LinvilleGorge

I definitely wanted zero part of McD. Living in CO and having box tickets at Mile High (via work) I can tell you that McD was every bit the poo show that Lane Kiffen was for the Raiders, the Broncos just didn't have an Al Davis to have everything played out in the media.

Some things never change. I can't even laugh about it. It just brings back infuriating memories.

They need to roll with Lock. He has the talent to potentially develop into the answer. Teddy doesn't. Playing Teddy is waving the white towel. Either Lock is the answer or they're heavily evaluating '22 QB draft prospects.

Not just that, but still a huge need at the most important position on the roster. Tepper has said that the NFL is a .500 league and that you need a head coach, GM, and QB to break out of that mold. If we whiffed on our opportunity to add a legit franchise QB and the guy we did swing on flops Tepper might start to question whether he has any of those three pieces in place. I don't think they'd be fired but I do think the seat would be hot and if they didn't solve the QB problem next off-season they very well might be out after next year.

The LBs are definitely a weak link. Ultimately, I think the D goes as far as the DL can carry it. Our secondary is still young and won't hold up well if there isn't a strong pass rush. We really need Shaq to start playing like the All-Pro the Panthers clearly think he'll become and paid him to be.

If Darnold flops and Fields hits... oh wee mayne. The rumors that Tepper was pushing for Fields had better not be true. When you go against what your boss wants, you better be damn sure that you're gonna be right.

I feel pretty good about our edge rushers and DL as a whole. I'm definitely not terrified about our secondary but I'm also not sure how good they're going to be THIS year.

Though I do think that Arnold will become a higher priority in the red zone.

This thread isn't aging well.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. Like I said, I'm not expecting Greg Olsen. But I do think they're going to be good enough to at least not be a weakness. We saw Ian Thomas wasn't getting it don't so we signed a mid-level FA who is primarily a receiver and we drafted a mid-round rookie who is primarily a blocker. Cool. Hopefully Arnold will improve as a blocker and hopefully Tremble will develop as a receiver. Maybe they can each help the other out in those departments.

I'm confident that our WRs are very good. If they're held back by the QB and/or OL, that's not on them. All they can do is run their routs and catch the balls that come their direction and I'm confident in them doing a good job of that.

Honestly, yeah. There's been enough positive reports about Arnold and Tremble that I feel pretty good about TE. Are they gonna re-create prime Greg Olsen? Highly doubtful but I think we're decent there. It's the weakest link of our non-QB skill positions, but IMO that's more about our strength at WR and RB than it is a glaring weakness at TE.

Confident: non-QB offensive skill positions Terrified: OL

This is the way to handle it. If you want to create a personal echo chamber, the ignore function allows you to pretty much do that.

Disagreement isn't toxic. Cordial conversations isn't toxic. Taking football disagreement personally and lashing out creates the toxic environment.

Agreed. My concern is that we seem to be falling into the habit of overpaying hoping that we're right and everyone else is wrong. If it works, you're brilliant. If it doesn't, it's not gonna be pretty. We'll see how it works out. Gettleman did some brilliant dumpster diving early on in his tenure. As time went on, it worked out less and less.

For me it's about three straight losing seasons. It's about having a massive need at OL and trying to patchwork it together with low level vet FAs who by most opinions we significantly overpaid to acquire based on their past performance and/or injury history. I get it, you can't fix every problem in two off-season and every NFL roster is going to have weak spots due to a hard cap league, but it really is starting to feel like Panthers as usual with the lack of focus on building the OL. Ultimately, we'll see how it works out but what else is there to talk about right now? It would be boring if this was just an echo chamber of same thoughts. As long as discussion remains cordial, disagreement is a good thing and actually fuels conversation.

It isn't about "heat". It's about derailing threads with emotion and personal attacks. Please stop doing it.

It's their strategy, we'll have to see if it works out. They've focused on versatility all off-season on the OL. Personally, I think it will prove to be a mistake. It's okay to disagree. Please don't start acting like that other guy.

Everyone was cordially talking football whether they agreed or not before you came in emotional and attacking per usual. You have to stop doing this. This is happening in thread after thread. People are going to disagree. That's quite alright. It's not alright for you to take it personal and start with your attacks.

You really have to stop taking difference of opinion personally. Stop feeling personally attacked by difference of opinion.

I hope we have. Now I hope we'll let them start playing together and gelling. By all reports it's been constant musical chairs all camp long.

I expected the OL to look bad. In part because we lack talent. Also in part because we haven't identified our starters yet and given them time to work together and gel. That's what I'm saying. If we don't identify our five and let them gel into a cohesive unit then they're not going to play up to their ability, even if that ability is subpar. We gotta identify our five and let them start working on becoming the best unit that they can be. More than any other unit on the field, an OL has to be a cohesive unit.

Where did I say that? My concern is very specific. And it's the opposite of what you seem to be interpreting.

This is the NFL. Not every team is coaches by Rivera and Shula. The rest of the league is going to show you different wrinkles week in and week out. OLs need time to gel to understand each other, to work well together, to understand each individual assignment and how to communicate in order to handle the types of exotic blitzes they're going to see. Trust and believe, if you show an inability to handle the blitz you're going to see a LOT of blitzes.