Peon Awesome

I'm a Panthers homer but Derrick Brown isn't in the same league as Quinnen Williams. And the reality is, even if they're arguably as valuable in the game as pass rushers, space eating/run stopping DTs don't command the flashy contract numbers. A better comp would be Dalvin Tomlinson who also signed a new contract this year, 4 years $57 million. If Derrick Brown takes another step forward this year, he might be in line for something in that ballpark.

I'm not going to lose one minute of sleep over paying a slight premium to help ensure Bryce's success, especially considering we're near the top of the NFL in cap space even with that contract and the "overpayment" is maybe $2 million, barely enough to pay a couple minimum salaried veterans. Even if Sanders is an average starting rb (basically worst case scenario), you could find a lot worse ways to spend $7 million.

You can't consider the Rams picks in a vacuum. Let's say Burns puts up absolutely monster stats lined up next to Aaron Donald, his presence and the front office's demonstrated commitment to go all-in galvanizes the team and they pull off a few wins and challenge the Seahawks for that last wildcard spot. And having lost their 1sts for the next couple years, the rebuild is put on hold and they become big players in free agency, combined with Stafford's resurgence, extending their window for relevancy in an otherwise weak NFC an extra year or two. Maybe nothing remotely close to that materializes but assuming the team will be exactly the same as they are now is similarly improbable.

The other point to keep in mind is that we have tons of cap room and a rookie qb which will set us up nicely capwise for the next 4 years at least. If you're not going to spend the extra money on your best players who also happen to play the most premium positions, what's the point?

Garrett and Bosa both signed their contracts in 2020. With the steadily rising cap, figuring something near that ballpark is a realistic expectation. I don't think mimicking Garrett's contract 3 years later is at all unreasonable. If that's the ceiling on contract talks, we should be taking a sigh of relief.

Great talent but it is kind of concerning that multiple organizations now have chosen to move on with little to no compensation. I realize Houston and Arizona aren't exactly model organizations but still. Kind of reminds me of Antonio Brown; all the talent in the world but multiple teams quickly deciding its not worth the hassle.

I'd love to see Corral get some premium reps in the preseason. Ideally I think Bryce should play a quarter with the starters, Dalton play maybe 1 series and Corral play the rest of the game. Don't send Corral out there only with the 5th string offensive line and receivers. Give him some meaningful reps with guys like TMJ and Mingo

Another consideration: if Bryce Young's elite processing translates to the pros, it helps neutralize the need for a true #1. He can quickly scan his top 5 options and find the open receiver. Think about Mahomes. I realize Kelce is one of the greatest tight ends of all time, but Mahomes actually had a better year without Tyreek Hill.

I doubt I'd really miss the kickoff if they got rid of it. As far as the issue of onside kicks, they could adopt the XFL rule where the team can elect to try a 4th and 15 from their own 25 yard line. Way more interesting than an onside kick that's going to fail 98% of the time.

I feel the same way as OP and am glad someone is saying it. I think we need to keep an open mind on our evaluations of players and see who rises to the occasion this year. We have what on paper seems to be a far better coaching staff, with new schemes, and on the offensive side, hopefully an infinitely more promising QB. Unfortunately the reality is that TMJ and Tremble both breaking out seems unlikely; there are just too many mouths to feed. But I do think they both have the potential and at worst, I'd love to see them continue to show growth. In some ways, this team's weapons have the potential to resemble our 2015 juggernaut team: no #1 option but collectively keeps defenses on their toes.

I'm pretty sure this is irrelevant for us. I doubt we are anywhere close to a comp pick. We signed way too many people and lost barely anyone of value. If we really wanted to sign one of these players we should've done it already before other teams who were waiting to protect their comp picks jump into the bidding.

The pick and trade up make sense if the Panthers were dead set on drafting a 3-4 OLB and felt like this guy was the last one left worth a damn. But in general trading up rounds 3+ is usually a risky gamble cause those picks are too much of a crapshoot and you're better off having more chances to get it right. But not being in the draftroom nor having the scouting reports, I'm not going to get too critical. Time will tell.

