LinvilleGorge

We're all just ready to be hopeful. Cutting Cam followed by the disaster of the Rhule era then trading away the most exciting player we had on CMC, I mean... it's been a rough few years. It's exciting to be excited about Panthers football again.

I'm fine with Young, Stroud, or Richardson. I say Richardson because the physical talent is undeniable and if he turns out to be the pick then obviously the staff thinks that he has what it takes to maximize those talents in the NFL

No one would be excited if we were expecting Andy Dalton or some other lukewarm vet to be the starting QB. It's very much the combo of a legit NFL coaching staff plus the promise of a #1 overall pick at QB.

LOL Go home Matt Rhule, you're drunk.

That's a really low bar to clear.

Mac Jones turned out to be a baller? What kind of alternate universe is this? Mac Jones got outplayed by Bailey Zappe last year.

It's real simple. If you want to take Verge's input seriously, go for it. If you don't, don't. I mean, what else is there to talk about right now? We're likely going to be going round and round about this pick between now and April 27th so just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

In a FAR better situation. If you polled NFL GMs you'd likely find very few that would take Jones or Zappe over Fields.

His arm is shot when he's playing a starting role. His arm is pretty good until it starts inevitably wearing down as he plays more games. He could absolutely thrive in a Taysom Hill role still today. If Cam had Andy Dalton 's personality and the signing of him would be a non-story after the initial headlines (and he was willing to settle for a role that isn't entrenched starting QB) he'd be on a roster.

Cowherd said like three weeks ago that we reached out to the Packers and that t would make sense for us. I don't pay attention to the guy but I'm not aware of him saying anything about it since. Either way, Cowherd is a literal professional troll. I'd recommend not paying him much mind.

Cam fell into the Kaepernick and The Golden Calf of Bristol trap. It's not that he isn't good enough to play a role in the NFL. It's just that teams deem the role he would likely play for them not to be worth the attention and ultimately the distraction it would bring. Cam is a big personality and would bring a ton of media attention and players and coaches would constantly be fielding Cam questions. Teams probably don't want to deal with that. If Russell Wilson wasn't coming off of such a disastrous season I could see Payton bringing Cam to Denver to play the role of Taysom Hill but given how awful Wilson was last year I can't see it. If he started out rough again the calls for Cam would grow louder and louder.

Time will tell. I've watched enough prospects come and go to know to not make definitive statements about guys who have never played a down of NFL football.

There's a reason why the Bears are sticking with Fields despite having the #1 overall pick. Their odds of landing a definite upgrade is low so take the haul. Fields has probably been in the worst QB situation in the NFL so far during his career. No weapons and no OL is a tough row to hoe.

Jones is playing for the GOAT coach. And he's trash. Bailey Zappe looked better than he ever has.

Downs' durability at the NFL level definitely concerns me but we wouldn't be giving up multiple 1sts, multiple 2nds, and DJ Moore to get him so it's a bit of a stretch to draw that equivalency.

He's just a hot taker. He isn't trying to be right. He just tries to get clicks. He's the wish.com version of Skip Bayless.

Fitts said we were targeting #3 but since the cost wasn't much different we just went to #1 instead.

My concern with Hooker's age is that he had a big advantage in terms of football experience and mental maturity in college and prior to having those advantages he looked like a JAG. Maybe he's Burrow-lite. More likely he's Brandon Weeden.

If this is true the Bears are DUMB. I take that deal all day and then flip #2 to the Panthers for another haul.

Yeah, pretty clearly a swipe at Rhule there. And honestly it makes sense. One of the harder transition from college to the pros has to be valuing roster spots and capital, whether we're talking draft picks or salary cap. And that's why giving a college coach full control was so wildly idiotic. College rosters are huge. They have a ton of scholarships available. They can afford to throw mud at the wall with recruits. If half of the don't work out it really doesn't matter. Just go get another crop next year. It doesn't work like that in the NFL. If you're missing on half you draft picks and signings you're gonna suck. As we've seen.

Simms is just a hot take artist. He had Zach Wilson over Lawrence. Mac Jones and Kellen Mond of all people over Justin Fields

Todd France is a good dude. He was the only "power agent" that would give me the time of day when I was a kid fresh out of college tooling around writing fan articles for Scout.com. Got me an interview with TD shortly after we picked him #14 overall.

Yeah, I don't expect it. Just spitballing. We're probably just wanting to focus 100% on external free agents and the draft right now being that Burns is under contract so there's no urgency there.

Intestine that we're intent on waiting until after the draft for Burns' extension. I know Fitts said they're not looking to trade any current players but the strength of this draft class on paper are the TEs and edge rushers. Almost makes me wonder if the right guy is there at #39 could we trade Burns of we can get an offer close to what the Rams made us? I know we turned it down at the time but things change and I have to think that a wheeler and dealer like Fitts is going to try to recoup some of that draft capital we gave up to get to #1.

I'm done. I'll leave him screaming into the void about whatever semantics he wants to argue about.