Peon Awesome

There are 3 centers on the list, none named Bozeman. They estimate $6.5-7.5 million per year for those 3 so if you believe their evaluations, that means something like 3 years, $20 million for Bozeman would be the high end for him. I do think we probably value him more than his perception around the league. ESPN also had a top free agent list and he wasn't on that either. I definitely want us to resign him. But you do wonder whether other teams will see a guy who spent half of the year as our backup and played on a meager one year contract and not feel inclined to break the bank for him. Could bode well for us as long as we don't bid against ourselves.

I guess Shane Steichen must not have impressed too much in interviews. On paper rolling the dice with Steichen (or Kafka) and keeping your 1st round pick seems better than having Sean Payton but I guess I can't totally blame them for not wanting to take another chance on an offensive coordinator with no head coaching experience.

That sounds great but I don't think it's realistic for us to get both Stroud and Harrison. Being in position to get Stroud will likely require at least a 2024 1st and I'd be shocked if Harrison doesn't go in the 1st in 2024.

Isn't this argument akin to the "Well if you think cops killing unarmed people/politicians making 10 year olds give birth/school shootings happening every month/etc is so bad, why don't you move to another country"? Pretty sure people are allowed to be upset about things even if they otherwise love that thing. Kind of like if your spouse does something you don't like, the choices are either divorce or just sit quiet and suck it up? Like to have the audacity to say "Hey I love you but it hurts when you do this. Is it cool if you could stop?" Just overall one of the laziest arguments out there.

I think it's extraordinarily unlikely to almost impossible that the game was "rigged" by means of some coordinated NFL conspiracy from top-down. But it would be naive to say it's unthinkable that 1 or more of the refs could have been influenced by personal biases or even as far as gambling influences to favor Kansas City over Cincinnati. If you watch the Donaghy documentaries, part of the reason he got away with it was that he wasn't engaging in blatant tactics with made up calls. He would do things like call fouls on a star player when there was only minor contact for the team he needed to lose. On replays, you could see there was clear contact, albeit not egregious, and on deeper dive, it was rare for him to call fouls on players on the other team for similar contact. In the Kansas City game, it did feel like the vast majority of 50/50 calls went against the Bengals. Maybe just one of the refs deep down really favored Kansas City and let it perhaps even unintentionally influence his calls. Or with the wider spread legalization of sports gambling, it's not exactly embracing conspiracy theories to say it's possible someone could have bribed one of the refs to shift things in one direction. All it takes is 1 or 2 big calls in key moments to dramatically influence the game.

I have no problem with trying for a rookie qb this year. Hell, I'll be absolutely ecstatic if we get Stroud. My only worry is having to give up a future 1st (or 2 1sts) for him or Bryce Young. If it doesn't work out, we're set back for years. If we give up our 2 2nds and #9 for Stroud, or we stay at 9 and take Richardson, or even something like package 9 plus Brian Burns for Stroud/Young and suck completely in any of those scenarios, at least we have our 1st in 2024 to try again.

It's a fair question but I don't see how you can assume success with a rookie qb and new coach. Hell, I'm sure that thinking went into play when Denver traded two 1sts and 2nds for Russell Wilson. They were taking a strong core with a great defense with the one missing piece being a qb and competent coaching; fair assumption they should have been in instant playoff contention. Well fast forward a year later, and Denver is giving up the 5th and 36th pick in the draft this year. And that's with what was thought to be a known commodity with Russell Wilson. Now take a rookie qb instead who is never a sure thing, and I think you can see where I'm going with this. We could crash and burn and then end up giving away a top 3 pick that could've been Drake Maye or Caleb Williams or whoever separates themselves next year.

TEs are almost universally poor value in the 1st for multiple reasons. A) Positionally undervalued. A top 10 TE isn't going to cost the big money that most other positions will so you lose surplus value on your rookie contract. B) They generally take a few years to fully develop. There's a reason Chicago gave up Olsen for a 3rd. He was averaging about 500 yards per year his 4 years in Chicago. His 1st 1000 yard year was in season 8. You have to expect their best years are going to be after their rookie contract is up unless you hit a generational talent which you can never count on.

Yes and no. They wouldn't have needed an epic comeback if their franchise qb didn't throw 4 1st half interceptions. Chargers ran up the score with tons of great field position the entire 1st half. Their offense wasn't doing that much. Honestly a game manager who didn't turn the ball over probably would have had the game comfortably in hand for the Jaguars the entire time.

Weird, I thought we handily beat them in Seattle? Guess I dreamed that one

I wish someone would go to the Seattle message boards and tell their fans to stop being so stupid and being happy their team snuck in as the 7th seed. Think about how much draft position they just lost! And all to get to play a clearly superior 49ers team on the road. Us Panthers fans know better. We would much rather get an earlier draft pick than get to watch our team play a downtrending Dallas team at home. Clearly a way tougher game than the one the Seahawks team we handily beat on the road has playing against a juggernaut 49ers team in San Francisco.

This new overtime rules will be an interesting rule change. Seems like it would be advantageous to defer in overtime now. You know you're guaranteed a possession no matter what, so you'll know after the other team's first possession if you need to go for every 4th down if they get a td, or can plan a 2 point conversion to win. Or of course if the other team doesn't score, you know a fg will win it as opposed to starting first and worrying if a fg will be enough. Curious to see how they play it.

