tukafan21

What signs are pointing to T-Mac having a developmental window? If anything, it's literally the opposite. He's one of the more accomplished and polished WRs to come out of college in a long time. Not many players have 3 years of production like he had and then enter the draft early. Yes, there are things he needs to improve, just like every rookie, but he is NOTHING like XL in terms of needing a developmental season, literally couldn't be more different of situations. I've also pointed out how T-Mac and Bryce are actually very much a natural pairing for each other. Bryce is a touch passer who throws with anticipation because he doesn't have the rifle to squeeze into tight windows when they are there. Which pairs perfectly with T-Mac's hands and catch radius as Bryce will be able to place the ball where only he can get his hands on the ball. What a terrible take

If a team with BTJ and Hunter are able to get Dyami Brown to be matched up with our top CB just with where they line them up and we're not able to adjust on the fly, then Evero should be fired before the game is even over.

Well two things, first is that it wasn't just about seeing a good matchup, it was getting the college matchup re-match between the two of them and current Top 10 picks. And second, I doubt we see all too much of Jaycee vs Hunter either, I'd think we'd be more likely to have Jaycee on BTJ more often than the rookie in his first game.

The leak was true, just wish we weren’t playing the Jags week 1 because I don’t expect Hunter to be playing a ton of CB early and I was looking forward to the T-Mac vs Hunter re-match.

You're making conflicting arguments here though. If you want to say we don't have ideal depth and need another Safety for that reason, okay, that's fair. But if you want to talk about "the future at safety" then there is only one possible answer there, and he's already on the roster with Ransom. No FA out there right now is someone who would be a FS of the future for us, they'd all be one year fill-in's until we can replace them next offseason with a long term solution. So if there is anyone with even a remote possibility of playing FS for us this year and then being our long term solution there, it's Ransom. Which is why I say throw him out there as the starter in Week 1 unless he severely struggles in camp. The only way we'll know if we found a cheap FS for the next 3-4 years is by playing him and seeing if he can do the job. If he proves he can be the guy, then we have a minimal cap hit solution at FS through the 2028 season and can use that cap space and draft picks next year towards pass rushers, LB's, and/or a C or RT of the future. If he struggles and we see he needs to be a backup SS for us instead, then we turn around and use those assets next offseason to find the long term solution. But signing a 1 year rental to play there takes that possibility away while also eating into the cap room we could roll over into next year.

Or just don't spend that money and roll it over to next year's cap space to be able to bring in a true impact player instead of just a JAG for this season. We're not contending this year, play the long game for once.

I still don't understand how this guy wasn't cast as Madden, he's a great actor and would have been perfect in the role

Ugh, hope this ends up not being true, was really hoping we'd play them later in the season if the reports of the Jags plans with Hunter end up being true. It very much sounds like their plan is to make him a WR initially, and while he might take some defensive snaps early, their plan is to more slowly bring him along on that side of the ball so he can properly acclimate to the NFL first and focus on the offense. Which means if we play in Week 1, it will mean we won't see much of T-Mac vs Hunter, and I was really looking forward to that re-match between them this year, which might have seen them matchup more if played later in the season.

I don't disagree, but you're not giving our offense enough credit, and I'm not saying we would win the SB, just that we would be contenders, which we would have been. The Bengals had a horrible start to the season last year and it caused them to just miss the playoffs by one game, but had they made it, they absolutely would have been contenders in the AFC. They had a bad defense, probably worse than ours will be this year, and you can't convince me that we don't have a better offensive roster than they had last year. We have a Top 10 OL, two 1k rushers from last year, two 1st round WRs, one of the best slot WRs in the league, and then Coker. Like I said, their Top 2 WRs are better than ours will be this year, but we take them in every other spot, OL, RBx2, and our 3rd/4th WRs. If Burrow was able to turn that team into a contender last year, no reason he couldn't do the same with our roster this year. And hell, I think our offensive roster is better than KC's last year too, and while I know their defense did a lot of the heavy lifting last year, if you give Mahomes an improved offensive roster around him, he's going to be THAT much better himself. A Mahomes, Burrow, or Allen would be able to win the South by outscoring teams. And yes, come playoff time against an Eagles or Lions juggernaut, our defense probably costs us the game, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't at least be contenders. If Bryce can prove me wrong and his supporters here right, and be THAT guy for us this year, I genuinely think we can be a real playoff threat in 2026 once we add a few more pieces to the defense and then be a genuine SB contender in 2027 if the team keeps improving. We're the 2022 Detroit Lions right now. Great offensive pieces, tons of holes on defense, but if things go right we'll just miss the playoffs (like they did) and then be right in the playoff hunt the next year (like they did) and then be contenders the following season (like they did when they were the #1 seed).

