BrianS

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!

For $60 million, I'll be more than happy to teach anyone anything about my job and let them take over ASAP so I can (*&$ing retire.

You choose whichever of Lance / Fields your coaches and scouts feel best about. It really isn't hard.

In the red zone I'd rather have an OLine that can actually push a defense back. It feels like it's been forever since we could take a first and goal and just run it in.

If you're using running ability to separate QB's you're doing it wrong. There are five other guys on offense who should be running with the ball before you get to a QB. Yes, a QB who can break contain is nice, but I'd rather have a guy who makes the right read and puts the ball in the hands of a DJ Moore / Robby Anderson / CMC. In the case of Lance vs Fields, if we're really down to a slight difference in running ability, give me the guy who did against better competition.

While I agree that wins are the stat that matters, some general tendencies of top tier QB's are: 65% completion rate 2:1 TD to INT 2 TD / game 8+ IAY/PA None of those stats are definitive, but they can be indicative.

Did he seriously accuse us of having an offensive line? I mean . . . I guess if you exclude LT from your offensive line we might have made it up to "average" last year. Who needs a LT anyway.