Bear Hands

If this happens, and if this team is serious about featuring Ja'Tavion more, target share becomes interesting after McMillan.

It’s why we should be trying long term fits out. Wright is the only mismatch - he’s the type of guy a team scrambles to midseason when a kicker randomly implodes or has a freak injury.

Fits hasn’t missed in a game yet, just keep it going with the guy. Absolutely no harm in continuing to see what he’s got. We’re not winning the SB (obviously)

If I’m truly being predictive, I think we’re looking at 5-6 wins again. Defense has a slight (but not substantial enough) improvement and Bryce doesn't show what we want. 6-11 Is that what I’m hoping for and optimistic about? No. But it’s my prediction given the landscape.

Think the 53 is pretty realistic. Evans>Bartholomew tho

Seems way too rich and I have no idea who they would actually want here. Our rookies should be off the table until we see them more extensively, we're not shipping anyone we just signed, and there's no 2nd to 3rd year guys worth much. I'm gonna guess he stays or ends up elsewhere.

Panthers.com | 2025 Schedule As we're making it through the preseason, here are some reminders heading into the 2025 season: The CarolinaHuddle does not have any excessive rules in a banner to the right. We just have an image of our shortie QB It's a message board, just don't be a crazy person. I'll lay out some guidelines for what that means... If you consistently derail a thread, there will be consequences for your sassy southern stank. Do not get into personal spats with each other - if that clogs up a thread (and becomes a trend) we will end your digital presence If you start critiquing the platform endlessly, your stank will have consequences. Keep it football, not carolinahuddle journaling. If you create a thread, please provide more than just a link. @TheSpecialJuan you just keep doing you. If you feel stank has been brought, and is getting you all in the jimmies, bring it to our attention. We will spray it with some freshener. We will do our best to do the moderating thing. But I know, we can be such a drag at times If you mistakenly brought stank upon yourself, don't let us know. Although, SCP has some good Charlotte-area GI specialists to recommend. Team notes/reminders: We finished last season at 5-12. Rookie head coach taking over a talent-depleted roster. And our best defender went out early on. The 2024 draft didn't help a ton, but the 2025 one looks pretty promising. Still have a lot of holes to fill Don't expect some instant playoff turnaround. Many teams have been doing this, but our roster just doesn't have the build-out or depth to support such expectations The first 5 games should give us a good look at what we have. We are by no means playing any major hitters early so it will let us know quickly how on par we are with the league mean. Our run game on both sides should be strong, biggest question marks are the passing game, Bryce, and pass rush/front 7. With Zod MIA, we are more in a Bizarro Superman deal for now, especially given the team situation. So just embrace whatever this is and have a grand old time posting. Go team.

Bingo. Ron was a great coach in so many ways. With one super frustrating quality-- but it was because he prioritized and really looked to the vets to lead the way. He saw a little too much in vets that weren't all that great, and locked on for too long. But man, that guy commanded the team. Commanded respect and he got crazy intense a few times. Not the type to get pissed off. Even with Cam, Luke, TD, he was still driving.

Fair to say Idzik won't be getting much regular season chances at it again lol.

That was an entire culture created. Luke, Cam, TD, Kalil, Greg, Stew, Star, Tolbert, KK, Norman, the team just came together and those guys really had a cohesive well-defined locker room. Heck, we had guys feeding off it like Bene, Fozzy, and Addison as part of the culture-definition. I will welcome whoever can step up and start bringing that type of energy to this team. Right now- If I'm looking personalities: Hunt, Moehrig, McMillan, Princely, Wallace seem to fit the potential on energy side of things. Those are who I'd identify that could grow into those type of players. Would love to see it.

Canales' is great driving the positive energy but he's just not going to instill the "we will pummel you into submission" mentality many like to see. I would love to see him with a bit less guardrails at times, let himself really come out-- want to know how he is when he's ticked off/wanting to bleed. For now, we've got Dennis Morton in the house. I guess that's where the assistants and team leaders come in the time being. I'd personally like to see a few guys that bring that no-prisoners mentality within our personnel. Usually want it to be a collection of 3-5 that are these clear team-defining leaders. The other problem is our best players aren't that type of personality so it sets kind of a bland tone across the board under an enthusiastic HC. Hunt & Trevin are the closest thing to tone setters.

