tukafan21

I'm not saying he's wrong on all of his projections, he's right on some, no doubt about it. But I'd say he's been way more wrong than right when evaluating WRs over the last 5 years or so, I'd consider that regularly in my book, but to each his own.

As I just said in another thread... Without this trade, T-Mac is not a Panther. I don't need to know anything else other than that, we won this trade, or maybe I just did, who knows, but I don't care because I'm still floating on Cloud 9.

One of my favorite things about us taking T-Mac is that I get to see my Arizona boards attack my GOAT (haven't been able too decide which boards I'm enjoying more... rubbing it in my fellow Wildcat fan's faces that my NFL team took our guy or just celebrating on here that we took him, they're equally fun in different ways lol). Needless to say, Smitty is not a well liked person these days in Tucson, and all the Wildcat family is talking about how they hope T-Mac takes all his Panthers records away (which frankly I agree now as just a Panthers fan, because it means we drafted a HOFer). But one of the things I keep telling them is that as Panthers fans, we know Smitty is regularly wrong on his WR projections and that Smitty hating on T-Mac is probably a better sign for his career than the opposite.

The funny thing, is that yea, I've been one of the biggest Bryce bashers since we drafted him, and not just on here, my friends all know I was never happy with the trade or pick. Well after the Bears used our final pick from that trade, a friend tried to troll me in a group chat by sending that final list of everything and my response was, "all I see is a trade the Panthers won" which of course they called me a liar for, but for me, it's now very much true. Bryce has now fallen into the same category as the Clausen pick for me. I despised the Clausen pick, absolutely hated it (obviously for good reason), but in retrospect, I love the pick because it's what started the chain of dominoes that lead to us getting Cam, without Clausen, we likely never get to have Cam. That trade was the starting of the dominoes that lead to us getting T-Mac, and for me, no matter my feelings towards Bryce or however he turns out as a player, I'll now always love the trade/pick because it got my guy to Carolina, LOL.

Sweet Jebus you're right, he is 6'1" It's amazing how a guy can get measured at the combine at 6'1", but everyone still lists him at 6'3" and fans don't bother to go look at his combine measurement and think he's actually 6'3" I won't lie, I've thought he was 6'3" this whole time, he's listed as such on the team site, espn, wikipedia, everywhere. But also on his wikipedia page are his combine measurements where it lists him at 6'1", crazy.

Yes, because he's finally surrounded by a legitimately good NFL cast of offensive teammates. There are no holes in our offense right now, we have everything (except experience) that a team could want for their QB. It's time to put up or shut up, and while I won't deny I've never been a Bryce backer, I'm still going to root hard for him to prove me wrong, I'd rather eat crow than still need us to find a long term QB solution.

Dead wrong. If he had been in last year's class, he'd have been in contention with Odunze to be the 3rd WR taken after MHJ and Nabers. Yes, I know Thomas Jr exploded for the best season of any of them and looks like a stud, but he was still picked in the 20's, and T-Mac would have gone before him. Even if he didn't get taken before Odunze in the Top 10, he likely would have still gone Top 15 and be the next WR off the board.

You have no idea, Jedd Fisch is the definition of scumbag, I never even liked him when he was at Arizona and I celebrated when he left. He's the definition of a snake oil salesman, just go look at his coaching history, all he does is jump around every year or two because he's all about himself and just isn't a well liked person so he quickly wears out his welcome. A big reason most of the team stayed in Tucson was he built up this whole "family" mantra and recruited players who felt the same way, in particular, a very heavy Polynesian group of players who tend to value that. When he left in the way he did, it really upset them because it was the opposite of everything he ever sold them on and what they stood for. Which is why they stayed together, as a family, and lead by T-Mac (well, and Fifita, but you know what I mean, the two of them were the leaders of the band)

If you think Higgins is a near replica of T-Mac, you're going to be more than pleasantly surprised when you see him out there for us this year. Just as if you think "we took a tall WR in round 1 last year" means XL and T-Mac are remotely close to the same player. Basically the ONLY thing that is similar about the two of them is that they're both 6'3" or taller, after that, the comparisons stop, unless you count that they're both now Carolina Panthers.