OK I know at face value this is going to come off as super naiive and over simplistic but humor me. Official measurements: Bijan Robinson: 5'11'' 215 lbs Bryce Young: 5'10'' 204 lbs Bijan is supposed to be a 3 down back and the most electric offensive skill player in the draft. He is literally going to be running into a wall of 330 lbs DTs 25 times per game, and when he passes them, will have massive LBs converging on him at 20 mph. Now subtract 10lbs and 1 inch and suddenly a guy who might get a hand on him 6 times per game, protected by whistle-happy refs who throw flags if you breathe a little too hard on the QB, and he's going to snap like a twig? And keep in mind, he's going to have access to professional weight trainers and dieticians so the prospect of gaining 5-10 lbs of muscle isn't an unrealistic ask. I get it, the NFL is a brutal sport and injuries are ubiquitous. But it doesn't make sense to me that a QB has to be 6'4, 230 lbs but a player like Devonta Smith who makes Bryce Young look like John Cena, can go 2 years into his career without missing a single game despite getting hit more times per game than a typical qb.

He definitely got handed a tough break. He gets drafted by a team with the most inept and dysfunctional coaching staff in the league, gets buried on the depth chart in large part due to a battle for the starting job between two underwhelming overpriced veterans, was thrust into the preseason behind an atrocious offensive line that wouldn't be good enough for the XFL, and after only about a dozen snaps or so suffers a season ending injury trying to run for his life due to the horridness of said Oline. You spend your whole life with the dream of being a quarterback in the NFL and that gets snatched away largely due to factors outside of your control. The Panthers can't be blamed for moving on and taking Bryce Young. But you can't be upset with Matt Corral being upset he got a raw deal. I prefer he channels that energy to prove the doubters wrong while the Panthers make a genuine effort to groom him into the future backup with starting upside if Bryce does get banged up under his slim frame. But that ship may have sailed.

I've had YouTube TV for a few years now and I'm a big fan. Tremendous base sports package with pretty much every channel you could want, unlimited DVR, ability to watch from your phone anywhere and about half the price of most cable packages. If I didn't already live in the home Panthers market, I'd add the Sunday Ticket package in a heartbeat, but as is, Panthers games + the national games of the week are plenty for me.

Smart teams wouldn't give Miles Sanders the biggest FA RB contract of 2023 and then invest one of their few draft picks on another RB. I think the whole point of giving Sanders that money was so we didn't need to worry about RB on draft day and focus on other higher value areas where we need more depth (WR, pass rusher, O line, CB, LB). Chuba and Blackshear are more than enough behind Sanders, but if you're not thrilled, throw an UDFA in the mix as camp competition. But any more than that is a misuse of limited resources.

I'm not sure I'd read too much into it. We're talking about a former 6th round pick who last played 2 years ago. We targeted Tuttle early and gave him a decent sized contract. I still think he's the starting NT. Not to mention, McCall and Roy are basically fringe roster guys. More likely that Penisini is bringing brought in as a low risk potential upgrade as the primary backup. Or even to serve as a rotational guy on run defense packages with Tuttle shifted to DE for select plays. Honestly if we're planning on going into the season with Penisini, Roy and McCall battling it out to be the starting DT, that'd be a pretty glaring weakness on the team.

Bill Barnwell has an article on ESPN suggesting logical fits for free agents/potential trade candidates. Full article here: Barnwell free agent fits Here's what he suggests for DeAndre Hopkins: Possible deal: Traded to the Panthers. In this deal, the Panthers would send the No. 93 selection to the Cardinals, who would pick up $10 million of Hopkins' $19.5 million base salary in 2023. Carolina would also guarantee Hopkins' $14.9 million salary for 2024, putting it on the hook for two years and $24.4 million. For the Panthers, this would lock in a No. 1 receiver for the first two years of their new quarterback's career. They would sport a much older receiving corps than we see for most rookie quarterbacks -- they would be starting Hopkins and Adam Thielen in Week 1 -- but there's nothing wrong with locking in experienced receivers before working in cheaper options as the quarterback (hopefully) gets closer to earning an extension. Hopkins wouldn't get an extension, but he would get his 2024 salary guaranteed and have one more shot at free agency in 2025. This isn't a perfect deal for everyone involved, but he would get an additional year of guarantees, the Cardinals would unload salary and get a meaningful draft pick, and the Panthers would get two years of a WR1 at a cost well below market value. So we give our late 3rd, Arizona eats $10 million of salary and we get Hopkins for 2 years and $24 million? Seems like a great deal for us. Not sure if there are legit talks going on but if this is felt to be reasonable value, hopefully we are having conversations.