Hunt is the dude on offense. Taylor is a bit more of the quiet but respected vet. Brown is also more on the quiest side, same goes with Horn. Don't really have a voice on defense. Wallace wants to be but he needs to keep developing as a player.

That was a 1st unit vs. a 1st unit situation. Will Anderson seems primed to have a fairly monster year. I think he's going to be a problem and Houston's defense is stacked. We didn't fair well but the breakdown does show they just locked us up. It's indicative we may struggle against the top-10 defenses no doubt. But I'll say, league-wide, you've got the vets (Watt/Parsons/Bosa/Hendrickson/Hunter) and the guys in prime like Hutch, Garrett, Crosby that are the elite edge rushers. But of the young guys, it's WAJ, Verse, Chop, and Carter are about to pop. Seems like the next wave of elite talent so I will give a bit of grace here considering the Texans have 2 top dawgs at the edge. Tough matchup. Outside of Bryce hopefully improving, there's three BIG things this year that need to happen that this helps highlight: We really need diversify our run game (our OL can handle Gap, Wide-Zone, P&P, Inside-Zone...I don't see why we need stay so vanilla) McMillan is a given needing to hit the ground running -- but one of Sanders/XL/Coker needs to really come into their own and be a reliable hitter. Cannot rely on Thielen at his age Icky needs to build off last season's developments; he's not out of the woods yet IMO and needs to show he's worth a 2nd contract

Yep. As unpaid mods, we proactively address when the negative turns to spammy. When that line is crossed is where I think the split is here, but I'd rather give more leeway than hide/ban/etc. when we think people are being too negative. Part of the huddle shtick has always been that there's no right banner with a list of rules. Just don't be crazy. The thread that prompted this one to get made was a great post. Derailed rather quickly but is back on track. We addressed it, it's done. If people don't like how negative it can get, they can choose other avenues. You're chatting online, not locked in a room. Converse people! Ciao

Thank you. I mean, it's pretty light/tame right now and has been FAR FAR worse at times. Bwood/TRD days, early Cam years (King T/there was some insane stuff around 2012-2013), it's really not much different. If anything, I'd argue it was the most heated here after Cam was drafted but before we became perennial contenders. Those few years were YIKES (Along with needing to ignore everything posted by Chuck) If anything, traffic is a bit light and there's not a ton of conversation going due to changing times. And it's not like new people are discovering this place in droves. Many of us are young-X to Millenial that have grown up with the board, nowadays have kids and/or sh*t going on. It's the end of summer, people are taking vacations, kids are starting school, just are out and abooout. I'll just encourage anyone wanting it better to drop in the content to get stuff going.

Nice - thanks @Icege

2 ways of an owner getting into good graces with a fan base: 1. Going mostly quiet 2. Win He’s started doing one of these things

Haven’t been watching but the box doesn’t look good. Hope we’re just draining out the suck. One can hope

We used to get no respect. Still don't.

Yeah at LB, I like Wallace's potential (big year for him), but if he still has some growing pains, we absolutely cannot have crap next to him. From what I gather, the Rams didn't hate Rozeboom, but once some talent went down and he didn't have better talent assisting, he was pretty badly exposed. He's an alright LB for depth, but not a starting quality LB. You gotta see what Wallace can do year 2, but on Rozeboom's side, I think we really need to look at cut season or maybe a trade.

From camp reports by the Athletic, Robert Mays said it looks like we're expanding the run calls this year. So it sounds like Canales had a bit of a slow roll with his system. He was doing the same at Tampa but then their OL got depleted midseason in 2023 and he had to stay a bit vanilla in the run game. They know they can't stay vanilla much longer.

You won't get respect if you're forgetful and suck for this long. Time for the team to change the narrative this year.

Yeah agree. I'm looking forward to the season. No real set win expectation but I just want these guys to get their sh*t together and beat some good teams. Joke seasons are over, it's time for them to stop embarrassing themselves and Charlotte. Time to prove we're not cellar dwellers anymore. Who knows, maybe we do end up surprising. We've seen quick turnarounds like WAS and HOU. Maybe we can finally figure it out.