Not sure that'll be that big of a deal at the end of the day. Teams swing too much from one season to next plus all the parity in the league means the difference between these set of teams might be marginal. Seattle overachieved this year and we still handily beat them. Arizona was a trainwreck and should get back a healthy Kyler and could see a big upgrade at coaching depending on who they hire. The Jets could be a juggernaut with even adequate qb play. I expect they'll spend big to nab someone like Garoppolo. And Tua had 3 concussions this year. No guarantees he'll be healthy. Dallas just got their ass handed to them by that very Commanders team in a game where they still had a shot at the 1 seed when the game started.

He was the spiritual leader of this feisty Lions team. He'd be a huge boost to any locker room. Now he's a free agent and I have to think his market price is in the same stratosphere as D'onta Foreman. I'm ready to buy my Jamaal Williams Panthers jersey.

There's a difference between how many teams need a qb and how many are going to want to draft 1. Last year was a good example that teams are getting wiser on not severely overdrafting qbs even if they need one. Especially this year when you've got a fair number of QBs going into free agent who have a tremendously higher floor than someone like Richardson who is going to be a hope and pray kind of prospect. Derek Carr, Garoppolo, Tom Brady, Geno Smith, Daniel Jones and then you've got your next tier of possible bridge starter/high end backup if you're not in love with the rookies at your draft slot, to include Minshew, Heineke, Darnold, Baker, Bridgewater, Mike White, Andy Dalton, take a project/aim for the 2024 class, similar to what us and Atlanta did last year. My guess? Richardson will be there. Levis depends on the hype and combine, but has a chance to fall. But I doubt 4 qbs go in the top 8. And if they do, there's going to be a monster prospect at 9.

Now that you mention it, I'm sure the Saints and their fans must be high fiving each other that they lost their home finale to the previous bottom feeding divisional team as they stare at another offseason in cap hell with no 1st round pick. Man I wish we could swap places with such an awesome and upward trending team. But us stupid Panthers organization doesn't know any better. The loser mentality is so strong amongst some of you.

Exactly, and they still lost. That's embarrassing. For the record, I was thinking about it more from the Saints fans perspective. Going against a Panthers team playing for nothing on the road, with a QB that had less than 50 yards and then losing on a game winning field goal had to feel like a gut punch. I would be embarrassed watching the Saints finish their season like that if I was their fan.

For those pissed that we lost and think it messed up our draft, we would've picked 8th if we lost. The Lions win has us tied with Las Vegas in strength of schedule, but we played New Orleans twice and by beating them, we worsened our strength of schedule since they ended up 7-10 instead of 8-9. If we lost, our strength of schedule would be better than the Raiders' and we'd pick after them. I'm not going to pretend I was jumping up and down today. But in hindsight, one lost draft slot to embarrass the Saints at their home and finish the season sweep, especially when they don't have the 1st round pick to benefit, at least feels like a justifiable trade off.

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Holy smokes, I am a legit Dan Campbell believer. The calls in this last drive have been masterful. Declining the penalty to take more time off the clock and then that insane quick pass and lateral to nearly get a 1st down on 2nd and 17. Man the Lions should make some noise next year.

I think it makes too much sense for both sides to give a cap friendly extension to Shaq that keeps him in Carolina for a couple years but at a fraction of the cost. I doubt Shaq wants to pack up and leave, especially since there's unlikely to be a massive payday in free agency. The guaranteed money in Shaq's contract is $11.3 million. Add 2 years and round up to $18 million to turn it into a 3 year contract at $6 million per. You give him an extra $7 million compared to cutting him outright and cut his cap hit to about 1/3 of the current. Shaq may take that to not have to uproot his life and gain some job security for at least a couple more years. Maybe it takes a couple million more but even that's probably preferable to an $11 million dead cap hit and having to replace his production.

I don't get it. Sam was nothing but the consummate teammate even as the team and fanbase relegated him to persona non grata. He carried the clipboard, distraction-free for half a season, then when finally called upon in what seemed like a lost season, he played well enough to help us compete for the division. Yet people love to poo on him any chance they get. The biggest Darnold "fans" suggest he should get decent backup money and potentially battle it out with Corral for early starter snaps until whatever rookie QB we pick is ready to post. And yet thats just an outrageous idea and anyone who suggests it is a delusional Darnold nut hugger. I haven't seen a single post of someone suggesting Darnold is our franchise qb. But the way people are yelling at him to get out of here, you'd think that's what the conversation is about. We don't have anyone but Corral under contract for 2023. It seems like a no-brainer to offer him a backup contract. But go ahead, shower me with your poos.

Definitely. They dropped us from the 8th pick to the 9th pick. How will our franchise ever recover??? Man those guys are geniuses.

This might be a crazy thought, but Chicago, Seattle and Arizona could all use a pass rusher. You probably go Will Anderson and Jalen Carter for 2 of those picks but after that Burns is a much surer thing than anyone else at that point. Do you see if Burns could be the central piece for a trade for pick 4 and jump the Colts who are clearly going to take a qb?

He's got an uphill climb. There are 3 receivers among the 15 finalists (Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne and Andre Johnson) so at minimum he's gotta hope they all get enshrined and then build some momentum.