Bear Hands

Attempted rebuild #3 since 2018. Let's ride.

It’s definitely migrated from a central focus—things change. Also- Online forums/message boards are pretty much dead. Sports fans are some of the few people keeping them afloat and from drifting into the interweb’s great beyond. Consider us lucky haha

The last 5 years has taught us there’s always more room to fall lol, we keep retooling, but haven’t figured out how to climb back yet. Only time will tell.

Oh Lordy we’ve reached “at least we aren’t the Jets” territory. This is close to rock bottom lol

Crazy to think our last playoff win was the NFC Title game nearly a decade ago. Only a handful of dwellers have playoff win drought longer than us. Go Panthers!

I'm a Daniels fan. They made a really promising swing at QB. Also think they got great value in Newton at DT and then Sainristil and Sinnott. Solid solid draft. There's good pieces, but if I was a fan, missing the coaching hire along with the shear amount of former-Panthers they've brought in would make me nervous. There's no disputing we've been the real cellar of the league for a minute now so why reunite so many from that regime? They've also had some shaky picks (Forbes, Allen, Dotson, etc.)...just a real roller coaster there.

oh yeah they got Trent Scott from our discards too.

Hurney & Fitt are officially commie colleagues. Not to mention, Jeremy Chinn, Frankie Luvu, Damiere Byrd, CMC's brother all there (am I missing anyone?) Poor Jayden haha.

WR will be a big focus. If we expectedly land in the top-10 again, Egbuka, McMillan, & Burden are the ones to watch. If we can't land Pearce, Jack Sawyer & Tuimoloau are the two I like. Drew Allar and Cam Ward at QB.

And this is why, this day and age, being responsive over reactive is a lost art.

I see your angle and don’t disagree. Having a guy to be the lynchpin on offense is critical and could very well be Brooks. He’s a damn good RB. Outside of him and Benson, I don’t think there’s many in the past 5 years better than them as prospects outside of Bijan, Jacobs, Gibbs and Breece.

Well that's terrible.... Looks like he never even bothered moving to the QC so good riddance.

I'd say 4-13 and enough close ones to not look completely terrible. Hard to see us above the bottom 3-4 in the league. If we're lucky, 6-11. Probably the lowest my expectations have ever been but we don't have a proven playmaker on offense. Can't say for sure about the OL either or the playbook. On defense, could be aight, ceiling is around #13-15 DVOA. If we still seem incapable of moving the ball against the bad teams, it'll be a problemo.

So sad. He was a mid-rounder I really liked for us - just brutal. Had a great story and sounded like he was really impressing the Vikes. RIP my dude.

Brayton, Bittle and Fua walk into a bar…

What we got was marginally less than what I was expecting - feel like we could have squeezed a bit more out of them, but whatevs. I mean, if we drew a hard line and said, nah, a 2nd and 4th, no less, I doubt the Giants are walking due to a difference between a 4th and 5th considering the asset received in Burns. Heck, maybe it could have been a 2nd and 3rd. But it's water under the bridge at this point.

D’Shawn Jamison or Chau Smith Wade. Evero has taken a lot of undersized slots in his career and utilized them very well. I think he gets one of these guys to make some noise.

This is going to be the Seventh year with this guy...SEVEN!! All I'll say is he better not be positioned in front of Sanders and Tremble. This is a prove-it year for Tommy and the first 2 are big for TEs where Sanders will need exposure. Sanders has real receiving talent so he just needs to be out there. I mean, we're near the end of Thomas' second contract and he'll be 30 before you know it. So all in all, this is getting ridiculous at this point. You know what you're getting with him. He's been ineffective here for almost twice the average NFL career length. And this guy at best has been barely outcompeting Steven Sullivan and Giovanni Ricci for 30 target type seasons and a 18-180-1 td type line. I think this would be pretty jilting for the fanbase after you've been hyping up a 3rd round investment (who's been steadily improving) in Tremble and a fresh investment in Sanders with strong receiving potential. There is no clear benefit in playing Ian Thomas, but man, this guy must give off great vibes in camp.

