BrianS

It's pretty clear we don't see him as the answer at LT. I wouldn't mind seeing him get a preseason shot at playing guard. While it wouldn't be an ideal outcome for us, if he turns into a serviceable guard at least the pick wasn't a waste.

I agree, arm strength can be overrated . . . however it also cannot be ignored. May I present for your consideration our 2020 QB, Teddy Bridgewater. Teddy can throw a catchable ball to a spot. When you look at advanced stats, Aaron Rodgers showed 7.9 intended air yards per attempt, while Teddy showed 7.1 iaypa. Relatively similar averages. However, does ANYONE doubt that Rodgers is capable of pushing it downfield? Now flip the coin . . . does ANYONE think TB5 is capable of driving a ball downfield? The arm strength is important because it keeps the defense honest. You don't have to be Favre, Elway or Rodgers to get it done . . . or even pre-shoulder apocalypse Cam, but you do need a "good" arm. You have to be able to legitimately threaten the defense deep. Actually, Cam is probably the best example of this. Once defenses realized his arm was gone, he became a completely average QB. He only holds on to that "average" label because he can still run pretty well for a QB. Take away his run game and frankly he's out of the league.

The other side people forget about is that perhaps BOTH of them work out. Then you get your draft capital back plus some ****AND**** you have your franchise guy. We draft Fields. Darnold starts this year and shows the NFL it's the Jets who are broken, not him. He's a real live NFL starting QB. Next year in camp, Fields wins the job. We trade Darnold for a couple firsts and suddenly we look like geniuses. Aren't we due some good karma at some point?

No its not! ANY OUTCOME which sees you walk away from a first round pick and a second round pick with a franchise QB is a HUGE WIN. There is no more important position on the field. Every other pick you make is irrelevant until you have "the guy". How much more obvious can it be? How many non-franchise QB's have won a SB lately? Foles? I mean, sure, the Eagles caught lightning in a bottle and won it with Foles, but I strongly suspect if Foles was forced to play that entire season he would have been found out and abused long before winning a Lombardi. Who else? Flacco? Dude has started 175 games in 11 years and thrown for over 40k yards. The year he won the trophy he threw for 1100 yards, 11 TD and 0 INT's in the postseason. Yes please. You really have to go back to Brad Johnson to find a bona fide "nobody" QB winning a Super Bowl. That's nearly 20 years ago, long before the NFL made the changes that ushered in the era of the QB. We rolled the dice on Darnold. I have zero problems rolling the dice on a second QB if a guy our staff believes in falls. Maybe both of them fail, and then we'll be wondering why we didn't give up everything to go get Wilson/Lawrence/Lance or whoever succeeds. The most important factor in our success as a franchise is finding that guy.

You're thinking about it all wrong. We gave up three picks for Darnold: 2nd, 4th and 6th. That's really not even the equivalent of a 1st round pick. Let's just say it's a high second. We then proceed to pick Fields, assuming he is there at 8. All in, we've spent a high second and a high first for TWO chances at uncovering a franchise QB. Odds say that about 50% of first round QB's "make it". We end up with two, and it didn't even cost us two first round picks. That's a win. No other way to look at it. The only "bad" outcome (in the above scenario) is if both guys fail. That's always a chance with QB's! But you still gotta keep punching your ticket until you get lucky. Every other scenario is a win. Three out of four outcomes are to our favor . . . yea, I'll roll those dice.

I would not be at all surprised to see Shaq cut this year. It looks like his dead cap goes from 18 million to 6 million post June 1. If we want to re-sign him at 5 million a year after that, fine. That's probably where he should have been to begin with. But his 2022 salary is just too much to handle.

Posted this yesterday. Just sayin.

His comments about small school guys definitely was on the money. I'd still rather take those guys a bit farther down in the draft (looking at you Trey Lance) but I take the point. Those guys "potentially" have more room to grow.

Though not surprising given what was on film. I really hope Darnold works out, because DJ should have been close to the top of the league in receiving if he just had a QB to get him a catchable ball. Source: https://pantherswire.usatoday.com/2021/04/19/panthers-d-j-moore-robby-anderson-uncatchable-end-zone-targets/?fbclid=IwAR1yxIKQwvrXBNxX7oREQt-0joq2IqvZYlH9wxbee4Ghe22zmj-SvKUwg5I

You cannot, CAN NOT, pay two tackles. One of them needs to be on a rookie or cheap vet deal. We're paying Moton. Great. Draft a tackle. For the four years (or five if first round) this rookie is on his rookie deal, we are paying Moton. When the rookie comes due, Moton should be ending and we either bring Moton back to finish his career on a friendly deal or we can draft another tackle and let him walk. This isn't hard.

To appease the 49ers? Really? Surely San Francisco Shanahans can't be thinking of taking Lance. Or can they? Hang on to Jimmy G for a year or two until Lance is ready . . .

How is DJ even mentioned in that sentence? Does this person even cover the NFL? I mean, BOTH of our receivers were in the top 15 last year for receiving yardage. Our WR's are legit. And I can't believe I just said that about the Carolina Panthers. It's been way too long, but here we are.

