45catfan

Yup. Fool me once... The roster is not considerably better. Better coached? That remains to be seen. Bryce should take a step forward, well, because he couldn't do any worse. With better coaching, more consistent QB play and a marginally better roster, that should get us to 3-4 more wins over last year. Just make the games watchable and I'll be happy.

Yup, 6 wins is about where I'm at. I think we hit the Matt Rhule 5 win mark, but struggle to get the sixth one. We beat some bad teams teams like Washington, Cardinals and Denver. We won't go winless in the division, so maybe 2 home wins in the NFCS. The Bears aren't bad, but have a rookie QB, so if he has a bad day there's possibly another win. I can see us catching either the Giants, Raiders or Chargers on a bad day for one more win, potentially two. If thins go a about as good as I can see them going, there's a possible 9 wins on the schedule. That said, we have a black cat as our mascot, so temper those expectations by a few games and you get the 5 or 6 wins I'm expecting. I think we are winless on the road within the division. We are not beating the Eagles, Cowboys, Chiefs, or Bengals. We drop at least one more road game against the either the Raiders, Broncos or Bears. That's how I arrived at he 9 win at best total.

Yup, it really is that simple. Tepper was not ready to be an NFL owner, maybe he never will be. Dave simply had the money the NFL sought from a new owner and Tepper had an interest in buying a team. It's been all downhill ever since. One bungle, flub, misstep, boneheaded move after another. A comedy of errors and laughable to everyone else in the sports world except the Panthers emotionally wrecked fan base.

The video was okay. Since these have been done for a few years now, it doesn't move the needle for me much anymore. I came away feeling no different about this team than I did prior to viewing it. I guess the best parts were the Morgan segments. I'm unsure he's going to be a great GM, but you can tell he loves this team and area, so if he fails, it won't be from indifference.

His best half of football all season. Sadly, that's pretty much his best highlight reel if you were to choose one game.

We screwed up a couple years ago taking Bryce in the first place. Nobody held a gun to our head to jump from #9 to #1. Most people who keep up with draft news knew this 2024 QB class was loaded and we should have waited, which I advocated. It was a dumb move and I knew it. Now we have to roll with Bryce another year. That's fine, because this 2025 class isn't that great. I like Ewers, but not super high on him. If Bryce shows improvement, which I think he will, that should get him at least one more season before we have to decide on if he's the permanent answer or not. I've said before, the 2026 draft is the next window for a franchise QB if Bryce isn't the answer. Bryce gets this year and next at a minimum.

Wild card for the worst record again.

Decent draft for QBs, but not where you want to be absolutely needing your franchise QB. I knew the Pickett draft was going to suck, BTW.

Parking garages SUCK for tailgating. So if I ever go to another Panthers home game, I'll just wear some good hiking/running shoes because I'll be walking a while from a good ole gravel parking lot...if they still exist within a mile radius of the stadium by then.

WAS the best until most of the good tailgating spots got developed. Does everyone tailgate in parking garages now--specifically on the north side?

I was waffling on 5 or 6 wins before I opened this thread. Funny the odds are 5.5 wins. I said 6 in the prediction thread, but there's NO WAY I'm comfortable with that number; certainly not enough to put money on it.

Best scenario, 6 wins. I can see us splitting with the Saints and Bucs. Commanders is a good possibility for a win. Depending how Murray and Jones are playing and if banged up , we could get wins over the Cards and Giants. Toss in an unexpected win elsewhere. I don't foresee many more wins over obviously better teams. The Raiders may be a win, BUT, we will lose at least one of the games I called a victory. I'm not going 6-0 on those predictions. I don't foresee many more wins over obviously better teams. A pretty tough schedule for a rebound season.

I like the part about zero designed QB runs. Ya think?????

Part II. I think he did ok, but the point is we lost. I don't think the jinx wears off after one contest.

The DJ Moore revenge game. You know we always lose in revenge games.

Greg Olsen wasn't the Greg Olsen we knew his rookie year. Remember, the Bears gave up on him and traded Greg to us for peanuts. So dude ain't coming out of the gates as Greg Olsen. That being said, the Olsen trade was probably the only trade we've ever clearly won.

Needing one and drafting one is two separate things. We might need one, but Bryce will get a 3rd season unless he simply looks atrocious out there. We could draft a backup as this is Dalton's last season, but a straight up replacement for Bryce I don't see in the cards until the 2026 draft at the earliest.

Woof, not THAT bad. That draft class had ZERO first rounders. Yeah, I know, Pickett went #19 to the hometown Steelers. I personally had zero first round grades on QBs in that draft. If the Steelers didn't catch Pickett, he very well could have made it to the second round. I'm going to compare it to the QB 2020 draft, although the top guy won't be as good as Burrow, but still should go #1 overall. You'll probably have a couple more guys go in the top 10 (Tua, Herbert) and there may be a Love or Hurts in the late first/early second.

I kept saying the same thing last year. I didn't know the name of the concept/play, but I knew we were running it over and over and over and over again. We weren't attacking the boundaries, that much was crystal clear. Was it the WRs? Yes. Was it Byrce? Yes. Was it the O-line? Yes. As a function of Bryce having the yips and the WRs inability to win outside did the coaching staff force everything inside? Asbo-freaking-lutely! It was nice for someone to break down what I was seeing with my own eyes. It was a snowball rolling downhill effect and it's difficult to pinpoint exactly which of the four (coaching, WRs, OL or Bryce) was the catalyst for that snowball to get on it's ill-fated trek know as the Panthers 2023 season. All I know it was on a collision course with disaster. The brass is going to try to salvage Bryce through a stout run game and play action off of it. It's completely obvious to me. Will it work? Who knows? I do know it can't be any worse than last season. That much I'm certain of and I can at least tolerate watching games again even if it does only result in a few more wins.

Blackshear is a JAG. There's a reason he's buried on the depth chart and keeps only getting one-year deals for peanuts. Depth has been an issue at RB, not so much anymore.

He's too expensive to cut this year. In 2025? Expect him to be in an uniform other than a Panthers' one. Plus we have nearly $50M in dead cap already, no need to add significantly more to that number.

Yes, Canales and Morgan. Stud coming out of college, but has been banged up since being in the League. If, BIG IF, he can stay healthy, this dude could be a strong acquisition.

^This. Chuba is a solid #2, mediocre #1. We won't--SHOULD NOT--open up the vault for him. The RB position is low value now. He's going to go to the highest bidder next free agency and it better not be us.

True, but he could actually stick. I can see us keeping four on the 53 man roster and yes, I think he's better than Blackshear, Brown Boone and even Cohen.