Peon Awesome

All this talk about how much the Browns are willing to pay is meaningless unless we know the draft compensation that is being discussed. Browns might say they're willing to pay $10 million if we trade them a 3rd round pick. That's a lot different than just considering the cost of taking on the remaining $8-9 million of salary.

This seems like a pretty nonsensical take unless you have some data supporting it. In what world is the coach the one wanting to draft a long snapper? The rationale for drafting a long snapper is to cut costs at a position that is not valued. That's definitely a big picture GM type move. Doesn't even make sense that a coach would micromanage a long snapper decision but if so, would almost certainly prefer the solid reliable vet. There's no benefit for a coach to take a worse unproven player. Coaches reluctantly accept moves that make their team worse in the short term; they don't pound the table demanding them.

Whoever Horn is locked up against will have 1 catch for 8 yards

If your goal is winning a super bowl, it's extremely hard to fathom an avenue where the Panthers get there by trading the farm for Watson. Too many holes to patch up. How do you suppose we accomplish that with no high draft picks and no cap space (since Watson will eat it all up)? So for me the answer is easy: Corral and Icky. Even if the chances aren't great, they're greater than the zero that comes with Watson.

I'm baffled by this obsession with getting a veteran qb to mentor Corral. That's what the coaches are for. Did Herbert rise to stardom because of the incredible tutelage of Tyrod Taylor? Who's responsible for the rise of Josh Allen? Nathan Peterman or Matt Barkley? Or hell, was Cam Newton getting tips on how to be a dominant dual threat qb with a cannon arm from the similarly talented Derek Anderson? QBs are expensive especially if you are signing one to compete for a starting job. There's no evidence that they make enough of a difference to warrant that commitment. That money is better reserved towards signing the best playmakers and solidifying the line around Corral for the foreseeable future. That's how you give him the best chance of success. Oh and making sure he has a competent OC and QB coach.

Brady getting head coaching interviews was for one reason: teams were obsessed with trying to uncover the next Sean McVay, i.e. undiscovered young offensive mastermind. There was no buzz around Brady being a serious contender for any of those jobs after his interviews and once his body of work was actually evaluated, he couldn't even sniff another OC position. Brady could become a good OC some day, maybe. But he'll need a ton more experience before I'd feel comfortable handing him the keys to any offense. At the end of the day, his claim to fame is one year as a passing game coordinator for a team with Joe Burrow and two wide receivers who just had the most historic rookie seasons for a wide receiver in NFL history in back to back seasons. Suggests to me that Brady owes them more for his success than the other way around.

Someone else posted this the other day. While it's nice to see any metric where the Panthers grade first, this one is really flawed unfortunately. In this system, you'd get rated way more highly for drafting a 4th round prospect in the 6th round than drafting a presumed top 5 pick in the 2nd round. A better system would look at the difference in values on a trade chart (like Chase Stuart) comparing where a player was projected or ranked vs actually drafted. The Panthers would still look pretty good, just not #1

I think we're seeing a general shift in front offices' pholosophies. Right or not, there's a big push to prioritize a transcendent star qb above all else. The idea of a solid starter/game manager headlining a complete team has been devalued. Look no further than San Francisco's trade of 3 1sts for the opportunity to draft Trey Lance, Cleveland throwing historic guaranteed money and a bajillion premium picks to get Watson, or Denver giving up a bunch of picks including a top 10 of their own that could've gone towards a qb, to take Russell Wilson. When it boils down to it, most overwhelmingly felt like the chance one of this year's qb class making the leap to stardom was quite low. And if that's the case, why invest a premium pick? Wide receivers are going for $25 million per year and the hit rate for a wr in rounds 1-2 of at least turning into a decent starter is far greater than a qb. Doesnt make much sense to sacrifice a premium draft pick to roll the dice on a qb prospect when the consensus seems to be Baker Mayfield, who can likely be had for peanuts right now, might be their realistic ceiling. Meanwhile in the 3rd or later, where any draft pick is 50/50 at best to become a meaningful starter, the 5-10% chance that rookie qb prospect might play to a high level suddenly becomes a reasonable gamble.

On face value, the team trading up twice, including using a future day 2 pick, doesn't quite scream Fitterer, who has been better known for trading back and amassing picks.

I'm definitely not opposed to rolling the dice on Willis as long as the cost is reasonable. Something like our 4th and Robby Anderson to a wr desperate team to get back into the latter half of the 2nd could make sense for both teams.

The last time the Panthers took a qb in the 2nd round who had a 1st round grade: Jimmy Clausen.

Probably best to acknowledge we have no idea how long these qbs will last. Pretty sure you'd have laughed if someone said Malik Willis would be available in the middle of the 2nd. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Howell is there at our original 4th round pick. People have clearly way overvalued this qb class relatively to NFL front offices.

At the same time, after drafting Joe Thomas, they spent 3 1st round picks on Qbs over the next 7 years. Those picks: Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel. So really we'll probably turn ourselves into the old Browns either way.

