LinvilleGorge

At least you picked an appropriate screen name.

No, you clearly don't. He was an elite prospect but he wasn't perfect and the criticisms came from pundits who weren't Panthers fans before the Panthers drafted him. Or... you're just trolling. Since that's pretty much all you do, that's probably the most likely answer.

I was glad to get Smith and Taylor. They really stood out during the Senior Bowl week.

You must not remember that draft class. There was a lot of criticism about Luke basically just piling up stats by making tackles downfield because the BC defense was terrible and jumping on the pile to get credit for assisted tackles. There were quite a few people who thought his stats were inflated and he wasn't as good as the stat sheet implied. They were wrong, but the criticisms weren't completely unfounded at the time.

The list of draft prospects with some negatives: Everyone. There's no such thing as a perfect prospect or player.

People would complain about your cow college... if anyone actually cared enough to complain.

I know nothing about lacrosse except that they kicked me off the team because I was told I could hit people like in football. That was not true. They didn't appreciate my Rodney Harrison impersonations. But fug dook.

I think there's some colleges out there that would strongly disagree on that regarding Kiffin.

It's really, really hard to top Kiffin's Raiders stint or McDaniels' Broncos stint which was low key every bit as much of a trainwreck of dysfunction as Kiffin's Raiders trainwreck.

I'd be surprised if the Falcons trade him within the NFC.

Gase is basically what would've happened if Mike Shula would've gotten a head coaching gig.

Both

Right. They put swinging doors on the minivan so they could sell it to you at a marked up price as an SUV. Mechanically, that thing is a minivan.

Well, that wouldn't be a good sign. I guess we'll see.

Yeah, me too. I just think Robby will be valuable this year and give Darnold his best chance of recovering from his likely shellshocked state. We've hitched out wagon to Darnold. Give him his best chance, because honestly if he flops I think Rhule's seat is going to start warming up.

I'd rather have him and his familiarity with Darnold this year, then take the likely 3rd round comp pick.

I don't think the Panthers are "hiding" anything. We liked the option of trading a future 2nd and a couple of late rounders for Darnold better than drafting Fields at #8. Time will tell if that turns out to be smart or not. We'll see if the President of the Sam Darnold Fan Club follows him to his next stop if it doesn't work out here. We already know MrScot will convince himself that somehow this was still part of the Panthers' grand plan and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.

I think you've already lost. You bailed on your team to follow a bust. That's about the weirdest bandwagon hopping I've encountered.

Did we trade the pick? Ah! See there! Your game isn't hard to play. It isn't very nuanced.

That doesn't fit the narrative. Therefore, it's a rumor. Didn't you read the "report"? Delusional. Did you know that Sam Darnold is "basically a rookie"? I mean, that's the "report".

When you resort to hanging your hat on a typo, you've tapped out.

I don't see it as a low-ball, it's just what we were willing to offer. We were probably hoping the Niners would low-ball. Honestly, we were always a long shot to land Stafford. To their credit, the Lions actually wanted to do right by him after botching it with Barry Sanders and Megatron. Objectively, the Niners are just a much better situation than we are.

The reports said the room was divided. There were people in the organization who wanted Fields. Some felt he was a generational talent. The pro-Darnold faction won out. But, everything is always black and white with you. "Black" being your take and "white" being literally anything to the contrary.

I just didn't take it for the gospel you did. There was waaaaaay too much talk about a pending Watson trade for there to be no smoke. You just cling desperately to sources that confirm your take. Those are "reports". Everything else is "rumors". That's called "confirmation bias". We all have it, you're just completely blind to yours. Meanwhile, you're in here lockstep with the president and lone member of "The Official International Sam Darnold Fan Club". What should that be telling you?

I didn't say that we panicked. I only pondered that we might have. What I know for sure is that the team would spin any love we made as if their plan worked out all along. I mean, that's just what you have to do. But we definitely made a big offer for Stafford. By all accounts we were going to be all in on Watson talks. We definitely reached out to Miami about #3 before it became obvious the Jets were taking Wilson. At best, Darnold was our 4th option.