Mage

He did as good of a job as any CB can reasonably be expected to do on Justin Jefferson.

Mike Shula was horrendous.

We'd be taking on $26m dead cap to move on from him.

Lol I love Reddick but he's definitely not Von Miller-good.

The offenses are about the same. Defense is miles ahead of 2020. I don't know how anyone can argue the 2020 team is better.

I doubt Matt Rhule fires Joe Brady. I mean, yeah, Rhule has went back on his word to the media before, but he seems like someone (right or wrong) that values continuity among the coaching staff. But I do agree with you. Brady has his issues, but by and large most of the problems with the offense are personnel-related. We don't have the OL to call deep throws. We don't have the OL to consistently run the ball. I'm still more positive about Darnold than most around here, but at the end of the day, he's not great. He can't bail out a bad offense or OL. Then you have receiving group that we might have overrated going into the season. Moore is a stud, but on Sunday he was the only receiver who got any separation all day (I was at the game and had a good view of the whole game, nobody was consistently getting any separation other than him). I think people should relax though. Are these losses frustrating, hell yes. But we couldn't fix everything in 2 offseasons, especially with different GMs. It is easy to say the Panthers could have drafted Rashawn Slater in the 1st, and there is a good argument for that, but I think it ignores the fact how big of an issue we had at CB. Donte Jackson was seen as an inconsistent CB coming off an injury, going into a contract year, and most didn't think he had it in him to be a #1 guy. No way we could have foreseen acquiring Henderson or Gilmore. At some point we were going to have to draft a CB, just like we would have a LT. I'm still very optimistic about this organizations future. We turned the defense around. Now we just need to turn the offense around. If in Year 3, it still looks like this, I will be the first to admit I was wrong. But we can't grab the pitchforks and try and run our coaches out of time. Rhule was handed a bare cupboard when he started here. There is only so much you can improve. Carroll's first 2 years in Seattle were 7-9 seasons and mired by bad decisions at QB, and they got lucky Russ fell to them. I'm not saying Rhule will turn it around like Carroll did, but sh*t happens. The FO in my opinion has earned enough trust for Year 3. Now maybe if we start getting absolutely slammed then yeah maybe I'll backtrack, but these have been, unfortunately, close losses.

What do people want him to do? This same forum would be criticizing him endlessly if he was like Rivera and Fox and was essentially saying, "it is what it is." Now it is a problem when the HC says there will be drastic changes in our approach? What the hell do some of you want? If you dislike Matt Rhule, fine. But can you just admit that there is nothing any HC can say in a press-conference following a loss that will satisfy any of you? Ya'll hate when head coaches toe the line and say they won't be making changes. Ya'll hate when head coaches are upfront and say they will be making changes. Some of you put way too much stock into press conferences. THEY DO NOT MATTER. They are for the media.

It is crazy how often this scenario has happened like every season since 2018 lol

I think we get ran out of the Carolinas Minnesota 41 - Carolina 13

I feel like people overthink "must-win" too much. Like, yeah, every game is a must-win. The overall point though is, does this game and the timing of it have more of an impact than other games? And I think it does. If we lose, we're suddenly on a 3-game skid and all confidence is lost. If we win, we bounce-back from a rough 2-games, maintain a winning record at 4-2, and all is good with McCaffrey hopefully recovering and Gilmore being able to be activated. Every game is must-win, but losing this game at this stage after everything that has happened will be much, much worse than losing to Dallas when we're 3-0. This game will be the difference between a young team regaining their confidence and going 4-2, a winning record, and a young team getting their confidence shattered and going 3-3, a .500 record. IMO if we lose this game my confidence in this season will be absolutely crushed. And really, my confidence in Darnold will be crushed. I think the offensive line has hurt him, and I am definitely one of the biggest Darnold supporters on this site. But he needs to play well tomorrow. A good QB will make sure he comes off a 2-game skid ready to play some of the best ball of his life. I better not see missed throws on Sunday.

Yeah for 1st round picks.

Justin Jefferson is a savage.

I mean, I get what you are saying, but damn near every big company or owner furloughed employees during COVID. If you want to criticize Tepper for it, be my guest, but I don't necessarily think he needs to do better on the optics when what he does is the norm. Most businesses or owners are not going to eat the cost if they can avoid it. Most big businesses or owners are tight with money unless they personally benefit. I just feel like maybe you are reading a bit too much into this video, which was just PR. Who knows what else he said or did for them or how much they are being paid. I don't think we can draw a conclusion on that from the video. I don't see any reason to think Tepper is any worse than 95% of other billionaires and millionaires of the world. To me Tepper seems a lot better than most rich people. And he's actively trying to improve the area. Yeah he's doing it because he benefits from it (like most rich people) but again that is still much better than a lot of other rich people.

Their OL was dominant 2007-2009. David Diehl was a beast.

Good left tackles typically don't hit free agency. That is why almost any OT signing that happens in free agency, is usually an "overpay". Our contract to Matt Kalil was horrible because Kalil was a horrible player, but his contract lined up with what a lot of average OTs (like Nate Solder) were getting.

Chud and Brady are clearly the top two.

Of course. But again, that's my point. The coaching staff has not shown at any point that they are gonna sit a rookie just because he's a rookie. They could have easily kept Moton at RT and put Scott at LT. So there is no reason to think they wouldn't play Deonte Brown, IF he was actually ready. It's 100% believable that an overweight, 6th round pick is not ready to play in Week 6 of his rookie year.

Moton clearly looked worse at LT than he did at RT. So no I don't think it was clear at all. It was obvious why the Panthers were hesitant to make the move. But guess what? They did it. They could have went with Trent Scott, but instead they trusted the rookie. If Deonte Brown was ready, then he'd probably be on the field.

I get wanting to see the rookie play, but if Rhule, Brady, and the OL coach doesn't think he's ready to get on the field, then I have no reason not to believe them. This isn't the Rivera or Fox era where young guys just sat on the bench for "reasons." They've had no issue playing rookies or young guys so far. I think we should accept that Deonte Brown, an overweight 6th round pick, is quite possibly worse than Daley and/ Miller right now.

I'm all-in!!!

How is he going out of his way to blame the defense when the question was about how and why the defense failed at the end of the game? You need to fix your hearing.

He's the freakin' head coach. Leaders don't go around and say, "the offense is the only reason we lost." His job is to identify every problem with the team and try and fix it. It's coach-speak. Like seriously, how long have ya'll been watching football? Have ya'll ever played football? When a team loses, everyone gets blamed. It doesn't matter if it is fair or not. This is what you guys are missing out on. Nobody in the locker-room is taking it personal that Rhule called the defense out. That's his job. Or would you rather him be like Rivera, and act like the team is just one nice break away from being a winning football team? Don't say you aren't reading into anything when that is PRECISELY what you are doing. Every HC passes blame around to everyone on the team. I dare you to find me one head coach who has ever said, "the offense lost us that football game." Even when kickers miss game-winning FGs, HCs are quick to say it falls on the team.

Are you suggesting that the Cowboys would trade Zack Martin for Donte Jackson?

Name a team that has bad starting corners and a great interior offensive lineman that they would trade for Donte Jackson.

Nobody is trading us anything for Donte Jackson that would make it worth trading him vs keeping him and possibly getting a comp pick. Otherwise, every team would just trade any player they had on the last year of their contract.