Peon Awesome

The Panthers like their young talent on defense, but this would be about finding more significant solutions for some of their veterans on short-term, low-cost contracts. Ironically, two are former Rams in safety Nick Scott and linebacker Christian Rozeboom, both of whom were targeted by L.A. in coverage Sunday. No Carolina defender managed more than five sacks, so finding a veteran (or a first-round pick) on the edge who can create more pass pressure alongside Scourton and Princely Umanmielen would be a welcome addition. It's important to be realistic about where the Panthers are and what they've shown. This team finished 25th in DVOA and ESPN's Football Power Index. It was 8-9 against one of the league's easier schedules, the same performance that led the Falcons to fire Raheem Morris after two seasons in Atlanta. And after no-showing a win-and-in game against the Buccaneers last week, the Panthers needed Morris and his Falcons to beat the Saints, something Carolina wasn't able to do with two chances, to push coach Dave Canales' team into the postseason. And yet, there are meaningful signs of growth. The Panthers finished 21st in weighted DVOA, and while that's not going to push Canales into the Hall of Fame, it's a sign that they were improving as the season went along. They beat the Packers and Rams and came within a defensive stop of beating what might be the league's best team a second time. If they can stack a second effective offseason in a row, the Panthers might be in position to take over Tampa Bay's spot as the presumptive favorite in the NFC South in the years to come.

I think Barnwell is one of the best NFL analysts and clearly knows his stuff. Here's what he had to say after the wildcard game, shared in its entirety. Thought Bryce played really well under a lot of pressure (but acknowledges his general limitations) and wasn't so flattering to Nijman. Also says with a good offseason, the Panthers can be the NFC south favorites for years to come. Carolina Panthers Lost 34-31 vs. Rams There are no moral victories in the playoffs, but for the Panthers, this might have been the closest thing to one imaginable. They were massive underdogs at home even after beating the Rams in Carolina this season, and expectations of repeating that feat in the rematch were low. When the Panthers quickly went down 14-0 after a failed fourth-down conversion and a Bryce Young interception handed the Rams a pair of short fields, a blowout victory for Los Angeles coach Sean McVay appeared to be on the horizon. Instead, the Panthers came all the way back to take the lead with 2:39 to go before the defense allowed a winning touchdown drive to Matthew Stafford. The veteran quarterback reportedly told receiver Davante Adams he was going to "snatch [the Panthers'] hearts'" on the final drive. A cold line, no doubt, but one you save for the Super Bowl when you know the NFL Films microphones are on the sideline, right? Stafford had to pull out his best material late in the wild-card round, both on and off the field, to get the Rams to the next round. I'm weirdly more optimistic about the Panthers after the playoff loss than I was after the regular-season win. The November win was obviously more satisfying, but the factors that led to it were unsustainable. The Panthers converted all three of their fourth-down tries, including two for long touchdown passes. With a Mike Jackson pick-six leading the way, the Panthers posted a plus-three turnover margin in the win; the last time that happened was in the Matt Rhule era with Baker Mayfield at quarterback, more than three years ago. Those plays matter and are meaningful, of course, but I'm not sure they're particularly sustainable as a formula for beating the Rams. And in those same spots Sunday, the Panthers' timing wasn't quite as impeccable. They went 0-for-3 on fourth down. Young threw an early pick to the Rams on a play in which Panthers receiver Jalen Coker, who otherwise had a breakout game, seemed to be on the wrong page after some pre-snap adjustments and stopped his route. Carolina rookie Trevor Etienne muffed a punt to give the Rams another short field, and while the Panthers got another Jackson interception and blocked a punt in the fourth quarter, the turnover margin for this game went down in Los Angeles' favor. (Should blocked punts count as turnovers?) Instead, this Panthers performance shined through the full 60 minutes, as they went toe-to-toe with the Rams on a down-by-down basis. They struggled early on defense, with Rams receiver Puka Nacua moving around the formation and flummoxing Carolina's zone coverage looks, but defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and his cornerbacks held up against Nacua and Adams and forced Stafford into what seemed like an endless run of contested throws to either sideline. They rode their luck a bit when Nacua dropped a would-be touchdown just before halftime, but the Panthers were able to limit explosive rushing plays and didn't allow a single drive over 50 yards before the fourth quarter. And on a day when Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle combined for 55 yards on 18 carries and the Panthers trailed by 14 points midway through the first quarter, so much of the game fell on Young's shoulders. His offensive line was a mess. Guard Robert Hunt tried to return early from a pectoral injury and clearly wasn't his usual self. The third-year pro lost left tackle Ikem Ekwonu to a ruptured patellar tendon early in the game, and replacement Yosh Nijman allowed four of the 14 quick pressures generated by the Rams, per NFL Next Gen Stats. That's tied for the fifth-most quick pressures by any defense in any game all season. Under the circumstances, I thought Young was excellent. The raw numbers aren't going to wow anyone, with the 2023 No. 1 draft pick completing 52.5% of his passes and averaging 6.6 yards per attempt, but Young's 74.4 Total QBR attests to how well he played given the pressure rate. He was repeatedly able to buy time and create out of structure, looking almost Tony Romo-esque as he spun his way out of interior pressure and got out of the pocket to find receivers. When Young wasn't pressured, he went 17-of-24 for 223 yards with a touchdown and that pick. He threw with anticipation to set up two chunk plays to Coker, who finished with nine catches for 134 yards and the touchdown that gave the Panthers their fourth-quarter lead. Young is never going to have the strongest arm, so he needs to anticipate voids before they come open, throw accurate passes to create YAC and alternately create out of structure. He did all three Saturday. I'm not suggesting that Young's fifth-year option was on the line in this game, because the indications were already that the Panthers were going to pick up the $26.5 million guarantee for Young to be on the roster in 2027. If Young had suffered through a disastrous game (think Sam Darnold's final start with the Vikings), though, that pickup might have come through gritted teeth. This was Young's most important start in a Panthers uniform, and he came through impressively. This is the first offseason in many years in which the Panthers won't have to make fixing the offense their primary focus. Acquiring a quarterback was problem No. 1, of course, and they've spent the past two offseasons desperately trying to get the right players around Young. Some of those moves haven't hit, but enough have to leave the offense in solid shape. Coker and presumptive Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan are the two young wideouts the Panthers have been hoping to find. They'll also have Jonathon Brooks as the second back alongside Hubbard to replace Dowdle next season. There's still work to be done, of course. Ekwonu is likely out six to 12 months, and the Panthers are on the hook for his $17.6 million fifth-year option in 2026. Nijman, a pending free agent, was a turnstile when forced into the lineup at left tackle. The Panthers probably need a short-term stopgap at left tackle if Ekwonu is not ready to go. Adding a tight end might also be on the docket if the Panthers weren't impressed by Ja'Tavion Sanders' second season. But really, this should be an offseason finally devoted toward adding defense. The Panthers signed Tershawn Wharton and Tre'von Moehrig in free agency, but when they used a second-round pick on edge Nic Scourton, it was the first time Carolina had used a first- or second-round pick on a defensive player since selecting Jaycee Horn in 2021.

