BrianS

But not because of our offense! We were looking like a top pick because our defense in 2019 was historically bad and old! We lost our best DB to free agency and our HoF MLB retired. We were a middle of the pack offense in 2019. Everyone thought that with the pieces we had, with Joe Brady at the controls and TB5 upgrading what we saw from Kyle Allen we'd be a better offense. We were slightly worse. All because TB5 was anti-clutch. Again, what specific things on our offense grade out as below average? The only one I can come up with is the TE room, and that may be underselling them a little. Our skill positions are among the best in the league QB aside. Our line is average to possibly above average. Everything about our offense SCREAMS "Give us a franchise QB and we will light this league up!"

I like your positivity man. I really, really hope you're right. If Sam turns into a franchise QB this offseason will likely go down in history as our turning point. And Fitts will be a savant.

How did they exceed expectations? They regressed! In 2019 we ranked 19th in total yards, and 20th in total points. In 2020, we ranked 22nd in total yards and 24th in total points! To me, we *massively* underachieved on offense. Remember, 2019 was Kyle Allen at QB. I hate to say it, but I think we would have won more games last year with KA under center. I'm so tired of the excuses man. We have "offensive guru" Joe Brady running the show here. We have amazing talent at all the the skill positions except TE - which may not even matter in this offense. We have a line that grades out average or better. Take away the QB! Who has a better offense than we do? KC, I'll give you, they were great with Alex Smith and terrifying with Mahomes. Titans, Bucs, Vikings . . . maybe. But past that it's QB's making the difference. Not expecting production from this offense is another year of "missed opportunities" man, and I don't think I can stomach that. Sam has nothing standing in the way of him showing us he is a franchise guy. He either shows he's the guy, or he doesn't. There is no alternative. Bear in mind, KC tossed away a guy who was 50-26, with a 3:1 TD to INT ratio because he wasn't good enough. I'm not saying Sam needs to be that, but it sure wouldn't hurt.

Setting aside the obvious, which is waiting for the season to play out, the question you need to ask right now is "Do you believe the Panthers overall offensive personnel, outside the QB room, is average or better?" Let's examine that. Start with the WR's. I honestly believe our WR room is one of the best in the league. DJ and Robby left no doubts last year. It was very clear that their production was held down by the limitations at QB. The scary part is they were already a top 5 WR duo. Marshall should easily replace Samuel's production in the slot, if not more. Our TE room is still not great, but I'm also not sure that Joe Brady's offense really requires it. In an LSU offense with 400 receptions, their TE's only caught about 60 balls all year. I just don't think it's as important. Still, I believe we've improved that room this offseason. I would call them average. Certainly not high end, but average. Our RB room is great. Setting aside the question of workload balance, you have Christian McCaffrey. He is one of the best in the league, if not THE best. Blah blah health issues, workload. I GET IT. We drafted a guy who seems to fit, and we have a couple on the roster who have done alright when called on. All that said, you have to say our RB room is top 5. Our OL is probably still average. Make no mistake, it was average last year. Pretty sure we wound up 18th overall. If we've improved, we could be 11 to 13 this year. That's an above average room. No, not top 5, probably not quite top 10, but not cringe worthy either. Solid, but not spectacular. Put all that together, and what do you have? You have a Panthers offense that is poised to be easily a top 10 offense, and probably a bit more, maybe even a top 5 offense. WITHOUT considering the QB position. Which leads us to Sam Darnold. He doesn't have any excuses this year. None. He can't. He's got NFL experience, so he understands the speed of the game and what is expected. He has a team around him with the talent to go places. BIG places. If you really want to understand, flip the script. If you drop Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert . . . into this offense, how does it fare? Forget salary concerns, just look at the talent. Even guys who are "just" good QB's like Tannehill or Carr . . . come on man. This offense is easily top 5. So that's really what Darnold is up against. No excuses. The talent is there. He simply has to play like a real NFL QB. Sam has to produce.

I dunno, our QB room is straight up trash man once you get past Darnold. And he's about one season from being thrown in that same pile. I think you carry three just in case SD gets hurt. Maybe one is Tommy Stevens and maybe he can play a role on ST to help you out. Either way, I think either PJ or WG is gone this year and past SD, not sure ANYTHING is a guarantee.

Why are RB's done after age 29? Because of the beating they take. How much more fragile is a QB who needs his arms and legs? I've heard this argument before, and you're right, he did get injured in ways beside running the ball. What we cannot know is how much of the punishment obtained in running contributed to those injuries. I don't know. You don't know. I do find it very fair to say that there is a portion of his abbreviated years that are 100% due to him being used in ways outside the typical QB workload.