Fair points. The way I see it, we have two huge needs: LT and QB. This draft class is notable for having memorably elite LT prospects while the QB class is amongst the weakest of the past several years. It's one thing if you have a top 5 grade on a LT vs a mid-1st on a QB. But most mocks have either Neal or Ekwonu there at 6, whom many thought either could go #1 before the Jags resigned Robinson, whereas arguably no one in the QB class would have a solid 1st round grade in a normal year. Just seems like it makes sense to go with the safe pick and figure out qb another way. I also don't really trust the staff to figure who is the diamond in the rough in this qb class after their assessment of Darnold. Hopefully we get a top pick in 2023 but if not, plenty of teams have shown this year in particular there are other ways to find a qb (Indy, Seattle, Cleveland, etc)

If we're being honest with ourselves, which scenario seems more likely? A) Corral demonstrates he's a franchise qb, plays early and at minimum puts us into playoff contention, after which we gladly give up a 2023 pick in the teens or B) We fail to improve in year 1 with Corral and Rhule still at the helm, end up shipping a top 2 pick to Philly next year, letting slip Bryce Young/CJ Stroud/whoever emerges as the cream of the crop from our grasp and are stuck no better than we were at qb. I mean, scenario B seems at least twice as likely, or is it just me?

Let's throw away the pitchforks guys. ESPN had an article on it too. Sounds like he was going 12 over the speed limit around noon and was pulled over. Then on unclear grounds (probably being black in SC), they searched him and found a gun and some marijuana. How that translates to unlawful carrying of a handgun and intent to distribute is really unclear but certainly reeks of trumped up charges. Yeah he's not blameless. But it also doesn't sound as egregious as some of you are making it.

Mocks are increasingly having the Jags take Hutchinson and Detroit take Willis at 2, which seems to consistently leave Cross and usually Neal too available at 6. The scary thought is the Panthers falling into that scenario but opting for Pickett. *shudders*

It's a bit rich to say Watson is the victim based on this affidavit created by the defense team. You have to realize a couple things. A) In this kind of he said, she said case, particularly when the "he" is a super rich and powerful guy with tons more resources, the women rarely get justice. They know that. If you are that woman and everyone is saying that and it gets floated "Well look we know you won't win in court but we can make him hurt with his checkbook and at least then you can get a little payback. Better than nothing, right?" Would you be a money grubbing hussy for even listening to that line of thought? That's effectively what a couple of those are suggesting. B) This lists a small number of the 22 people in the case. Is there a chance 2 or 3 of them heard about the case, gladly did whatever Watson wanted for extra money and thought, "Hell yeah, I'll jump in for an extra payday." It's equally stupid to think there wouldn't be at least one person trying to take advantage of the situation as thinking that a couple people doing it for money means inevitably all 22 were. At the end of the day, it's pretty much accepted that Watson seeks out women he's paying for legal services with the hopes of getting sex out of them. That's wrong no matter how you spin it and his position of power over them makes it incredibly unethical. The only question is whether he did anything bad enough to be criminal and that's where the he said, she said comes in. But even in the best case scenario, treating him like some poor pariah who deserves our profuse apologies is kind of pathetic if you ask me.

Sounds like Linderbaum is akin to Quenton Nelson, a surefire, best prospect in years at a less valuable OL position. Interestingly, Nelson was also drafted at pick 6. No one really questions that selection now. Granted, Nelson had to become a perennial 1st team all pro to really make it worth it and he has. That's a high bar. I'd be ok with Linderbaum; he'd be ultra safe and undoubtedly make our team and offensive line better. But if an OT worthy of a top 10 pick is there, I think you have to take him. The positional value and scarcity of LTs is just too much. The salary allotted to the 6th pick is comparable to a top 10 C but amounts to maybe half of what it costs to sign a top 10 LT; plus free agent centers worthy of signing come around far more often than LTs. In a perfect world, if you're taking Linderbaum, you trade down a few spots, draft him and get a sorely needed 3rd. But a lot would have to align perfectly for that: a willing trade partner presenting a good offer and the gamble that he's still available at that slot. And would also have to hope Christensen is equipped to handle LT in that scenario.

Yeah I was about to make the same point on the kickoff. You can't kick a touch back with 13 seconds. Forcing a return would run at least 3 or 4 seconds off the clock and then KC only has time for 1 play before a fg or hail mary. Unfortunate. I'm sure McDermott is going to lose a lot of sleep second guessing himself on the end of that game.

Is there any doubt that whoever wins the coin toss will win the game?

Butker's missed fg and xp looming large with a 3 point deficit.

Well a minute and 3 timeouts for Buffalo. Kind of feel like that wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Seems like a field goal to send it to overtime was best case scenario for Buffalo. They're not stopping Kansas City for 4 downs.

After a boring wildcard weekend, this is an awesome divisional round

If you don't like the 2-7 game, just don't watch it. All it does is force the 2 seed to play rather than get a free pass to the divisional round. You still have the same 3-6 and 4-5 match up you have had for years. The real benefit to having a 7th seed isn't getting an extra game in the playoffs. It's that way more teams have something to play for the last few weeks of the regular season. The top teams are having to go all out week 18 instead of resting their starters to get that #1 seed/bye week and middle of the pack teams desperately clinging to their playoff lives scrambling for that last wildcard spot rather being able to tank out starting week 15 because they're already eliminated.