tukafan21

As soon as the one I want is available (probably). Looked last night and they only have the "standard" one right now, but that aint good enough for me on this one. Authentic or nothing LOL. Only reason I might wait a tad bit, is to just make sure whatever number he takes, he doesn't change after camp cuts if someone else has what he really wants. I'd be pretty angry if I spent the money on an authentic jersey only for him to change his number a couple of months later. What I really want is less of a jersey for myself, but hoping they do the the T-Shirts with his name/number on them in baby sizes so I can get one for my 1 year old Nephew. I've got him gear from my other teams but had refused to get him anything Panthers yet as I wasn't going to saddle him with our awfulness, but now......... yea, he needs that T-Mac shirt/jersey!

He's explained before that he feels "Tet" is disrespectful to his mother who named him. And given how much their Polynesian heritage means to their family, my best guess is that the name has a deeper meaning to him and his family, so shortening it to something like that comes off as disrespectful to him/them. Totally different than a diva like Shedeur.

I think you nail it right on the head here, I think why this is so crazy for me is because we're not a football powerhouse and we don't put a ton of guys into the NFL, so the odds of us ever drafting an Arizona guy are low in general, let alone someone who just re-wrote our record books. In fact, this is back to back years we've had a 1st round pick (OL that went to GB last year) and it now makes me wonder when the last time that happened for us, and my guess is a long time ago (maybe in the 90's when we had a great run on defense?) I spent the last couple years watching T-Mac. And when I say that, I mean it literally. I don't love the college game much anymore and over the past decade, I've only been a sporadic watcher of Arizona Football. But these last few years with him in town and killing it, I've watched every snap of every game, and when we're on offense, I don't watch the QB, I'd just immediately find T-Mac line up and just watch him go to work.

Is this still all real? I keep pinching myself today to make sure it wasn't all some big dream I had last night, because I'm still in a bit of shock. My voice is completely shot today, way too much screaming last night when the pick was made. It's also been a lot of fun bouncing around between here and my Arizona board since the pick was made, this is all just so surreal, too freaking happy

I keep going on and on and on about his separation? I challenge you to go find one post I've ever made that says he's some elite separator, but here's a little tip, you won't find it, because I've never once said it. I've defended my guy to the death on here, but I've never once tried to lie about who he is as a player, I've recognized his faults and where he needs to improve, because I can look at who a player is without bias. I've said he's better than some give him credit for on here, but I've also said NUMEROUS times that it's one of the areas he does need to improve upon (like every prospect at this point in their career has things to get better at).

You do realize this wasn't him being interviewed, right? It was some video someone posted online and those two guys are doing a podcast and are just watching this video, they're not interviewing him leading into the draft. He was being filmed by some random kid who was talking to him while eating lunch in some cafeteria a like two years ago.

As a T-Mac fan, if we didn't take him, that's where I wanted him to land as it would have been an amazing fit. Lamb plays mostly in the slot, giving them a true #1 on the outside to let Lamb stay inside, that would have been a dangerous combo for Dak

We play the Jags this year, so who knows, we might get to see a rematch between them, would be cool if it was Week 1 and they match up a lot, I'm all for it, let's go baby.

I think we could still use speed from the slot, but with T-Mac, XL, and Coker already as part of our Top 4 with Thielen, I think we should look to bring in a Vet FA in that role than look for someone else in the draft there.

Oh, the previous year when he had 9 catches for 107 yards in the game, while catching (I believe, again, not trying to re-research it at this point) 3 of the 5 targets he had while Hunter was covering him, including a 1 on 1 red zone matchup where T-Mac created separation in a short space and made a nasty catch for the Touchdown, oh and not to mention also drawing a PI call on Hunter in coverage as well? Yea, what a bum we just drafted.

I'm not going to keep refuting when people say dumb things about T-Mac like the last few months, but I'll still love when people spout off dumb stuff like this and make it sound like they've done their research watching full game footage to make statements like this. You gave yourself away when talking about how he couldn't get open vs Hunter in this year's Colorado game. Hunter came into the game hurt, played sparingly in the 1st half and then didn't play a single snap in the 2nd half, literally not one and if I remember correctly, he had even changed into street clothes at halftime so he wasn't even dressed in the 2nd half. There's a ton more I can say, lots of other stats to refute your nonsense about him not performing against good teams (I've pulled the data against ranked teams and it proves you wrong, just don't feel like going and doing it again or finding an old post of mine), but just not worth doing all that. But yea, every time I see someone talk about Hunter getting the best of him this past season while saying people need to go watch the tape, just makes me crack up because if they actually watched said tape, they'd know how dumb of a statement it was.