Coker is an exclusive rights free agent. That means the Panthers can resign him for the league minimum and he has no choice but to take it or just sit out and refuse to play football.

Stupid that the Niners didn't go for 2. You'd force the Eagles to make the extra point to win it. They've already missed one today. Being up 5 instead of 4 doesn't move the needle, especially with less than 3 minutes left.

Kind of a oversimplification, don't you think? The Rams are significantly better at pretty much every single position minus the secondary, and once Horn left, even that became a toss up. Stafford was also just named 1st team all pro. I wouldn't exactly act like him having a C game being better than Bryce's A game is some major indictment. But yeah, Stafford is head and shoulders better than Bryce, that's not up for debate.

Also a little nitpicky but I think the initial wording for 3 vs 4 should be flip-flopped. Bad is worse than "not good".

He's clearly a 4-5 right now. The question is obviously not "Do we give him $50+ million per year or cut him?" even though that seems to be how half of the people seem to present it. The reality is that it's nonsensical to just cut Bryce and completely give up now. We're paying him either way. Bare minimum he gets 1 more year. I would give him the 5th year because it would make him one of the cheapest starters in the NFL and unless you're incredibly biased, you have to acknowledge Bryce is at minimum an above average backup even if he gets no better. So worst case, he doesn't improve and you have a pricy backup/below average bridge starter, perhaps for another rookie qb, on a contract that won't remotely cripple your team and still give you a chance to build a strong roster around your next QB. I don't think you can assume Bryce can't get better either. Darnold is proof of that. And his Jets years weren't any better/arguably worse than Bryce's 3 years here.

He played the last drive as though the Rams had 30 seconds and no timeouts. Hell, they kept throwing it inbounds and still didn't use a single timeout. He calls that pretty much whenever we need a game sealing defensive stop. We've been lucky to win the couple games we did in those situations, only thanks to forcing turnovers (e.g. Brown's sack fumble in the first Rams game and the Ransom interception in the first Bucs game).

The number of people with > 1000 posts who have never been to a home Panthers game has to be miniscule. Unless you're an out of town Panthers fan, but in that case, what are the chances you can drop everything and travel down to Charlotte with < 24 hours notice? I didn't realize I easily cleared the 1000 post mark. But I've been to at least a dozen Panthers games, including the Seahawks and Cardinals playoff games in 2015 which were two of the greatest experiences of my life. Anyway, awesome thing you're doing BigKat.

