BrianS

Actually, it's a legit concern. Prior to today, there were 39 players from Baylor and Temple on NFL rosters. Of those 39, 10 were on the Panthers roster. 25% of the NFL players from those two schools were on our roster. That should be concerning to anyone. It may look very different after today, and I hope it does. However, you cannot dismiss the concerns so easily. It's very clear there is a bias there. It's one thing if that bias was leading us to success, but in this case success is certainly not something we've experienced very much of recently.

If Matt Rhule fails, it will be decisions like this that doom him. I am in no way saying Grier was "good", but he was head and shoulders above PJ based on this preseason. I hope this is just the precursor to us bringing in a vet backup. Someone who can throw the ball to our guys and not beat us if we need a game or two.

Care to explain how that works? PJ 2021 - 16 / 39, 252 Will 2021 - 22 / 31, 222 PJ looked like absolute donkey after that first game. The guy only managed to complete six passes total in the last two games. And he's "by far our best backup"? Set aside the agenda, evaluate what's actually happening. I'm not saying Grier is great. I'm not saying he'll ever be a Derek Anderson level backup. What I am saying however is that objectively speaking, Grier has been better than PJ this preseason, and honestly not all that bad. I'm not sure Grier will ever be a serviceable backup. I'm 100% sure PJ will not. If you can't complete 50% of your passes, you have no place in todays NFL.

Why is this a surprise? Surely no one expected he would just be cut, right? This is really the only thing they can do. His trade value is non-existent right now, right or wrong. He's worth $67 million in dead cap this year and $51 million next year. The only way the Texans get out from under that is by waiting until 2023 to cut him OR find a trade partner.

No, wrong again. Smith's last year in KC he averaged 8.6 air yards per attempt, with a 67.5% completion rate. By way of comparison, Mahomes last year averaged 8.9 air yards per attempt, with a 66% completion rate. Need more? Ok. Look at Tyreek Hill. In Hill's first season starting, Smith's last season in KC, Hill had his second highest yards per reception and his highest yards per target over his career. I am in no way saying Smith is close to Mahomes. What I'm illustrating here is that KC parted with Alex Smith because they had an absolutely GENERATIONAL talent on their hands and after the years Smith had in KC, he was clearly not a backup. Not saying I would want an Alex Smith here, but the comparisons to TB5 are grossly wrong. TB5 doesn't come close.

Darnold needs to look like a franchise QB consistently over a season. It's really that simple. It's not something you can always put numbers around or easily define, but you can SEE it when you watch.

That's actually not the case. In his time in KC, Smith was much more willing to air it out. In fact, TB5's "best" season barely beats out Smith's worst FULL season. Smith is a far better QB than Teddy.

My recollection was that he injured himself.

Good numbers. If his production continues along those lines in those situations it will bode well. Sam can't control the protection he gets, but he can control what he does when it's there.

For all the crap Grier has taken around here, some of it earned, we definitely shouldn't be hatin' on him now. He's actually played fairly well this preseason.

Cam Newton, Christian McCaffrey, Robby Anderson, DJ Moore, Dan Arnold, Terrace Marshall . . . I'm not sure I can name a better offensive skill group ever. Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Azhir Hakim, Ricky Proehl maybe? Toss in Jordan Gross at LT and hand us the next three Lombardis.

I suspect he'll be starting sometime in October.

I wish him the best, but he really needs to find someone to fix him. The fact that he pushes EVERY kick right points to something mechanical, but I can't spot it. Shame the Panthers coaches couldn't either.

The key for Darnold this year will be the situation surrounding him. If we are keeping the game close, if we are staying ahead of the chains, etc he will have less need to be the hero and hopefully he'll just play within the system. If we start to get behind in games, get behind the down and distance, it will encourage his less desirable traits.

Reports surrounding him are good, but man, his mechanics scare me. His runup is far from normal.

I mean . . . can we have Drew Lock then?

So our kickers went a combined 2/6. Next batch please.

Sounds like we dodged a bullet there. Best he can probably hope for is a vet minimum deal somewhere at this point.

I would like to point out that those grades were achieved with our very suspect backup QB's on the field.

By early to mid October, we'll know. If Darnold sucks, our second round pick is a bust. We're familiar with that refrain by now.

I don't blame him. We're still full of question marks. I think we have bags of potential, but we haven't actually demonstrated the ability to fulfill that potential yet. The Rams are ready to win NOW.

I suspect we're going to stash the new LS on the PS this year and let him take over next year.

No, we still think they are crap. In this case however, all they had to do was count. I will begrudgingly admit that they can probably count. As long as they have a calculator. And a pocket protector.

I was there with ya man. Minshew has potential. In his two seasons with Jacksonville, Minshew is 7-13. Not wonderful, but it's the Jags. The flip side of that coin however is that WITHOUT Minshew, the Jags are 0-12. Trubisky as well. I mean, what kind of players was he surrounded with? Not much better than Darnold, if at all. And yet Trubisky is 29-21 overall, and a 64% passer. Both have produced more than Darnold, and NEITHER would have cost us a second round pick. I really think the front office wanted boom or bust. Either we got a great QB to sort us out for the next 10 years, or we got an awful QB to lead us to the top pick next spring.

Ah, yes, the second of two kickers we had who are head and shoulders better than the cheap option we kept.