JawnyBlaze

He’s the key to stopping those outside runs to his side.

Yea this is what a game without Burns looks like, run all over and no pressure.

Lol I’m 40 years old and have been a Panthers fan since inception. Football fan since the skins beat the bills in the Super Bowl. Yea he had gunslinger tendencies but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t also a game manager. His gunslinging was throwing it up for Smitty. When he wasn’t throwing prayers to Smitty, he was leaning on the run game and trying not to turn it over. Game managing. He was never a “take over the game and win it for us” type franchise guy. Lotta people getting their panties in a twist over this comparison but I’m not hating on Jake, I loved Jake, but he wasn’t the focus of the offense. Game managers are QBs who aren’t the focus of the offense, they manage it for the guys who are.

I’m pretty sure no one wants him as our starter.

Absolutely. I am in no way supporting Sam for our starter, but he’d be a really good backup to have and seemingly a good teammate.

Ok buddy. He had two total seasons in his whole career with 20 or more TDs. With those weapons. I’ll always remember Jake fondly for his attitude and heart, not his ability to carry the team to wins.

I think if Sam had Smitty, Moose and Double Trouble it might be a different story. I loved Jake but he was no star, he was a game manager same as Sam.

Sam has proven to easily be the best QB we’ve had since 2017 and I’d definitely keep him as a backup on backup money, even let him run the ship for 4-6 weeks if the rookie we get isn’t quite ready to start the season. But there should be NO allusions to him being a legit candidate for full time starter. He’s not anything more than a Delhomme-esque game manager and most likely will never be more. We need more.

Ioniddis?? He's been very solid.

Baker, easily.

I would quit the team. That would make me madder as a Panthers fan than anything they've ever done.

Harbaugh and Stroud (preference) or Richardson (backup plan).

Now that the season is basically over, I was thinking about what would make the perfect offseason for me (within reason). HC: Harbaugh. He has experience, proven track record which means he could probably put together a better staff than anyone else, miracle worker with QBs. FA: Prioritize resigning Burns and Bozeman. Find a new MLB and maybe some CB depth. Draft: Trade two firsts and two seconds to move up for Stroud. I know a lot around here don't like him but to me he's not only the surest QB in this draft but he also has a really high ceiling. No weaknesses, throws the best ball I've seen in a long time. With the remaining second take a WR, bonus points if we can get Njigba for the chemistry he'll already have with Stroud. With the third take a TE that's a true threat in the passing game. In the fourth take the best athletes at CB and LB, the type that maybe still need to learn the game but have high upsides. In the fifth take BPA pretty much regardless of position. I want to do something we've never done, provide a young new QB with weapons. Seems like most other teams do this, but we never have. Our defense has enough talent to be at least "good" maybe great with the right DC. Our OL is already a finished product. We just need the QB and give him the tools to succeed. A good run game, DJ, Marshall, Njigba (or whatever good WR prospect we find) and hopefully a solid rookie TE plus the good protection our OL can provide should make the transition as seamless as possible.

I mean, Mike Evans disappeared for a whole 11 games, and that's with the "goat" at QB....

I don't trust either, but the Broncos certainly are worse situation, tied to a bad QB for quite a while. I'd say our QB situation is better just because we have freedom to do whatever he wants at QB rather than being saddled with a bad one that they can't cut. And even not considering their bad QB situation, their roster isn't nearly as good as ours. We'd HAVE to be a more attractive situation than Denver.

The bidding war thing, it's not like they're going to offer a billion dollars. Most owners in the league can afford to be aggressive in the bidding war. It's more about not wanting to piss off other owners by driving up the price on coach contracts as well as taking a risk on how long of a contract to offer. The Gruden fiasco might have made owners shy about offering such long contracts, but Tepper showed with Rhule he doesn't mind sinking a bunch of money just because he offered a long contract. Glad we have an owner that doesn't stubbornly stick to mistakes, and also isn't so impatient that he cuts bait at the first sign of adversity.

I'd be cautiously optimistic about Ryans. I know nothing about him as a coach, but just because he's a DC doesn't mean he's conservative. If anything his age would imply more that he's not than his title would imply that he is. I'd prefer an OC for the simple reason it's harder to keep a good OC than it is a good DC, so if Ryans picks really good OCs then we'll be constantly looking for replacements, but if he's a good HC then it'll work out. What I know that I don't want is Wilks, Quinn or any of these other older DCs who have proven to be behind the times. Wilks might be one step forward from Rhule, but that's still three steps behind most of the rest of the league.

Whoever was drafted by different regimes in Carolina has absolutely nothing to do with whether we should draft one now or who Fitterer might pick without Rhule's influence.

I'd trade up to this and next year's firsts and seconds. Leaves us with a first this year (the QB), a second, two thirds, and whatever else we have this year, and an abbreviated draft next year. We could probably trade down our second or trade away one of our thirds to get back a second next year leaving us just missing a first next year. QB is way more important than that.

This is a fact that is often ignored here. The "we're 5 years away from contending because we don't have first team all pros at every spot" crowd things we have to be great everywhere to compete. We're a coaching staff and QB away from being legit contenders. That's it. We could improve at TE, DE2, MLB, WR3, CB depth sure. But outside the QB position our roster is better than most of the league, including a lot of teams going to the playoffs. Unfortunately, the QB position is pretty critical.

Also, I was screaming throughout the game why aren't we running more. The run game didn't not come to play, they weren't given the opportunity to play. In the second half while we still had the lead it looked like Foreman was finally starting to get going with a few decent runs and then we just kept passing more than throwing. Maddening.

He had three or so bad underthrows, but only one was picked. One or two of the others would have been TDs if they had been thrown better. I remember one was to Sullivan, the other might have been Marshall, I forget. But I agree overall Sam played alright, the loss was definitely not mostly on him at all.

Wilks' soft defense was what lost the game. Mostly the DB cushion and refusal to change the plan for covering Evans, but also refusal to bring any extra pressure until the end of the game. Only a very few elite DLs can consistently get pressure with just the front four (and we were actually pressuring Brady, got at least a couple sacks). It wasn't the trenches, it was the playcalling and scheme on defense. 24 points ain't great, but it was more than what was enough last time and if not for a few bonehead plays by Darnold they'd probably have scored another TD or two.

Hell no. Ellis has been a Wilks fanboi for some time now. Wilks just showed today exactly what many of us have been saying all along, seems like a good dude over all, good motivator, shitty conservative HC. (What a familiar description of a Panthers HC...) He's not even a good DC. He's a decent secondary coach, where a DC's scheme can overrule his ideas for what kind of cushion DBs should be giving WRs.

I'd be much more ok with Darnold coming back than Wilks. Much easier to cut bait on a journeyman QB (at this point in his career, that's his destiny) than a new HC.