Washington has a ton of NIL money, like a stupid amount, which is why the assumption was that T-Mac and the rest of our core group of players were going to follow Fisch to Washington. Here is a good article that talks about that whole thing and why T-Mac (and Fifita) were the reason the majority of the team stayed in Tucson... https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40918248/arizona-noah-fifita-aiming-big-12-championship-2024 And while it's not mentioned in that article above, it was known that T-Mac (and Fifita) told boosters to take some of the NIL they were offering the two of them to stay, and to spread it around to the other players to help keep as many players in town as possible. Also... for anyone who was worried about the reports coming out in the days before the draft from McShay, as I said at the time, they were all complete crap and were staunchly refuted by all the Arizona insiders who know the team well. The leading "theory" (and I put that in quotes because it's one of those, "we don't know, but we KNOW") as to where that came from was that it was Fisch. Part of why he got/took the Washington job was that he sold them on being able to bring Fifita, T-Mac, and the other impact players with him to Washington and he wasn't happy when they stayed in Tucson. He also has DEEP connections in the NFL world as that's where he spent most off is career and he was out there trying to make it sound like T-Mac fell off a cliff without him, out of spite.

It was a combination of Fifita regressing this year and losing the coaching staff we had in 23, now how much was his regression also directly due to the staff change or were they separate issues that then compounded each other, who knows. Part of it was also that the new staff wasn't able to replace Jacob Cowing, who was a 4th round pick by the 49ers last year and in 23 tied T-Mac for I think it was 9th in the nation in catches with 90, or our TE Tanner McLachlan who was a 6th round pick by the Bengals. Without that 2nd and 3rd legitimate receiving threat (plus, it didn't help that our running game was hurt because the Arizona RB who got drafted this year only played the first game of the season then eligibility questions popped up and he was out the rest of the season) our entire offense was built around T-Mac and it made game planning for opposing defenses very simple, throw everything and the kitchen sink at T-Mac and force Arizona to beat you through other players, which we couldn't do. It didn't stop T-Mac from still putting up elite stats, but it severely hurt our team's offensive success, and thus, how Fifita looked. I also made a long post in the main 40+ page T-Mac selection thread last night that touched on his summer injury and how it MIGHT have affected him this past season, as well as some of the Fifita and coaching change stuff if you want to go look at that one. I never brought the injury up in all the draft discussions because I didn't want to look like I was making excuses for him, but I do think it somewhat affected him at times this year too.

Our draft grades from all the experts will come down to where they viewed T-Mac, because we really did find a lot of useful players the rest of the draft. The analysts who loved T-Mac will end up giving us A’s (like PFF) and the ones who didn’t with have us much lower because they’ll have felt we should have gone defense (like Kiper)

My post has nothing to do with Moore playing, it’s just about having more then 1 WR on the team that has more than 1 season of experience. I’m sure Thielen is a great mentor, but it would be hard to mentor 5-6 other WRs all season by himself.

Here's the article, obviously about Arizona, but has a lot that speaks to who T-Mac is as a player and person https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40918248/arizona-noah-fifita-aiming-big-12-championship-2024