Yep, I'm starting Ransom unless he struggles in camp. We're not contending this year, don't spend any more cap space at this point unless we have to, roll the extra space over into next offseason at this point. If he proves he can be a starter next to Moehrig, great, we just got a cheap starter for a few more seasons and can use the cap space at more impactful positions. If he struggles, then we have our backup SS and we sign a new FS or use a earlier pick on one next summer.

This is the answer if you can't go with a QB. But I think Mahomes, Allen, or Burrow could make the offense good enough to have a SB caliber team in spite of the defense. Great OL with a ton of weapons, even if they're young outside of Thielen, I think those 3 could have us contending this year. We'd basically be very similar to the Bengals last year, who just missed the playoffs because of their terrible start to the season, but if they snuck in, they'd have been as dangerous as any team in the AFC last year. They gave up the 7th most points in the league last year but still had a positive points differential. Chase/Higgins is better than T-Mac/XL of course, but Thielen is a crazy upgrade over Iosivas in the slot, Coker is far better than 4th WR who had 107 yards in 14 games, we have a significantly better OL, and Chuba/Rico is better than Brown/Moss last year. So combine our offense with an improved if not yet great defense, and yea, one of those 3 QB's would win the South with us and be a contender. Now we may not actually win a SB because of the defense come playoff time, but we'd be contenders. So actually, maybe we'd be last year's Lions just without the injuries being why the defense wasn't good enough?

Horn and T-Mac will get matched up a lot, but it won't be 100% of the time, nor should it be anything close to that. Yes, it would benefit T-Mac's ability to get better at beating the press, but it would also be a detriment both of them for them to be matched up too much more than 50% of their reps. Neither is likely to end up going up against similar players in games, not many teams have WRs the size of T-Mac and not many teams have CB's with the physicality of Horn. Horn needs to work on covering smaller shiftier WRs as well, just as T-Mac needs plenty of reps against smaller CBs so he can work on using his frame to body them out of position.

It's literally plain and simple that T-Mac has a higher ceiling, nobody who knows anything about football and has a sane mind would say otherwise.

If you legitimately think XL has a higher ceiling than T-Mac, then you're out of your mind delusional. Sorry, but that's just nonsense.

LOL, being faster and stronger doesn't mean he will be a better player "if everything clicks" (and you say bigger, but that's just in bulk, which is strength said another way, he measured 6'1" at the combine vs 6'4 1/8" for T-Mac) It's just a beyond absurdly simplistic view of things. To begin with, no matter how much things click for XL, he will never have the catch radius that T-Mac has and he will never have the hands that T-Mac has. Period. That alone will always have him as a better red zone threat than XL could ever be, I don't care how much he improves, T-Mac will always be Bryce's top option there. He also will likely never have the innate WR ability that T-Mac has, which is something that you can't put a statistic or clear cut attribute to, but you don't play 5 years in college and a rookie season still looking this raw and then develop that type of feel for the game, even if you improve your issues. It's a reason T-Mac and Bryce actually made a good pairing, because they're going to be able to share a mind out there at times, it's what made T-Mac and Fifita so dangerous together too. T-Mac came into college with an advanced feel for the game and position, something he keeps getting better at and XL still doesn't show. It's like you're then saying T-Mac has no ability to improve on his weaknesses, as you can't say he's better than XL right now, but if things click for XL, T-Mac can't stay better by also getting better himself. T-Mac's ceiling is as a Top 5 WR, XL is never going to be that, and I say that as a fan of his. His ceiling is as a Top 20, borderline Top 15 type of guy, and there isn't anything wrong with that.

And as I asked this again before, what goes into PFF's man open %, as I know you've brought that stat up before. Is that just the number of routes he gets open at any point during the route, or is it calculated on targets and if he was open when the ball got to him. Because like I pointed out so many times in the lead up to the draft, a big reason it was harder for him to get separation against man was because he not only had his man on him, but he was double or triple teamed on the majority of his routes this past year. Just because of that alone, it was easier for him to get open against zone coverage where he could find holes and sit in them. Also, again, as been discussed so many times, his QB's play this year was awful, and lots of times his contested catches were due to him not delivering the ball on time when T-Mac got open. Or just times he got open but wasn't targeted for whatever reason. So just using that stat as a way to say he struggles to get open against man is more likely than not, disingenuous. Hell, it's a PFF stat that you're using against him, yet at the same time, PFF absolutely loves him, he was their 4th overall player. I posted this clip on here a week or so ago of the T-Mac vs Hunter game in 2023, where the anti T-Mac guys like to say Hunter shut him down. But numerous times in this video you see T-Mac create tons of separation from Hunter but the ball wasn't thrown his way, plus a clear PI that wasn't called (and the one that was). https://x.com/4MR_Fetti/status/1918262063660454227 The "he can't separate" narrative is way overblown and become something more myth than reality. No, he's not an elite separator like some of the quick twitch WRs, but he's so much better than the haters here like to say.

