BrianS

If Flores becomes a head coach again, yep. Basically he needs to be there two years if the Steelers want to gain those picks, that's pretty much it, aside from being a minority.

You misunderstand. That's the total number of first round picks in the league since our inception. This tells you what the league as a whole values in first round picks. And we aren't all that different except the noted positions.

TB5 was 18th, fwiw. As much as I didn't like him when he was here, we should have kept him. And our picks. And drafted a QB. He's exactly the right guy to hold the ship steady while you coach up a prospect and build the team. We probably would have won 7 games this year with TB5. We've have a prospect learning, we'd have a bunch of picks still in hand for this draft and a much better cap situation. I was one of the ones who wanted TB gone. Can't take it back. However, someone down there on Mint Street should have seen the situation for what it really was and made a better call.

Looking at history, none of the numbers are super shocking in regards to first round selections. The Panthers have made 27 first round picks. Looking at every first round pick since our team began, the relative breakdown of first round picks across all teams looks like this, and our expected picks should look like this: Honestly, we're not statistically all that far off the averages. Our biggest outliers are that we've favored LB's and RB's more than the rest of the league. Given how many first round LB's we've drafted, it shouldn't be all that surprising we've had some great ones. If we were running a base 3-4, it might not even be statistically surprising to see that many.

This isn't a lateral move. It's the final step in a career track the guy has been chasing with one of the most stable and successful franchises in history. It's a complete no brainer for him. There are 32 of these jobs in the world. Of course you take the interview.

Good info, didn't know about the acceleration of voidable years. I knew you had to pay it, but didn't know all of it accelerated into the next year when the void happened. When it's spread out over a couple seasons, I can see the temptation, but knowing that it all comes due at once, it becomes even more baffling and dangerous. Bottom line, it's just another destructive mechanism for teams to crush their future with. We've got to stop mortgaging the future of the team for the immediate present. I know we talked about a long term plan when we hired Rhule, but the actions we've taken haven't indicated that we actually believed it. Now here we are two seasons on, still not any better than we were, with an arguably worse cap situation and even less talent on the roster for the upcoming season. It's working, 1000%, we just can't see it!

When your team is competitive, a fun and engaged social media arm is very valuable. Unfortunately, when your team isn't competitive they look like they are sweeping the problems under the rug.

I don't know if I'd go that far. Okam had the beginnings of a good career started in the college ranks before Rhule brought him here. The problem I see with Okam is that his only pro experience was on Rhule's staff, which was basically a college staff. I think Okam needed (needs) a couple years as an assistant on a veteran NFL staff. Promoting him last year was probably a couple years too soon. If he's surrounded by the right kinds of people, I think he can develop. I wish him the best in Oakland. Err, Los Angeles. No, wait, Las Vegas. Whatever.

lol. What an absolute fantasy. Have you observed the NFL for any length of time AT ALL? Have you actually LOOKED at our roster? When you talk about cutting a player, the first question you ask is "Can I replace that player for the money I get back?" As bad as Erving and Daley are, the answer is no. You can't replace them for the money you get back. As someone else already pointed out, Paradis is unchangeable. That's a void year. If we restructure anyone, I promise it's no benefit. We keep doing stupid crap like that and it's putting us at a disadvantage constantly. Whether it's "dead cap" or "void years", we must stop kicking the can down the road. We need to take our lumps NOW, while expectations are low, and go forward with responsible contracts. Now the really funny part. Trade Robby Anderson. I mean, come on. Trade Robby Anderson. The guy just had a stinker of a season. His trade value is at an all time low. Frankly, I think his value is negative. We'd have to give up something for someone to take him. Henderson cost us a third round pick, we were the ONLY team to offer that and he did nothing to increase his value. And again, how do you replace him for 2.4 million? Same question with AJ Bouye. The only part that even half makes sense is extending DJ, but you aren't going to do that by spending LESS money next year. People keep wanting to do crazy crap next year - acting like we have a chance to make noise. We don't. 1000%. We need to use next year to purge the mistakes of the past in a responsible way. Stop doing crap that puts us further behind the curve. Take the lumps, fire the coach, install a front office structure that makes sense and move forward with a new coach and solid foundation.

We said the same thing about Cam Newton after 2015. "He's young, he'll get us back".

No argument, Reddick has proven more than Burns. That's part of the problem. He can easily make the argument he should get $15 a year . . . and guess what? We currently don't have that. We just paid Frankie Luvu 4.5 per year, meaning our cap for next year is now somewhere in the 13-14 neighborhood and we have MAYBE 24-25 guys on the roster who are NFL caliber players. Reddick is a luxury. Honestly, I'd rather have the pick. We need to infuse a great deal of talent into the roster here, and you don't get that without having good drafts.

I am not excited about it. I like him as an impact player off the bench and on ST. I am not convinced he could start week in week out for us. At 4.5 per season, he has to start and play at least reasonably well or this is not a great contract. In his four starts last year for us, he had a total of 14 tackles and 6 assists. That projects to 60 tackles and 26 assists over 17 games. Those just seem like reserve numbers to me.

Can't be serious, right?