The funny thing, I also have a random personal connection to Funchess too. He's from my hometown and basically was the best football player to ever come from our town, before him it was probably Drew Stanton, but he moved into town for high school, Funchess grew up here. I got to meet him the summer after we drafted him through a mutual friend and then was able to get him to sign the picture the next summer with "From [our hometown] to Carolina" Now I need to get a picture with T-Mac and get him to sign it "Bear Down and Keep Pounding" as Bear Down is Arizona's motto. The difference is I just thought it was cool for the Panthers to draft the best player from my hometown, not like I was pounding the table for it because I thought he was going to be a stud, which has been the case with T-Mac for a long time now with me here.

Did the Eagles and Chiefs just swap the last 2 picks of the round? That's weird, KC must have bluffed someone trading up to take whoever the Eagles want

I said it a ton of times the last few months but I think it was overlooked or brushed off as just me pushing for my guy, but I think T-Mac is a PERFECT fit for Bryce and far better than the speedy quick twitch WR everyone has been wanting. So maybe people will hear it better now that we took him. Bryce doesn't have a cannon of an arm, so if you want the speedster to help take the top off the defense, then that was just a fallacy as Bryce doesn't have the arm to make that a true threat to force safeties to stay deep. Bryce's deep ball is more of a heave for a jump ball, which is where T-Mac thrives, that's right up his alley and a great fit. Then also, what Bryce does do well is place the ball with touch into tight spaces as opposed to fire those lasers into tight windows. Again, perfect with T-Mac's size, catch radius, and hands. Those back shoulder high and away throws with those two once they get their timing down is going to be lethal and impossible for any DB to break up. And everyone's concerns about his separation is also overblown thanks to Bryce's anticipation ability. He'll be throwing that ball before T-Mac makes his cuts so it's getting there right when T-Mac gets that minimal separation. And since he catches the ball with his hands out away from his body, defenders won't be able to get in there and break it up when the ball is hitting him as soon as he turns to it. Basically T-Mac's biggest strengths align perfectly with Bryce's strengths and in a way, his weaknesses as well. I tried saying it before but I think too many people got caught up just wanting a speedster and couldn't see the forrest through the trees and see why T-Mac really was the perfect fit with Bryce.

Is the draft still going on? I've basically just been blacked out for the last 2 hours, this still doesn't feel real. LFG T-Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!

For what it's worth, the Arizona insider people have said this is entirely bullshit, they've really gone hard after McShay's comments the last few days. Fisch wasn't happy when T-Mac and our QB didn't follow him to Washington last year and the rumors have been that he's been out there bashing T-Mac to his NFL contacts out of spite, which is 100% something he'd do, he's not a very well liked coach and is a complete dick.

I don't care that there is an official thread or if this may even be "against the draft day rules" but I'm starting my own thread, because after everything leading into today, of course I have to, lol. This won't be a long post about why he's going to be great, he's a Panther now, I don't need to convince anyone to want him, he'll show all the doubters why once he hits the field. But I've been trying to speak this into existence for about 18 months now It's not often that your favorite NFL team drafts the best player in your college's history, this still doesn't feel real, I'm in shock, I'm on cloud 9, I'm not even sure what to feel right now. To those of you who were on the T-Mac train with me this whole time, WE DID IT, now let's enjoy the ride. To those of you who were strongly against that train, well, you're going to be proved wrong and will look back on this one saying I was right, so I'll just accept your apologies now, you're welcome. Bear Down and Keep Pounding Tetairoa!

This may have only been poo'd so far, but I did just ask on my Arizona board and they said yes, he doesn't like the nickname and has said he feels it's disrespectful to his mom who named him Tetairoa. So, poo on this if you want, but that's what the case is here, just passing along to our fan base.

He also signed with Jordan Brand today too

Can I please make a request to the mods and have this thread title changed to his full first name? I know our insiders on our Arizona page get upset when they see all the NFL people call him Tet, so I have a feeling it's not a nickname he likes, let's respect our new superstar.

I have no words at the moment, been running around screaming since his first name came out of Goodell's mouth, never even heard his last name.

Giving up that much means they 100% plan on playing Hunter both ways... which means they just gave all that up for a guy who is probably only going to last 3-5 years in this league. Playing 5 years both ways would be the equivalent of taking 10 seasons of wear and tear. So dumb

It’s not about starting, if we take an OT in the 1st, the only path to any playing time at all is injuries. thats not how you should use a 1st on a team with so many holes. If an OT falls in the 2nd it would be more acceptable, but even then we can get players there who will play for us and make an impact this season.

Not at 8, he's someone we should be able to get after some sort of trade down

OT is only a need if we think Moton's career may be over and not even play this season. If the team isn't concerned about that, then an OT in the 1st round is the definition of a luxury pick, as realistically, no rookie OT should play a snap for us this year unless we have injuries.