an issue with Gonzalez. And it was something that Gonzalez improved on over the course of the year. There is no statistic that supports the idea Blackburn should have been fired. Our specialists - both acquired DURING the season - improved significantly upon their career performances. Our coverage was good where we could expect it to be so, and an issue where we knew it was likely to be an issue.

As great a pass rusher as Burns is, he's been here three years now. He's still making the same mistakes. Over-running the quarterback. Missing tackles in the backfield. I'm afraid all he's ever going to be is a pass rush specialist. While those guys are valuable, they are a luxury.

Of course, I agree. He was too "public" in his tenure prior to this year and is now invisible. I just don't believe it has anything to do with money.