A bargain deal in a weak FA class? Sure, no problem. Paying a guy like a potential WR1 whose career best season was 59 catches, 693 yards and 2 TD (in 17 games) catching passes from the best QB in the NFL? Absolutely not. I think the reason no one has signed him is he is waiting out for more money than he has demonstrated he is worth. Ginn is a good comp. But we signed him to a 2 year, $4.2 million contract in 2015. We could double that to account for inflation of the cap and a weak FA market to get around 2 years $9 million. I'm sure he's looking for way more than that, in which case, no thanks.

Interesting. Basically Shaq took his salary in 2023, spread it out to 2024 effectively giving us a "free year" and spreading the cap hit even more by adding the dummy years. Now granted it's not really a free year because we would've alternatively just cut him and he wouldn't have seen any of that salary, but he could've recouped that and perhaps more on a new free agent contract elsewhere. We basically ripped up his old contract and gave him a 2 year $12 million contract so it depends on whether you think he'd get more or less than that on the free agent market. This feels line a fair compromise for both sides.

Stop quoting the $25 million. We are obviously not paying a 35/36 year old Thielen $9 million. This is very likely a 2 year $14 million contract effectively, with the last year thrown in for cap purposes. It's essentially a foregone conclusion that he'll be cut after 2 years. I'm guessing the last year has around an $8 million cap savings if cut, with a dead cap of only $2.5 million. Overall a solid signing in a position of desperation. Hopefully he'll serve as a strong mentor and rub off on the young guys like TMJ and Shi Smith too.

https://thecomeback.com/nfl/bears-raiders-draft-asking-price.html Stumbled on this article that said Chicago wanted the following from the Raiders for the #1 pick: Pick 7 Pick 38 2 Future 1sts (Presumably 2024 and 2025) Future 2nd Let's compare to what we gave: Pick 9, Pick 61, 2024 1st, 2025 2nd, DJ Moore Let's assume they were OK with a 2025 2nd from Las Vegas to simplify things. That means DJ Moore was valued as: 2025 1st Value needed to get from pick 61 to 38 (at least an extra 2nd) Value between pick 9 and 7 (probably a 3rd and 4th?) That would put DJ's perceived value by Chicago as roughly a future 1st, 2nd, 3rd AND 4th. Even if you assume Chicago would have to come down a bit since that was too much for the Raiders and that some of this was posturing, even anything close to that is tremendous value for DJ. It sucks to lose him, but in this case I think it justifies the price.

You can't get too cute with BPA when you have glaring needs. We almost have to take a WR with pick 39. Hell, if the value isn't there, trade back, get an extra pick, and take a WR at a better value later in the 2nd and then fine, take a TE with the extra pick. WR is even more of a glaring need than usual with a rookie QB. The other issue is people are by and large not great at evaluating talent. What seems like a great TE draft might end with 2/3 of them busting. One of our least successful drafts of late was 2016, when we took Vernon Butler as "value" in the 1st when we had 2 great DTs and then spent the rest of the draft trying to fill Josh Norman's shoes, mostly unsuccessfully (although Bradberry came through). Sounds like some want to repeat that by taking TE in the 2nd and then multiple WRs in the later rounds.

Not necessarily. 2019 draft alone had AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and Deebo Samuel in the 2nd round, averaging over 900 yards their rookie years. Tee Higgins, all the rage now, was a 2nd rounder with over 900 yards as a rookie as well. Obviously it's hardly a guarantee, but there's no reason to assume we can't get get a productive rookie WR as an early 2nd round pick

Unless Foreman is willing to take peanuts, I'm not sure it makes sense to sign him. Hubbard costs $1 million. Is the difference between him and Foreman big enough to justify spending a few million more for your backup RB? That's the kind of wasteful spending that smart teams don't make. My guess is the Panthers have given Foreman a low ball offer and don't really care if he takes it or not. Foreman will try to get more on the open market but if it's not there, I can see him taking it and the Panthers being happy to have him back at a discount.