45catfan

Yup, as underwhelmed as I was with this past draft, at least Morgan got all our picks back from previous trades and now we have a full compliment of picks in each round.

I like Morgan, but chances that he was polar opposites of his friend, mentor and former boss Scott Fitterer were slim. The draft was going to be a telltale sign for me and he didn't deliver, IMO. He pretty much got the positions correct, but the dudes we drafted was Fitterer 2.0.

Tepper is to blame. He's the one that that made the HC hires. He's the one that pushed for Bryce Young. Tepper made bad GM hires. Everyone else is living with his sh*t decisions.

Tepper + Young = above GIF

The train wreck started with Tepper and it will end when Tepper sales it. This was, based off franchise W's and L's, a .500 football organization. Not great, but not horrible either. We had hope every year to at lease after the midway point, if not longer. Under Tepper's watch, I haven't had hope for the playoffs at all. We are all throwing in the towel after one game.

Shocked we looked as bad as we did. I thought were going to lose, but damn, that was rough. If I remember correctly, I was thinking about 6 wins this year, which is still a bad team. I thought we would look slightly better than last year. Based off yesterday, boy was I wrong!

Dude probably went home and threw himself down the stairs and came in today saying, 'coach, I think I got injured yesterday.'

Picks I either agreed with or really liked going back 10 years: 2024-Smith-Wade: Agreed on value 2023-Zavala: Agreed on value 2022-Ekwonu: Liked the pick 2021-None 2020-Brown: Liked the pick, Chinn- Liked the pick (I know, two in this draft) 2019-none 2018-Moore: Agreed on value 2017- CMC- Agreed on value, Samuel-Liked the pick, Moton-Agreed on value (Best 2 day draft) 2016-None 2015-Shaq: Agreed on value 2014-None

No, we actually couldn't.

I think Bryce is probably a great X' and O's guy, but it doesn't translate to the field, at least in non-7-0n7 practice scenario such as actual games. He'd likely be a decent coach later on in life. Most really good coaches have high game acumen, but were never great players themselves. My theory is Bryce can TALK ball on a very high level, draw it up, give correct reads, make checks based on coverage--all on a WHITE BOARD, but can't deliver when it's for real.

I'll apply!

I scrolled though our history and found that this was the SECOND biggest a$$ whopping in our 30 year history. Only outdone by Seifert's last game in 2000, week 17. versus the Raiders losing 9-52. You can argue it's our worst though because the team gave up in 2000 and was ready to go home for the offseason. This was game 1, a brand new year...zero excuse. The numbers say second worst, I say WORST based off circumstances.

Elite starting NFL QBs? Correct, there are none in the 2025 draft. I'm thinking about 2-3 mid-tier starters and several solid backup types. We need a veteran QB just to get some W's. Fug the playoffs. Heck, I'm so starved for merely watchable Panthers football that a season approaching a .500 record would make me giddy like a little school girl.

Yup, Canales right hand man in Tampa.

Tepper is aggressive about canning people he hires. He's allowed the coaches and GMs to handle the player aspect...for now. I can see him start to tell Dan and Dave who to bench and who to start shortly though if things continue like this. Everyone thinks Jerry Jones meddles too much, but he's the owner and GM who actually has a football background. Tepper is an egotistical a$$ who thinks because he's made of money and successful in hedge funds that he knows how to build a winning NFL franchise.

Bryce will likely give up on himself before Tepper will, unfortunately.

I would tend to agree, but you know who the owner is right? You know how he manipulated a veteran coaching staff last year, right? We move on from Bryce when Tepper finally has enough, but that's his guy. Everyone knows it and I don't know if his ego will allow it.

The sad part is, Bryce likely gets one more season. He'll get the "new coaching staff, new system" excuse to survive another season.

Frank Reich tried defending Bryce telegraphing his wounded ducks over the middle of the field for two picks in our opening loss to the Falcons last year. Let's see if Canales will do the same.

I said last season Ewers would be the top QB in the 2025 class. That could change. I'm not sold on Sanders and Beck is surrounded by 5 star talent all around him. Same with Milroe. The one guy who has quietly gotten better every year is Jaxson Dart out of Old Miss. If he has another quality season, he could end up pushing Ewers for that top spot. There are a lot of solid BACK UP types in this coming QB class, but starters are THIN. We will need to be no lower than pick #3 to get a starter. Even then, not elite.

True. Actually the handful of rose colored glasses folks will either go silent now or completely deny they were in that camp.

Is this the offense or defense? Can't expect us to tell without the jersey numbers, for crying out loud!

The sad part is I am not an expert, but could have a assembled a better roster than the so-called experts.

We didn't give up nothing to draft Pickles and was able to move on from him easily. Plus he gave us Cam. Bryce busting has screwed this team up for at least a couple more seasons.