The Panthers are the ultimate "Nobody believes in us!" team this year. Unfortunately I'm not sure the Panthers even believe in themselves at this point, especially the offense/Bryce.

As an aside, given how strong and massive he is, why not try to hand him the ball in those 4th and <1 yard situations. You're telling me anyone can stop him from lunging forward a couple feet?

He threw the lineman to the side and then flipped the running back to the ground with what looked like only 5% effort/strength. It's incredible how good he is as a run stopper. P.S. Put a disclaimer on your thread! I honestly thought Brown might have gotten himself in serious legal trouble.

Yikes, they won't even give you your money back if you cash out now, even though at the time of the bet they weren't even expected to make the playoffs at all. Goes to show how much faith the betting lines have in the Panthers

Not in defense of Bryce but this second chart doesn't argue the point you are trying to make. Based on this, his stats generally get worse the closer we are to the opponents endzone (lower completion percentage, less yards per attempt). The only thing better is TD:Int but that's obvious and would be true for all QBs because there are very few 50+ yard passing TDs in general, and certainly not more than the number of <50 yard TDs. Hell his best numbers are when he's at his own 20 or worse (highest qb rating, completion percentage and yards per attempt). Unless your argument is that he needs good field position because he doesn't have any 80+ yard TD passes but that's a tough bar to clear to say the least. Most people don't consider success as TD or nothing. A 35 yard pass from the 20 yard line that gets you into an opponents side of the field is universally considered successful, even though it wasn't a touchdown pass. Not saying Bryce has a bunch of those (again this is not a defense of Bryce) but you can see how the chart you shows wouldn't even illustrate that. Just to clarify too, although you may have already known this, this isn't a chart of starting field position, just field position at the time of the play.

Delhomme was no way awful. He was kind of our version of Jared Goff. Passing numbers weren't as gaudy back then so he wasn't as prolific numbers wise but he was good enough to shepherd an otherwise complete team to a super bowl. Just had a couple unfortunate stinkers in big moments, none worse than the divisional game against Arizona. But that doesn't undo all the positives.

If we played Seattle 10 times, I could see us winning 3 of those. If we played the Rams 10 times, I feel like our one win a few weeks ago would be our only one. I mean it was a perfect storm and we still almost lost. Meanwhile we got tons of bad breaks/self inflicted wounds in Seattle and it was really only a big win due to turnovers that gave them short fields (plus Horn's facemask that turned a punt into points).

I think Evero just wanted Bryce to have another 4th quarter game winning drive

Chau Smith-Wade playing 4D chess

We keep running the straight up the gut runs with Dowdle that didn't work the first game either. Dowdle's best run was the sweep outside in the redzone and the passing game has been generally successful. Don't understand why Canales insists on running the same unsuccessful play over and over to constantly put us in tough 3rd downs.

I'd start the game going pass heavy, like in the second Falcons game, to exploit the heavy box sets New Orleans will undoubtedly start with. Then after building a lead and creating a tired Saints defense, punish the Saints with a very heavy run game, wearing them down more and churning out the clock.

The Bears literally went from the #1 seed in the NFC entering this week to the 7 seed with this loss.

I both did a bad job of explaining what I was trying to say and also being disingenuous. Truthfully I would love the Panthers to make the playoffs no matter how and no matter what ultimately happens in the playoffs. But I was trying to say, I'd like to see the Panthers make the playoffs because they put it all together, play great football and dominate the Bucs in a sweep, rather than get gifted the division because the Bucs completely implode and lose all their games. Cause in that situation, we just look like the beneficiary of a historically bad division and the outlook isn't quite as bright. But the last thing I want is the Panthers to just lose out and get a better draft pick.

It doesn't really matter what the Bucs do anyway. There'd be only fleeting satisfaction if we stumble into a playoff spot from a terrible division only to get blown out by the 5 seed. If we can't handle the Saints and sweep the Bucs to stake our claim to the division title and prove we've officially arrived, we might as well roll out the red carpet for the Bucs and look ahead to 2026.

You could do a heck of a lot worse than having a team full of Chuba Hubbards. Great work ethic, consummate teammate. It's an enviable problem to have 2 great running backs that can shoulder the load.

Yeah Bryce is not making the pro bowl with Dak, Stafford, Darnold, Goff, Jordan Love, Hurts. Safe to say, his 5th year option will be about $26-27 million, which is basically half of what 2021's class got annually on their extensions 2 years ago (Tua, Lawrence, Herbert).