You don't have to buy it, you can go look it up yourself. We've backed ourselves into an awful corner with some questionable moves. There isn't a lot of flexibility there this year because of moves we made in the past. Last couple years we've been talking about "dead cap" for players not on the roster. Well, most of that is gone now, but we're paying Reddick and Paradis a combined 12 million next year to not be on our team with voidable years crap. The two biggest cap hits next year? Darnold and Moton. Darnold is 100% non-fixable. His salary is guaranteed. Moton is the one guy who might be worth what we're paying - and that number is $19 million in case you're wondering. Shaq is the one person who we might be able to cut. But, can you get his replacement plus anything worthwhile out of 12 million? That's the key, right? I dunno man. Shaq is the only NFL LB on our roster who is actually under contract next year. THE ONLY ONE. The problem is not JUST that our cap is crap. The problem is that our roster is actually paper thin. Our top 22 players (by cap number) ends with Chuba Hubbard. Below him are just the dregs. We can barely even field a team. We have probably 31 spots on our 53 man roster just completely up for grabs. We have 17 million in cap, 5 draft picks and the UDFA market to fill those spots. We really, really need to just take our lumps next year and regroup in 2023. I'm terrified of the damage we could do to our future.

Our available cap next year is 17 million. 17th in the league. We cannot compete for the top guys financially. And there isn't really a lot we can do. Frankly, we shouldn't try. We've been kicking the can down the road with these voidable years and crap. We need to take our lumps next year. Clean house after 2022, since apparently Rhule get to stay this year. Give the new guy a full slate of draft picks and a relatively untarnished cap to work with. It doesn't help us this year, but we have to do it.

Schrager is smoking something funny if he thinks that our team has "one big gaping hole". Perhaps he missed the fact that our OLine is nothing but a big gaping hole. Yea, I think a super QB can cover for a lot of sins on the line. But none of the guys Shrager is discussing are Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, etc. Kirk Cousins is a good QB. He can win games for you while you work to build the team. But I just don't think he gets you over the hump.

Jimmy G . . . behind this line? The guy is made of glass. He'll be IR'ed by October here.

We can't afford him, so the best case scenario for us is him signing a huge contract elsewhere and us getting a good compensatory.

Our cap is actually crap now. I'm not sure when that happened or how. I remember earlier in the season looking at it and thinking, yea, we're in great shape for 2022 free agency. But somehow, we now have only 17 million in cap room - good for 17th in the league. That's barely enough room to fill the roster with actual players. RIght now, player #22 on our roster (cap value) is Chuba. Below him it's all JAGs and futures contracts. We have no second or third round pick. Somehow, we've managed to put ourselves in position to be even worse next year than this year. It's an amazing accomplishment for Coach 1000.

Did Kalil end his career with a number of injuries? Yes, sure did. Incontrovertible. Do you know how he got those injuries? Playing his guts out for the Panthers for his entire career here and being a role model for everyone. This is a guy who we should be wondering when he goes into the Ring of Honor. Five times Pro Bowl, two time All Pro. Absolute Panthers legend.

Agree. I think even if Flores manages to win his lawsuit - far from a sure thing - his career is over. That's unfortunate. I really thought he was a good coach, but maybe a little too soon a head coach.

Certainly one possibility, but I really think that the staff was sold on the idea they could "fix" Darnold. They truly thought that he was a franchise QB who just needed a tweak. The problem is they were wrong. It's easy to see now. Honestly, it should have been before. Franchise QB's lift the team around them. They don't need everything to be perfect. Maybe it takes them a year or two or even three to put it all together. But they lift the team. Darnold never did that. He made a few flashy plays. Someone on here once commented that he reminded them of Jeff George. Spot on. He's is Jeff George for this era.

We are so dysfunctional man. It's hard to tell what's going on. Do the coaches not believe in Rhule? Does Rhule not believe in the coaches? Is the writing on the wall for Rhule? All three could be true. What a mess. The Panthers are my team, but right now it's really hard to be proud of them.

The problem I think a lot of folks have with last years draft isn't the draft itself. It's how we behaved AFTER the draft. Taking Horn? Ok, fine. If the guy turns into a shutdown corner, it absolutely changes your defense. JNo had one outstanding season as a shutdown corner in our system, and it absolutely changed our defense. If Horn provides that? Great pick. TMJ? This one, looking at it now, does seem baffling. I am not sure I felt that we gave him a real chance this past year, despite Robby being downright terrible. Either this is another example of our staff failing to develop players, or TMJ was a bad pick. And I can't tell you which is true. To me, TMJ should have been our hole card for letting Robby go, and I still don't know if we achieved that. BC in the third we've talked to death. We still don't know what we have there. Might have a serviceable LT. Might not. Very frustrating. Tremble in the third, he got some chances, didn't do badly. Decent for a rookie, though I think we could have gotten him some more opportunity by putting him in instead of Ricci. Chuba in the 4th? He got an opportunity, turns out he's not much of a pass catcher. As a runner, he did ok considering the OLine he was stuck with. Might be a long term contributor. Was our draft really the problem? I'm not sure it was. I think the problem was how we behaved after it. In a bubble, CJ Henderson for a third isn't terrible. But did we REALLY need another CB? I know Horn was out by that point, but we had somehow convinced ourselves after three games we were a playoff contender. Jury is still out on Henderson, and honestly I think I'd rather have the pick NOW. All of the moves afterward that didn't allow us to properly evaluate that draft . . . that was an issue, to me.

Probably because you didn't look very hard. Instead of assuming things about people or situations, how about if we assume the best or do our research? Am I crazy? As far as Sparano going? I dunno. The tweet above sort of makes it sound mutual? That's about all I get out of it. In all fairness, our line was terrible and we failed to learn nearly as much as we should have about our younger players. If that had something to do with the line coaches, yea, let's move on and do better. It doesn't change my current opinion of Matt Rhule at all. The guy has too much power and too little to show for it.