Brown, Jewell & Robinson look to be the leadership on defense. Jewell is a guy who I think is pretty unheralded. He was really strong for the Broncos. On offense, Hunt looks like the dude on the line but it still maybe slim leadership wise elsewhere. Thielen is a good voice but he’s slowing down on the field. Really need a skill position guy that really makes this offense something/anything notable and helps create a culture. The next maybes are Legette/Brooks/Sanders.. we’ll see what they can do. Unsure on Bryce.

Really though, no alts. A little insight: Been a Panthers fan since they started, fam had PSLs from the start (finally gave them up this year), grew up in south Charlotte. CU alumn (Not a Deoin/Shedeur stan though), north shore Chi-town these days (was in Madison, WI for a while) Wanted to drive some good convo here/try to outweigh the spam-oriented stuff. So, brought into the mod team with the intent to help and keep bringing conversation. We'll see if the team keeps me entertained enough to keep at this haha.

Sans XL and Barrett, we got gritty, experienced, athletic, younger guys. 4 of our top 5 picks are 21/younger, not a lot of tread (w/still had plenty of snaps & experience to show for), big upside and real athleticism (JB, Trevin & Ja'Tavion especially). Brooks & Sanders are both young and were focal points for a top-CFB offense. These were also guys many had been mocking to us. Seems a lot got the "who is this?" feel with the Trevin pick, but if you dig, plenty of publications, writers, and apparently teams had him LB3 or above. Same sentiment goes to Chau, another guy I saw mocked to us mid-late rounds, 21 y/o, solid NB prospect who plays ST immediately. Tough as nails playing style. I get that we didn't double dip at WR. Legette being the only pick at the spot has us still feeling unresolved there. We also didn't get a DB or EDGE that people wanted, but I don't see a ton of carry over trends from Fitt. Some parallels though with ignoring speedy playmakers and fixating on guys no matter how things fell. We clearly just wanted XL and were getting him no matter who else was there. They were so zoned in on him, it was over Johnny Newton, Ladd, same with Dejean/Lassiter/Kool-Aid, and the centers. We were completely zoned-in on Legette. We began and ended the draft with some older college guys. But, I mean, Barrett is pick 240. It's a complete dart throw here. We had priority waivers for UDFA so you could honestly just mentally swap Coker at 240 if you want, value is pretty similar.

That's one thing I've caught with Canales so far. He's definitely got that overly positive energy, but he's not some unaware guy who makes the players feel awkward. He knows where to tone it down. Overall, it was a solid production. Good vid. What stood out to me (cheerleading time): Tillis seems to be a good compliment to the decision making room. Wasn't clear how the guy would fit in, but it's nice to see he does have a football acumen and is part of the dialogue for building this team. Hunt and Robinson look like great pickups for both sides of the ball. Confident, know what they bring and how they fit, love the mentality, seem like really competitive edgy personalities to bring to the team. Those are guys that could bring in a bit of a personality and intensity to the team. Trevin--I still have a good feeling with this pick. He's in a really good spot to grow into a great LB for our base cover-6. His traits are perfect for how Evero could use him with Jewell if Shaq exits after this year. Reading between the lines, Morgan mentioned some DBs (at the end of R2) Sainristil, Rakestraw and Green went off the board (so they clearly liked those guys)..and then we felt comfortable trading back with Dru Philips, Colson there. So, they must have viewed Trevin pretty similar value wise. Sounded like they had their eyes set on him right after the trade/a few picks before so it's likely they had him as LB2 over Colson - not to mention guys like Brugler and over at PFF had him as LB2 as well. Lofa Tatupu hyping him up, some good backup there as well.

Tice’s sphere is not local, he just left the Athletic to help jumpstart this yahoo thing (probably a bad career move). I’d say it’s a pretty in depth piece coming from a pretty unbiased former college QB and son of a former HC. This isn’t just a rehash, although from within our fandome it is, but this type of stuff has not been widely looked at by the outsiders looking in like this. Redundant to us-yes, doesn’t make it a bad piece.

It’s a good read. Lots of valid observations.