I never said he was perfect, but his floor is still as a low end #1, I honestly think his floor in this league is around the 25th best WR in the league, and that's if he doesn't improve on anything but just continues to be the player he is right now. So I really hope you just mean XL's ceiling is higher than T-Mac's floor since I was saying it wasn't. Because there literally just isn't any world where XL's ceiling is higher than T-Mac's ceiling, it would be one of the more asinine statements to say XL's was higher.

I mean this as no slight to XL, as I personally do still love his potential as a high end #2 if he can cut back on the drops and crisp up his routes a bit, as he has some elite physical traits for sure. But XL's ceiling is probably lower than T-Mac's floor, so you just can't say we didn't need T-Mac because we have XL, that's just crazy talk.

So dumb I get it, they want to expand the reach of the NFL, but it's not the right sport to be playing games halfway around the world for a variety of reasons. But one of the main ones is what happens if a player has an injury in that game? A lot of times, you're not supposed to fly right after some injuries, so when they happen here it's not a big deal, the player stays in that town for a few days and then flys home separately. But that opens a whole bag of worms if the game is played all the way out in Australia. Plus just needing that long of a flight to get out there and back, even if they get a bye week after, it means a ton of travel and needing to adjust to a new time zone directly after another game.

I don't think it was fear of the unknown because he tried to hide the extent of the injuries that made him drop. After the drop, the reports I heard were that teams knew what was wrong with his knee and it was something similar to another athlete from a few years ago (honestly don't remember if it was even a football player). That it was basically one of those things where he should be fine for a while, there isn't a huge concern of immediate injury risk. But what he has going on with his knee is something that is degenerative and there's little chance he'll be able to play more than 5 or so years on it before he won't be able to play anymore. So basically it was teams knowing if they draft him, he's probably going to be only a rookie contract player and even if he's great, you might not be able to get use out of him on a second contract. Which in turn makes the drop make sense, but I'm kinda surprised some contending team didn't take him late in the 1st, hoping he'd put them over the top on a SB run but then not even have to worry about giving him a big contract in 4 years too.

I had long said he was one of the main players I wanted at 8 if T-Mac wasn't there or if we just weren't going to take him even if he was. I genuinely wonder if his agent was working to keep the extent of his knee problems quiet, because it's clear the teams all were much more concerned about how long his knee might hold up than any analyst ever talked about, so us fans would never have had any idea of course.

It's not a good look for him, but I don't put much stock in all this. He's a DT who is a gamer and not a workout warrior to begin with, add in that he probably celebrated a bit too much post-draft and wasn't keeping in his best shape, and it makes sense for him to be out of shape right now. If he still looks like this come training camp, then it's a much bigger red flag to keep an eye on

huh? They mostly eliminated position groups needing to pick certain numbers a few years ago. OL and maybe QB's are the only ones who need to have numbers in a certain range now, everyone else can take whatever number they want except I think the 60's and 70's which are only allowed for linemen. Which then certainly makes it easier for teams to have a handful of numbers retired without causing any issues. So still to me... 1, 59, and 89 should never be worn again and then I like the idea someone else had in the thread where 58 is now a LB only number and needs TD's approval for them to wear, but I'd like to see it become a Panthers tradition for great LB's to wear 58 and pass it along.

Leaning towards just ordering this tonight, but now I have no idea on size. Has anyone bought a bunch of jerseys in the last few years and can convey how the Game vs Limited vs Reebok versions all fit? These are both Mediums... The white one here is a Reebok one from 2010, and was when they had the "+2 length" on the tag and it was the version with the stitched numbers instead of iron on... the blue one is from 2022 and is the F.U.S.E Limited version also with stitched stuff, not the "game jersey" with the ironed on numbers/letters that they have the T-Mac jerseys in. The old one fits me fine, the blue one was always a tad snug on me, particularly in the shoulders I'm leaning going with a Large based on the CMC, but for all I know, that is made with a tighter cut due to the higher "limited" level and the "game" ones they have for T-Mac are cut more like a T-Shirt and thus will fit more like the old white one I have here, not sure. (and yes, I already tried going to a sporting goods store here to hopefully try on a Lions jersey to see, but they don't have any right now)

I have less of an issue with 90 being used since Peppers left on his own and spent almost half his career playing for other teams. He "only" had 81 sacks here before he left for Chicago, and yes I know he came back to add 16 more in those final two years, but he's not a HOFer if you remove his Chicago and GB years. Luke played his entire HOF career here and then retired, Cam and Smitty were cut after long HOF caliber careers here despite neither wanting to leave. And while I know you can use my same argument against Peppers against Smitty, as he wouldn't eventually end up in the HOF (and he will) without his stats from his Baltimore years, again, we forced him out when he didn't want to leave and his stats in those years were the icing on the HOF cake he baked while in Carolina.