WhoKnows

At some point we need to draft well. I didn’t want to trade CMC or Moore. We should have traded Burns to the Rams. Burns is the perfect example of why sometimes you should trade players away for picks before paying them a bundle. Here’s another draft story that might make sense. If we traded Burns and Moore (I don’t think CMC was worth the picks) during 2022 when the Rams offered 2 1sts and 1 2nd and the Packers offered a 1st for Moore, here’s what we could have had based on the picks and players available at those picks/a couple later: 2023 GB 1st - Will McDonald and his 11 sacks this year was taken at pick 15 which GB offered. 2023 LAR 2nd - Steve Avila starting G, could have spent Lewis’ $$$s on something else or saved it 2024 LAR 1st - Brian Thomas WR, I would have gone away from the Rams pick since we got McDonald in 2023 and we had a desperate need at WR 2025 LAR 1st - Tankathon has a DT/CB/WR at picks 10-12, so plenty of options to go BPA So, while we have done poo, we still would have been better off trading Burns and Moore and select the guys who went right where other teams (who draft better) selected them or went best WR and tried to replace Burns and Moore. I realize that we don’t have the talent to get a lot of picks. We basically fuged ourselves based on the decision of who to trade and when plus Bryce Young. That shouldn’t scare everyone into a what if we lose Chubba for draft picks. Oh no! Chubba is fine but he’s a product of hard nosed running behind a solid OL. 5.2 YPC is nice but there are 12 RBs with 5.0+ YPC and over 300 yards rushing so far. Rushing is up this year, likely because of the efforts of all teams to stop the pass. Anyway, we won’t win by paying Chubba a 2nd contract even if we haven’t seen Brooks yet. We will win when we finally have a competent GM that drafts well and makes good decisions. If we continue to be afraid of losing Diontae and Chubba level talents because we suck at drafting, I can guarantee that we’ll suck for another 7 years.

Chubba was a draft victory as a cheap starter who’s been solid. It still doesn’t change the fact that you don’t sign him to a big deal. CMC worked out for SF as he helped them get to the NFC Championship and SB before getting hurt but Mason has looked solid in his place this year. Miles Sanders has been a complete disaster. Brooks will be fine behind this OL when he’s healthy. I wasn’t a proponent of signing him over a C or CB, but he’s here.

Agreed. I always laugh at people saying don’t trade players for picks. There’s an assumption that Diontae and Chubba want to sign up for another bunch of years here. Reminds me of Andrew Whitworth signing with the Rams and people being mad we didn’t sign him. He wanted to be in LA, which is even more clear now considering his new career. There was likely 0 chance he was even thinking about signing here.

We are 3-21 with Chubba playing well. You can get RBs pretty easily. Look at Mason, Hunt and others filling in well for injured RBs. We took Brooks in the 2nd. Spending money on a second contract for Chubba while we still suck isn’t smart. We’ve continued to spend right up to the came while not getting more than 7 wins for years. That’s why we had to find a trade partner for Burns before we signed the guards. We had zero leverage because we had no cap space, which is truly mind boggling considering we were 2-15. We have to build around Brooks and hopefully get a comp pick or trade Chubba. We can’t sign yet another big deal on a RB.

Unfortunately, I think you are probably right. I didn’t like staying inside when the prior regime included Morgan, not just because of Morgan but because it was so trash that there was no great call that we could even point to and say maybe that was Morgan. Until we get really good drafts where our rookies look like legit stars, we are going to stay in the toilet.

I posted in here the same stuff. His record for the past decade was terrible. I remember saying he’s still Dalton. He was serviceable a long time ago with some prime WRs and a decent team. He’s not anymore. We likely will finish worse than last year after all the “additions” and benching Young. That’s miserable.

We had something else to do at 4 so I didn’t miss or even bother to watch a minute of the game and it felt nice.

Being short isn’t the main problem with him. I’ll be honest that I didn’t really look into QBs in the draft just hoped we’d get the right one. That said, if I knew his arm talent was non-existent, I would have been more disappointed. I was worried about the size but I was more worried that his pro day wasn’t dazzling and he was the only top QB not to throw at the combine. It worried me thinking all he did there was drink gallons of fluids to get measured and then peed for an hour and a half and left. I think Kyler Murray could be a really good QB if he was mentally preparing like top QBs do. All the stories about him not studying, etc. are his downfall. He’s got the arm strength and speed to be a solid QB but he clearly isn’t a top QB because he doesn’t prepare like the top guys do. Young seems to lack in awareness and he’s got none of those athletic skills either.

I don’t get any love for him. I watched the Ole Miss game and he had a few great throws but he also had 2 interceptions and had a 43% completion rating. In his career in “full” games he’s got 11 interceptions in 11 games. The only teams he hasn’t thrown an interception against are Nicholls St, a terrible UCLA and Arkansas. He’s a Will Levis clone except I think Levis was better in college. If we took him in the first, just write us up for another half decade of poo. This QB class is looking pretty poor right now. Hopefully, we improve elsewhere and wait until day 2 at the earliest but get someone with potential, not Corral.

That is the worst draft class in our history and there’s no reason to even wait and see. It’s the worst, especially when you consider that to get that class we also traded away a 2023 2nd and 2023 4th for Young and DJ and pick #1 in 2024 as well as our soon to be very early 2nd in 2025. All those picks traded and it helped our 2023 class to still be straight and utter trash with not one guy who will ever be a quality starter or even an average starter.

Not as good as the 2nd we traded away for Young. At least that final thorn in our side will be done in the next draft.