Was a crazy day today for me with the Wrexham game starting just into the 4th Round and then them clinching promotion for the 3rd straight year. So between all that celebrating today and just trying to follow the rest of our draft, I purposefully stayed out of this thread all day to give it a good read through later, lol Here's some responses to some of the things said today, sorry, it's a bit lengthy, but I've gone like 24 hours without getting to talk T-Mac, I was having withdrawals, hahaha. All of this The new staff was not good this past year, to the point that the fan base were calling for heads to roll just a few weeks into the season, it was pretty ugly on the Arizona boards. The offensive play calling was pretty atrocious as well, and as mentioned here, Fifita took a massive step back this year and was constantly missing T-Mac when he got open and thus the bad/late throws were also causing some of the contested catches he had to make. Plus like you said, the entire offense was just to throw to T-Mac no matter what the coverage because we had no other receiving weapons. Teams were constantly double teaming him directly off the snap and it was very rare for there to not be a safety already over the top on him before every snap too. In a way, I'm actually surprised he put up the stats that he did, everything was stacked against him and he still put up 1,300+ yards. I'm actually not sure it has been mentioned, as it was something I never brought up this past year in talking about him on purpose, I didn't want it to sound like I was making any excuses for him, and I don't remember seeing others talk about it as I might have then jumped in too. He missed all of fall camp and only started practicing days before the season opener and at least publicly, it wasn't certain he'd even play the first game, which of course he then went out and put up 300 yards lol. He also tweaked his ankle at one point about 5-6 weeks into the season. Came out for a play or two to get checked, then came back in and kept playing but was a step or two slow the rest of the game but seemed mostly fine the rest of the year. In fact, for a few weeks after that, there was a vocal portion of the fan base that were hoping he'd just shut it down for the season because how bad the offense was and felt he was hurting his draft stock and risking injury at the same time. But as everyone also knew, he wasn't going to quit on his teammates, in particular his QB in their last year together (will get to that later) I do think the original injury and lack of fall camp did keep him a half step slower than the year before at times, but it didn't stop him from still being an All American. This is also another reason T-Mac is a great fit with Bryce, once they get their chemistry down, the two are going to thrive on off script plays. T-Mac and Arizona's QB had played together since the 8th grade and were best friends, they basically shared a brain on the football field and it showed. It's given him so much experience working off script, while finding and sitting in the holes in coverage to give his QB a big target as they scramble. Yep, smart, swagger, but also a GREAT teammate. When Arizona's coaches left after 2023 season, the assumption was that T-Mac, Fifita, and our top LB (who all went to the same HS together, and with Mason Graham too) were going to follow them to Washington. In fact, T-Mac was a QB until 8th grade and switched to WR only because of Fifita, he's thrown a TD pass for us too, so he can be used in gadget plays. The day after we hired the new coach, he invited any players to come and talk football in his office, T-Mac and Fifita organized a large group and they talked with him for 2 hours. When it was done, all the players left but T-Mac and Fifita stayed back and basically told the coach they were staying and were going to keep the team together as much as they could and they did, we only lost a few players (too bad the new coaches sucked lol). Both of them also then turned down some NIL money and told them to use it to give to other players on the team to help keep as much of it together. There's a good ESPN article about this a while back, maybe I'll try to find it. But THIS is the type of kid you want to build around, he's the full package and it's why I never missed a chance to let you guys know he was always the player we should have been targeting.

If Moore is cut, we need to bring in another vet to replace him. Right now our top 7 in the WR room is Rookie, Rookie, UDFA Rookie, 2nd Year, 2nd Year, Moore, and Thielen. Not that I think Moore the player is someone we can't lose necessarily, but you need more than just Thielen in that WR room who has been in the league for more than a season to be able to help guide all the young guys. It's why I was hoping to sign a vet as that shifty slot WR instead of taking Horn Jr, but I don't hate the tape I see on the kid and he has some potential and grit to his game, so I'm not upset at taking him.

I don't think they want to trade XL and I don't think a trade like this would be "giving up on him" either. I do think he still has a lot of potential, but Williams is a better WR with a higher ceiling. If you're just asking me which of the two players I'd rather have in a hypothetical swap, then yea, I'm keeping XL because of the contract and you don't have the Williams character issues. But if you're asking me who would give Bryce the best ability to succeed next year as our #2 to T-Mac, XL or Williams, I'd have to say Williams. So if a trade like the one I put out there would be possible, to where we'd get their 1st rounder out of it, then yea, I think it's worth a discussion.