It was total workload that did him in. Period. You can still let "Cam be Cam" three to five times a game, plus his scrambles. You would still need to plan for it as a defense or get gouged. You'd also extend his career. However, some of that does also fall on Cam since we cannot know how many of those QB runs were RPO's where Cam chose to run when he could have thrown. Or plays where Cam audibled us into a run. I suspect that 20 or 30 carries per year were something like that. There is certainly plenty of blame to go around for his abbreviated career.

We have prior for putting our LT elect up against a premium edge rusher in camp to get him ready. If Burns vs Christiansen turns out as well as Peppers vs Gross did, we are in great shape for the coming season.

The fact is that this is a guy with three years NFL experience. I'm not saying it's GOOD experience, but it's three years of NFL competition that a "rookie" just doesn't have. We should certainly expect "better than a rookie" production from him.

That would be an expensive switch for him. If anyone can redeem that number though, it might be CMC.

If he can't displace Grier or Walker, he has no business playing QB. Straight up. I hate to say it, but this kinda reeks of a Hurney move. Armanti Edwards anyone?

Revisionist history is fraught with peril. Don't go there. Treacherous waters. Making arguments like that leads you to things like "McCaffrey over Mahomes has proven to be a huge mistake". Basically, you can analyze nearly any draft pick by any club through the 20/20 hindsight we all have and say things like "We should have chosen _________ instead". Six months from now, we may be looking at JC Horn, Terrace Marshall, Brady Christianson or Tommy Tremble and saying the same thing. The only sure thing in the NFL draft is that there isn't a sure thing.

I've seen a lot of talk in a number of threads about how "QB's from ________ college" never succeed in the NFL. I thought the argument was misguided, but I didn't have any data to back it up. Here we go. I looked at NFL QB's who had AT LEAST 60 wins in the league as being "successful". I put that list in the quote so the post wasn't super hard to read. Some thoughts after the quote. I apologize for the formatting, it's a little ugly at times, but the columns are . . . Name, Wins, Losses, Ties, Win % and College. When talking about successful NFL QB's, only 18 schools have ever produced more than one. What I've learned is that arguing that a college has never produced a successful NFL QB is a fools game. They can come from anywhere. Terry Bradshaw from Louisiana Tech won 68% of his games and four Super Bowls. Roger Staubach from Navy won 75% of his games and two Super Bowls. As an aside, had he not been a Navy officer, Staubach might have been in the running as one of the greatest to ever play, but losing five years of his career was just brutal. Peyton Manning from Tennessee won 70% of his games and has two rings . . . had he not been in the same generation as Brady, he would absolutely have won more rings. Augustana College, Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, TCU and Youngstown State have produced more successful NFL QB's than "big" schools like UNC, Nebraska, Florida, Minnesota or Rutgers. There is just no rhyme or reason to where a successful NFL QB comes from, or where one COULD come from. This is why drafting a QB is such a crapshoot. There is just no accounting for it. There is something in the makeup of a successful QB that defies understanding. Justin Fields or Trey Lance could easily succeed . . . or fail. But it won't be due to where they went to school. Likewise Davis Mills, Ian Book and Mac Jones can all easily fail . . . or succeed . . . despite the fact they are coming from schools with a history of producing multiple, successful NFL QB's. College makes no difference at all.

Doesn't fit our profile. He's 34 with an obvious performance decline.

Hey Teddy, how bout you complete some balls down the field to your incredibly fast and elusive receivers for 40+ yard TD's and we just skip the whole red zone all together?

The fact that we took Horn with both Darrisaw and Slater still on the board lets me know they were at least comfortable short term with the vets they already had.

Yep, I agree. I'm just hoping that Sam doesn't fall in some sort of middle ground. Be great or be Pickles.

His problem is that the entire league has witnessed his last three seasons. Any team would be happy to have him on a heavily incentive laden contract that starts somewhere around veteran minimum and no guarantees. He doesn't seem interested in that sort of deal. Honestly, he hasn't seemed all that interested in football for a while. I wish it wasn't that way. There was a time when he was nearly unblockable.

As Sam Darnold goes, so will we. This could be a borderline wildcard team, or top 8 pick again. All according to how Darnold fares.

It's gotta be a PR stunt . . . the dude is 33.

Instead of following a narrative, why not think for yourself? Listen to what the guy has to say, observe. JT watches far more film than any of us on here I'm very sure. He's actually played in the NFL. I don't think he's always right, is anyone? But I'd say he's probably far more likely to be right than I am. Or you are. Darnold will do what he will do. Some think he will fail, others think he will flourish. Either of those is fine so long as we don't end up somewhere in the middle. Fail or succeed, don't be "ok".

Wouldn't break my heart to see a couple of those every Sunday this fall.

Pretty sure it was a thread on here somewhere.

He still says he wants 24 last I saw.

Having the extra non-conf game at the end makes a lot of sense. It means that teams who rest their starters that week shouldn't impact tie breaking.