LinvilleGorge

I think 8 is the perfect number. It doesn't matter how many teams you have, you'll have people screaming about getting snubbed. Hell, you have people screaming about getting snubbed out of a 68 team field in the basketball tournament. I'm sorry, if you're on the bubble of a 68 team field you have zero shot anyway. Shut up.

Of course he likes it. He was never winning the division anyway. Now he has a baked in excuse. "Trust me, Dave. Brady will actually retire this time and now we're ready to get after it! Trust the process!"

The Panthers try desperately for over a year to offer everything to both the Texans and Watson but the Saints seemingly wake up one morning and on a whim say "ya know, we think we'll go get Watson". It'll be a big wake up call for Panthers fans if it happens.

This joint was gonna have a nuclear meltdown if we didn't win the Watson sweepstakes but if we lose and he goes to the Saints? Oh man.

I don't blame the players for utilizing their leverage but I will say that the "super team" era that it spawned in the NBA pretty quickly led to me just tuning the NBA out. I was an avid NBA fan growing up and I bet I haven't watched a full NBA game in at least a decade. If the NFL goes down a similar road I'll tune it out too. Parity is necessary for my interest. If you go into a season with only a small handful of teams having a legit chance what's the point?

Cam had been injury plagued for awhile at that point.

Nope, but he's above average and above average might as well be elite. Teams don't want to roll the dice and move on from above average even though they know they're highly unlikely to win a SB. You can keep your job contending for the playoffs year in and year out but roll the dice on trying to be great and you might end up sucking and get fired.

Elite QBs can pretty much get whatever they want in their contracts. Hell, for that matter, pretty much all elite FAs can get whatever they want. Honestly, if I'm a player I'm ALWAYS going to hit the open market before resigning with my current team, even if resigning with my current team is ultimately my goal. There's no real downside to hitting the market.

Not trading for Watson would net us three. More like five if you count the players we'd have to throw in.

Lots have guys looked good right up until they didn't. Age oftentimes hits like a brick wall.

That clock is ticking loudly though.

If he keeps doing this he's gonna show up as just an old man one of these days. Father Time is undefeated.

You'd be trying to cheat the cheats. These owners are extremely wealthy employing lawyers and accountants who know all the financial tricks. Pulling it off without the rest of the league finding out would be next to impossible and I imagine the penalties would be unbelievably severe. At the end of the day the risk just isn't worth it.

That's what you're hoping. They're still a factor to consider.

If I'm a non-QB player I'm lobbying the NFLPA for it. As a fan? Meh, I don't care. If you want an elite QB you're going to have to pay and that helps with the overall parity in the league. Now if we had a 25 year old Cam on the roster I might feel differently for selfish reasons.

One factor that I don't think is getting anywhere near enough talk in this calculus is that Watson has two previous torn ACLs. Everyone knows about the rapey off-field stuff, but those two prior ACL tears are a significant concern on the field in terms of durability.

When Tecklenburg took the field last year I completely understood why he was planning on not even pursuing a professional football career prior to Rhule giving him a call.

Our D was okay last year. Not great, but okay. Our offense was abysmal. Add Watson and subtract all those other pieces and we probably flip flop. Now our offense is okay and our D is abysmal. End result is another losing season. Them we get to watch the Texans make that 1st round pick. Then again in '24. Then again in '25.

Yep. You lose both of those guys, Reddick, Gilmore, and Jackson now you have the makings of the worst D in the league. You just lost almost very impact player on your defense last year. I'd argue all of them except Shaq. He's be your line impact defender remaining from last year.

It think it was mainly the combo of landing a legit franchise QB then the very next year drafting the best rookie WR the NFL has ever seen. That put them over the top.

You can't give up three 1st round picks and probably more draft assets plus your two best young defensive players. That's gutting your roster. For the record, I meant both would be the deal breaker for me. I fully expect the Texans to demand Burns as part of the deal.

I would just hope we could avoid giving up both Burns and Chinn. Honestly, it might be a deal breaker for me.

Oh yeah, you were so right about Rodgers who just got paid more than anyone in NFL history.

Oh Jesus. It's the "we can fix Darnold" stance all over again. At least they got plenty of other assets in that trade. I imagine he really was a throw in in case they need a bridge QB and this is an attempt to sell him to the fanbase as not just an afterthought.

Le sigh...