I get that, but that doesn't change that I still don't love giving 200k+ guaranteed to an UDFA WR who if they make the squad, will be a 7th WR who only returns punts when part of the selling point of our 4th round pick was that they were also going to be our new returner, didn't realize that maybe meant only kick-offs and then we'd go do this for a new PR. None of it is the decisions in a vacuum, it's the totality of them. If Horn Jr also could be a KR, then maybe we should have used that 4th on something else, like a CB that would have possibly been more useful for us this year and found a 3rd RB in another way. I'm not going to let it get me down as I love our draft on the whole, and getting one of the top Kicker's right after the draft too was actually maybe the best thing we did today. But that's just a big guarantee for a player who'd be our 7th WR with no path to WR snaps like Coker last year.

haha I edited mine while you were responding I see. Need Moore over any UDFA in that room as it's already going to have two rookies and two in their 2nd year, Thielen can't do all the mentoring on his own to the whole room. And would be surprised if we could get a player we drafted in the 6th and seem to like, to get through waivers and onto a PS, so if that was what we were going to try to do, should have just drafted Jacolby instead.

But we already have T-Mac, XL, Thielen, Coker, Moore and now Horn Jr. If we're keeping a 7th WR on the roster to be a return man, they better be handling both KR and PR duties or it's not worth the roster spot. The only other option would be to cut Horn Jr (which would be weird because if that's the case, why not just draft Jacolby instead) or Moore, and with how young this WR room is, I'd much rather have Moore than an UDFA regardless of on the field roles. Or we just gave 200k+ to a guy we're going to cut in a few months, which would be dumb too.

The Lions wanted to trade Jameson Williams before the draft and then they took a WR in the 3rd too, and they could use pass rush help. We don't need him now that we took T-Mac, but this is such a make or break year for Bryce that I'm wondering if we do something either really stupid or really smart, I honestly can't even tell if I like the idea or not. But we trade them Clowney, XL, and our 2nd or 3rd next year for Williams and their 1st next year. I don't love giving up XL's rookie contract while taking on a player going into their 4th year of a 1st round contract and some character issues. But if we can get that 1st rounder back in the deal, getting a player with Williams' game breaking ability and an existing great history with Bryce, it has me wondering if there is something to that. Worst case scenario, he crushes it this year and it prices us out from re-signing him and we tag and trade him (if no 5th year exercised or he holds out for a contract) and then use the 1st from the Lions or Williams trade to draft another WR if Coker isn't ready to be a #2. Best case scenario he crushes it and we re-sign him and have a stupid WR combo of T-Mac and Williams for the foreseeable future. If losing out on XL's rookie controlled contract and maybe needing to replace Williams again in a year (when we'd have multiple Firsts too) is the cost of unlocking Bryce's potential thanks to their connection, that seems like a risk worth at least talking about, no?

Very much the same for me too. Granted, my reason for being pumped again is rather specific of course. But these last few days, I've had that Panthers tingle back myself. I'm an Arizona Basketball fan first and foremost, no team will ever knock them off that pedestal. But the last couple of years, my increasing love of Wrexham had be caring a lot more about them than the Panthers. And it wasn't just because we were bad, we've been bad before and I hadn't felt that way. It was the decisions we've made as a franchise and just feeling like a rudderless ship that was hard to put much emotional capacity towards what felt like a lost cause. These last two offseasons have me feeling way better about the direction of the franchise, and while I'm still not a Bryce believer yet, I do still very much hope he proves me wrong and will be rooting for him to do so and really set us up to take things to the next level in 2026 once we can get a few more key pieces next year too. But yea, taking the best player in my school's history, it has me more than reinvigorated, genuinely the most excited I've been as a Panthers fan, and I joined the bus at the start.

It's not about not having competition. But part of the appeal of drafting Etienne was that he was going to be both our 3rd back and our returner, if he's doing both of those, that's a much better use of that draft pick than if he's just going to be our 3rd back, who wouldn't get many snaps as long as Chuba and Rico stay healthy. So giving this kind of guarantee to a guy who would most likely make the team as a returner, makes me feel a little different about the Etienne pick now. Before he was a guy who would have played a key role for us this year, but now looks like he could be relegated to a back up option in case of injuries only.