I think we've already met our quote for ex-Jets haven't we?

Let me get this straight. You're saying that a QB with a 20 - 2 record, 67 TD's against 9 INT's, with a 70% completion rate . . . underperformed? What more could he possibly have done?!?!?! Did he have bad games? Sure, he did. Please, find me a QB who hasn't had some bad games. I'll wait. I'd sure love to get us an underperforming QB like that here in Carolina.

This is what people are failing to understand. The fact that we traded for Darnold should be irrelevant to building a successful franchise. If there is a QB who our staff believe is a franchise guy sitting there when we are on the clock, TAKE THE PLAYER. It shouldn't even be a discussion. Darnold could fail (some would argue he has). The guy we draft could fail. Nothing else is relevant until you have that guy, so if the cost of getting that guy is a 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th, FINE. People are going through two, three and four 1st round picks to get a QB already. This is peanuts.

I completely agree. This was always my concern for Cam, which unfortunately came to fruition. It's no different for Darnold, Fields or Lance. To me, the most important part of being a QB in the NFL is being able to throw the ball effectively from the pocket. Everything else is icing. My point above was that if your differentiating factor is athleticism, and you're talking about a Darnold / Lance comparison . . . Darnold doesn't win. Lance is a better athlete. Is Lance a better QB? I dunno. I'm not his biggest fan, but I haven't seen anything from Darnold either. What I can say is that given comparable arm talent, Lance has managed to take care of the ball better at his level. Does that translate to the NFL? Man, if I knew the answer to that I'd be making a LOT of money as a player personnel guy.

Exactly. If our staff think there is a bona fide NFL franchise QB on the board when our pick comes up, you TAKE THE PLAYER. If we end up with two of them on our roster, FINE, we'll figure it out. Let's say we draft Fields. I don't think he starts week one, I think Darnold does. I think both play extensively in the preseaon. It also means we are UNLIKELY to pick up the $18 million option on Darnold, meaning he's now in a career year with every motivation to play OUT OF HIS MIND. Now, suppose Darnold lights it up. Great. We've got our franchise QB and the cost was a first and a second. THAT'S ACCEPTABLE for a franchise QB. We've also got this guy on our bench who might ALSO turn out great, or at the very least he's a backup better than Teddy / PJ / Beard Guy. WE WON. Suppose Darnold is mediocre. He's probably a better backup than anything we have. Toward the end of the season Fields comes in and we find out what we've got with him. Regardless of what Fields does, we've identified a solid backup in Darnold and we are rolling the dice on a top 10 prospect. ACCEPTABLE AGAIN. Suppose Darnold is terrible. Fine. Fields comes in earlier and we really get to see what we've got there. Darnold is probably still a low end backup, and we could keep him around as such on a low contract. We've rolled the dice on a top 10 QB prospect. ACCEPTABLE OUTCOME. There is now way drafting a QB at 8, assuming our staff believe in him, can go wrong. I shouldn't say it that way. Of course it can go wrong, the guy can fail. But from the perspective of the franchise, you have to take those sorts of risks and they are just a coin flip. There is no version of an NFL roster with too many good QB's on it. There just isn't. If you end up with more than one franchise guy, you keep the one you like best and get your draft capital back by trading the other one. I don't see any other way to look at it.

The only way we should trade back is for multiple first round picks. Honestly, I don't really like the idea of trading back at all. At pick eight, there are going to be multiple nailed on starters at positions of need sitting there. You don't trade that away for anything less than a kings ransom.

Interesting that Daryl Williams (now with Carolina North) had a nearly identical grade to Moton last year. Despite the grade, I still believe we need a LT and some competition on the interior. Playoff teams really need to top 10 line play.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm not a big Lance fan, but come on. Trey Lance is a much better athlete than Sam Darnold. You can argue a lot of things in Darnold's favor . . . NFL experience, age . . . huh. That's not really a lot of things. Honestly, let's say Lance is there at eight. You've already got Darnold for a second and some change. Assuming your staff believe in him, you draft Lance. Your overall investment at QB is a first and a second. If you get a franchise guy out of that investment, you're STILL ahead of the curve statistically.

While I do agree with the analysis of Cam, I also think that it's important that Ron take some heat for that. If we had brought in an actual QB coach & OC, perhaps someone would have taught Cam how to play a different way. Honestly, I believe he was capable. 2018 was already too late physically, but he appeared to really turn a corner that season mentally. Perhaps if he had turned that corner in 2014 instead we might be talking about a completely different narrative. It's water under the bridge, but I believe Rivera deserves a fair helping of responsibility for that.

You can win a SB without Julio Jones. It's pretty hard to win one without a high quality OT. See Mahomes, Patrick. Newton, Cameron.

We already have plenty of money set aside for Moton since we tagged him. Doing a long term deal will likely yield cap relief this season.

I think that's what they want to do. Move some money forward into this year if they can get Teddy off the books.

EXACTLY!