True he has but you also said Mingo and TMJ and most of TMJ’s snaps were not Young. I just don’t think they would have made any real noise and TMJ being team-less already supports that. I don’t think Mingo will be far behind if we keep adding WRs.

I don’t agree. Mingo’s done nothing with Dalton. His top 5 yardage games have been with Young. He's starting and averaging 20 yards per game with Dalton. TMJ played with Mayfield and Darnold. Heck, he was on Jayden Daniel’s team and couldn’t even make the roster after getting a ton of snaps pre-Young.

Yep. It’s recency bias. Funchess and KB weren’t great picks but here’s what they did in 8 years with Carolina: 4657 yards and 39 TDs Mingo and TMJ in 5 years with Carolina: 888 yards and 1 TD Samuel, KB and Funchess weren’t our Steve Smith’s or even DJ Moore’s for us but they were actual NFL WRs not PS cast offs. Fitterer was straight trash. His best value pick was Mrs. Rhule’s pick.

I think we need to see his contract demand and interest now. It shouldn’t be hard to see if we’re close. We completely fuged up with Burns. We should have had him extended in 2022 and known exactly what he wanted and how far away we were before we turned down the Rams. We were stupid and didn’t manage it right and got caught in a we don’t want to pay Burns what he wants and now we have to trade him. We don’t have to be eager but let’s know the scenario well enough so we don’t turn down an ok trade while waiting for the moon and ending up with nothing.

I’m not optimistic. He’s going to want to get paid. I’m not sure we’ll match it and the allure of playing for a playoff team and getting some big recognition is not something we can offer.

First, he might want to sign here and second, why would he resign now instead of in FA when he can get offers from everyone. He’s done well enough already. Also, for someone who mentioned the franchise tag. It’s something like $30M from what I remember reading in a thread about this before. It’s high enough that he’d be happy to play for it and then be an UFA in 2025. We can’t pay him that much.

You are kidding me. Zavala and DJ Johnson are good? Rhule’s wife got us Hubbard and no other picks are even average players except for a guy picked 6th and 8th overall. Gettleman was always picking late first not top 10. His only top 10 pick was a draft where he got CMC, Moton, Samuel and Butker. That draft alone almost equals the list of guys you are lauding Fitterer for. DG also got Turner, Norwell and Williams on OL and Benjamin and Funchess, while not good picks, got us way more that Mingo and Marshall. Bradberry, Shaq, Short and Star are far better than the D we got with Fitterer. Even guys like Tre Boston were better than the trash Fitterer gave us and DG only had 5 drafts before Hurney 2.0. DG also never gave up the farm for the worst QB in the league to cripple us for years. Sorry, but DG and Hurney were gods at GM compared to Fitterer. Fitterer, IMHO was the worst GM ever. I can’t believe any Panthers fan would back him over a monkey throwing darts at Mel Kiper’s draft board.

I really don’t know why our scouting team is still together. Maybe they were completely ignored but I still wouldn’t take that chance. That’s why I’m still not in favor of Morgan over an experienced GM/assistant GM with new scouts. In that 2021 draft, we needed OL like crazy. The OL was so bad and we decided Elflein and Erving were the answer and all we needed rookie wise was BC and 2 ton Deonte Brown in the 6th. We passed over Humphrey, among others, for TMJ and passed over Tre Smith for Brown and also a long snapper that never made the roster. Both of those guys were mentioned a dozen times in the draft threads and they are both getting big time extensions from KC, who thank Fitterer for their 2 SBs while thinking he needed a 3rd WR, 2nd TE and a LS instead of fortifying a poo OL.

I still chuckle when some of us saw how bad he was separating and we still got told he’d breakout for 1000+. Doing well in camp against our D clearly doesn’t translate.

Yep. Think about what we gave up and got back. We weren’t a dynasty in 2019/2020 but then in 2021-2023 we gave up: CMC and DJ Moore, pick 9, pick 1 and probably pick 33/34 for Young and DJ Johnson Burns for a 2nd and a couple 5ths 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th and 6th for 3 QBs and a CB no longer on the team. Add in 3 drafts where you got Iky and Horn with pick 6 and 8 and pretty much nothing else. How does any team coming off back to back 5 win seasons survive an epic gutting like Fitterer did from 2021 to 2023? That’s how you go 3-20 this year and last year and are the worst team in the league.

No way. Not even close. Our record with DG and the players he drafted in his 5 years is so far beyond the scraps that Fitterer got us in 3 years. We still suck because of the trash moves Fitterer made. Gettleman and Hurney were bad compared to most GMs but they weren’t close to the decimation of the moves by Fitterer.

Unrealistic? Damn, take those rose colored glasses off. Wallace isn’t Luke but he’s played as well as TD, Beason and Morgan? Legette has been better than Mingo/TMJ thankfully but I don’t think he’s popped like a few of the top WRs have. He’s 10th in rookie receiving yards which isn’t bad but he’s not exceeding his draft slot. He’s also one of two rookies in the top 10 in yards that is already 23. The others are around 1.5 to 2+ years younger. I’m happy that Legette doesn’t look like our normal picks but you are being more unrealistic about where they are already.

There’s truth in that.

Dude is only 6 months younger than Burns. If he had something, we’d have already seen it. Kind of like BC, dude’s a solid backup but he’ll be 29 in his first year of his 2nd deal. Drafting older projects has never worked for us. Cam was 21 on draft day. So was DJ Moore. CMC was 20. Burns was 21. Brown and Moton were “old” at 22 although Brown just turned 22 on draft day. I hate when we try and turn a 24 year old into a player.