Bear Hands

There are 4 clear cut potential 1sts as far as I'm concerned: Beck, Allar, Ward, & Ewers Beck and Ward seem to be on the smoothest tracks. Allar and Ewers have all the tools but need to keep it up. They've been known to get a bit erratic/development this year is key. For others...McCord is on my watch list. I won't include Dart because I can't take another Ole Miss QB after Corral. Don't really feel Sanders either. They're all 2nd Rd or lower for me. Gut tells me there's 3-4 1st rounders in this draft.

I've always thought it looks too much like a sticker on the helmet. Really need to sear it in. Like a Springfield cat.

Can't wait for our first drive.

I have been following Ward since his first year at WSU and really think he's NFL caliber. The Oregon game in 2022 was the one that really sold me on him early. They ended up losing but he showed so much ability to will his team downfield, at will, at all costs in that game. He was young and got too aggressive at the end, but it was the first game that really teased a lot from his game. He's only grown since and I've been super impressed. He passes all the physical traits, if anything he tries to play too much hero ball at times and can be a tad inaccurate, but he's developed so well IMO.

He was one of a kind at his position. Even looking around the league at the greats and duds right now, not one can even touch what Cam brought from a teammate/locker room/energy standpoint. Not a single one. Even historically, there aren't many. There's a few who are obviously close with teammates, have good report, like Burrow, Love, CJ, Lamar, Stafford, and then there's Mahomes who's skills are just beyond any character traits. Cam's energy was so rare at the QB position.

I’m sorry but I’m just looking at this a bit more plainly. This is not my family, this is a sports team with professionals trying to do an effective job in a multi-billion dollar industry. Just want to watch some entertaining football at this point. I’m not watching my kid play in his leagues. Although it sure looks like it haha.

I’m just amazed so many over the years have taken this assumption that it’s okay for him to have his “style” for lack of better term, along with this notion he was some godsend with anticipation throws and mental acuity. Hope next time we’re looking at QBs, the team just steps back and looks at the nuts and bolts to see if this is a dude built for the position, has the arm and can make every throw. Baseline. Then get into the mental makeup and romanticized intangibles.

Option two is not philosophical in nature. It is saying to cheer on a sports team you like even if they’re awful. It’s not that complicated. A fan can hate the product, call it out, and be entirely fine. It seems this whole essay depends on emotional investment. The trick is to simply be less emotionally invested and don’t blindly cheer the indefensible in life.

Option 2:

Hard to believe the Clausen year was like 14 years ago. What is time.

The thing is, those runs show what type of team you have built and how they can bring out some good stretches for even the most faulty QBs. We had an alright team around Kyle Allen. It's too bad we hired Matt Rhule for the "rebuild" after that year, Luke retired, & they realized Cam was shot. It was just so much at once. Not to mention TD & Olsen peacing and letting Bradberry walk. That was our entire core. I don't mind we went out and got Bridgewater (didn't draft a QB immediately), but that's when you can't miss on draft picks. The Matt Rhule hire, and then the 2021 draft/offseason (missing on 9 of 11 draft picks, including Horn at 9, the Darnold trade, and more) was the biggest wrong turn we made in this death spiral.

Yeah. If there are limitations, they're going to be there inside the pocket or out. So might as well work on what you can correct fundamentally in-structure prior to a play breaking down (although I think he's at a point where he's simply too small/not enough physical tools). What I feel happened here is they saw this kid act like a mini-Mahomes, and were just like, alright this is working, just let him cook. And now, we see what happens when a 5'9 1/2 185 guy with a JP Losman arm and no pocket-awareness tries to play mini-Mahomes ball lol

I've accepted the jumping thing, erratic footwork, strange parallel to LOS drop is not going to end. It's part of his "technique". And it's the most damaging component to his entire game, as much as his size. For some reason, no coach wants to correct it because there's this notion that you can work with the backyard style to an extent and dropbacks and throwing motion doesn't need to be perfect. But Mahomes and a few others are exceptions to the rule IMO. He's the most compelling case that tells me this: the further you are outside of prototypical modern QB parameters, the more you actually need to execute IN-structure and have fundamentals/technique as sound as possible. This is why the biggest mistake coaches have made with him since HS is not getting him sound fundamentally while he learned to be all loose-y goose-y outside the pocket. This is also why Kyler can look bad, but not all the time. Because he's got a cannon, because he still has some burners. It's also why Russ has fallen apart. When you're not only an outlier physically/tools wise, but your game (at least in college) was best out of structure, then how do you expect to execute at a fundamental level in the NFL? You can't. You need to operate at a high level, in the pocket, and be fundamentally sound to execute and he simply can't do it.

Seeing this again, all I think is how f*cking tiny he looks in the pocket.

Joey Bosa & Khalil Mack are both healthy, playing together (which didn't happen a ton recently)...they accounted for 2.5 sacks last week. Gonna be a tall task for Icky.

What are we thinking?

Herbert over/under 300 yards? Over Bryce Young over/under 2 turnovers? Under, but he plays crazy conservative terrible Bryce Young over/under 200 passing yards? Under Score Predictions? Chargers 30 Panthers 6 Watching: Redzone/Sunday Ticket

Betting Odds: Currently -6.5 Chargers, O/U 39 Tickets: Stubhub is floating around $15 right now: https://www.stubhub.com/carolina-panthers-charlotte-tickets-9-15-2024/event/153077178/?quantity=2 Questions: Herbert over/under 300 yards? Bryce Young over/under 2 turnovers? Bryce Young over/under 200 passing yards? Score Predictions? -- How we feeling? Planning to watch? I'm planning on Redzone & ST Quad-Box (I will give us our opening drive on 1 in the quad)

Frown face

I don’t see many ads - not just saying that bc I’m a mod. And yeah, some of the larger general sports boards are still out there but even the largest boards there ever were have shuttered (I.e IMDB off the top of my head). Digital Third Space is simply occupied on other platforms these days. So I’ll double down to say it’s surviving past its expiration date off of who remains from the fan base of the worst team in the league that had two memorable stretches in the past 25 years. I imagine JI could’ve handed it off or shut it, but he keeps it open when it’s basically a hefty and unnecessary bill from Invision, so I find that pretty nice. Going to lock for now as I don’t see this going much further. Not hating on your thread, but let’s just try to make it fun while we can in here haha.

We are mostly the leftovers. A few fossils, some X, Millenial and older Z who did not migrate to reddit, discord or wherever the heck kids complain about their sport teams these days. Message boards are a dying breed. Enjoy it while it’s still here.

I like the interior OL, Brooks and Trevin. Rooting for JT and Legette to have success. Outside of those few, there’s not much else. No potential stud rusher, have no faith in Horn, no future secondary leader, no real top dawg WR, no stars.

Know your foe: They will destroy us. end

Therein lies I think the most fundamental problem with Bryce. He wants to play like a Mahomes, but his limitations don’t allow for it (size, speed, arm, quickness) and he should be playing like the lesser mobile guys who step up and take the hits (Purdue, Goff, Stanford, Carr). Problem is, the street style became second nature to him in school and he’s not shaking it out. But on the flip side, he also doesn’t have the body to take those hits consistently. So he’s kind of f’n screwed on both ends. Kyler works (sometimes, not even all the time) and Russ had his good years because they had escapability and the arm. Bryce doesn’t have that. So he’s a walking contradiction and I just don’t see a fit for him in the NFL much longer if I’m being entirely honest. No arm, can’t outpace DLs, can’t consistently see the field, terrible pocket presence, bad footwork, low energy, he legitimately has none of the traits you look for in a modern QB. Nice guy I’ll give him that.