panthers55

Snows folks weren't good with adjustments and his fronts while better last year were still too predictable and easy to beat. I really think having better coaches and Wilks schemes will help us be much better this year on things like red zone defense and on third down. Hopefully Pascaloni can get the defense to play tough against the run and the pass.

Keep in mind that guys like Michael Strahan played pretty darn well at 243 lbs. It isn't his size but the technique he is using which is a 1 gap DE going all out for the QB. If he played more of read and react where he played the run first and then the pass he would be more solid. But that requires the back 7 to hold up and usually it didn't. We have brought in several guys to compete and have guys like Brown, Roy, Nixon, Hoskins, laonnidis and some rookies in the middle and Burns, Matos, Haynes, Herron on the edges along with rookies again. Then mix in guys like Luvu who are often blitzing and we have some decent players. We just need a good scheme and so far the reports from Snow about Pasqualoni seem very positive. Should get a little better look when minicamp starts.

Let's look at depth for example. With the addition of 3 potential new starters with NFL experience on the line along with Moton, most of the guys who started last year will be depth. So we will have a deep rotation with lots of guys with starting experience. If CMC goes down we have several good options with starting experience to come in. The secondary is the same way. Everywhere in free agency where we have brought in a potential starter is also a guy who gives us good depth if they get beaten out. About the only areas that are still unknown may be DLine and QB. And it is still early. How many guys do we bring in after training camp cuts.

Which totally works as long as the player stays on the roster. But if the player is released or traded then all the remaining unaccounted for signing bonus accelerates to the current year. Which of course you can manipulate somewhat using the post Jun 1 release designation to spread the cap over 2 years.

Obviously by refusing the demands to guarantee the last 2 years we chose to move on. That is called passing on a player. I know it conflicts with your premise that Watson didn't choose us but everything I read said if we would have guaranteed the last 2 years he was coming here. It was the money. Remember Watson wouldn't waive his no trade clause for Cleveland initially, but when we passed, suddenly Cleveland was an option again. And if you think that Tepper would have passed on him over money you are in the minority. Tepper paid Rhule a ton and didn't bat an eye. I imagine that it would have taken Fitterer and Suleiman both to talk him out of Watson given our salaries currently.

Hard to know what Snow will run. Here is an article talking all the multiple fronts and looks in 2021. https://matchquarters.substack.com/p/the-multiplicity-of-the-panthers?s=r

I am pretty optimistic that we are on the way up. While I am not a Rhule fan, if he sticks to coordination, overall vision, motivation and game day decisions related to timeouts, challenges etc. he can be actually decent. This is the first time that the offense, defense and special teams have coaches who are well respected and very knowledgeable about football. They arent yes men. Our line coaches are good and Wilks is going to help Snow learn the NFL game. Snow is smart and has a lot of experience in college. He tried to bring that to the team with funky formations that filled teams for a while but then were predictable like that prevent defense 3 man rush. Wilks is actually pretty good at adjustments and game planning. His failed head coach experience taught him a ton. Snow may run the defense but Wilks will control the backend which has been the reason we sellout on the rush because our secondary couldn't hold up. And special teams is immensely improved. We have the best punter who is reiterated by the challenge and a coach considered one of the best in the league. Imagine running them back for scores while not giving up a bunch in return. When was the last time we ran a kickoff back for a score? I had to look it up. Trenton Cannon in 2020. TLDR: I am thinking NFL coaching will actually be seen this year under Rhule. He has plenty of experienced head coaches on his staff to help him out. He better listen and stop micromanaging.

I suspect that this year is really Fitterers first one where he has the power. Given his role is getting players Rhule wants, with limited draft picks, he gets an A+ for getting Ickey and then getting Corral. As QBs started to get picked up he waited until it only cost him a third. Honestly Tepper needs to give his brass balls award to Fitterer. You know after passing up.on Watson we were under a lot of pressure to draft someone. He would be a tough poker player. And yes, luck was a lady that night for us. And in free agency he got some good players on decent deals. I am not a fan of the Jackson resigning but apparently there are coaches who love Jackson and his job was to get him signed.

One thing not said here is that all owners have access to an NFL guaranteed loan of up to 500 million which they have to use for football purposes. It isn't based on need or ability to.pay it back, it is just there. So honestly as long as folks could repay it back they have millions to throw at the salary cap any time they want to.

I think Fitterer has the major sway with Tepper and was the reason we passed on Watson. If it had been up to Tepper he would have paid anything to get him. Of course that is speculation on my part.

Cap hell is what they say to justify not spending money and honestly it isn't that hard to figure out. I never thought Richardson really wanted to build a winner. And at least Tepper has finally brought in a true capologist and a good GM. It will be interesting to see if Fitterer is allowed to loosen the pursestrings and spend the money.

Actually I don't think Richardson had or wanted to spend the money. Tepper seems willing to spend it and has billions more than Richardson. Of course we have struggled mightily with picking the right guys and paying them appropriately.

The Saints have done it a decade or more. This is exactly why I keep saying the cap can be manipulated so you can sign who you want. Stop posting we have cap issues and that we have to choose between this guy and that. We can sign anyone we want. Now an ex-GM confirms it.

Good news. The best thing I heard confirms what I have said since we hired Wilks. He is a huge upgrade in the secondary and will help Snow with gameplanning and playcalling.

So the cap in 2023 is expected to be between 220 and 225. That is 12 to 17 million over the 2022 cap of 208. And we can manipulate the cap next year to get where ever we need to be. Sulaiman's job is to fit the players signed by Fitterer to the best contract terms beneficial to the team. He has done that. I guarantee he is already mapping out what he plans to do next year and the year after. I dont worry about the cap and ignore them when they say they can't afford someone when it really means we don't value them enough to pay them what they are worth.

Cleveland won't be in a hurry to move Baker until they know what happens with Watson. Baker may be starting or at least backing up the starter if Watson is suspended for 8 games for instance.

As a motivational concept he is totally correct. And he does a good job with talking about how to improve and get better. The problem is he thought he knew Xs and Os in the NFL. He could be fine if he stays in his lane and let's the real NFL guys do their coaching jobs.

If you have a bunch of later round guys starting on your team you might had a great draft or you might be devoid of talent. If our late rounders can contribute and be backups or special teamers we did great. After all starting rookies at all is not desirable because it means you don't have a better vet and are hoping the rookie picks things up quickly. But it is inevitable you start guys like Ickey as soon as possible. Obviously Corral is the next great hope and after that anything we get is a bonus. We dodnt have many picks to begin with.

I got the sense that he was critical of how the roster was built and complained he needed more talent to win. He may have been critical of the talent and vocal of who they had after several deals fell through. He may have been undermining the moral on the team by saying they were screwed.

Reyna to me is the best passer in the final third. Karol is always trying to shoot and passes when he doesn't have a line versus Reyna who is looking to set up other guys. But Reyna is hurt which is why Vargas came in and did a great job. I think our problem is we still don't work together with a unified idea of how to attack the defense. We rely on individual heroics and opportunity rather than a planful attack with everyone on the same page.

Knowing they didn't have a goalie really frustrated me to see so many shots not on goal. We needed to pepper him with direct shots and wait for the inevitable mistakes. I was glad for the win but wasn't happy we dominated but really had few scoring chances.

Having Vargas helped us gain width as we went more 4-3-3 and had easier entries into the final third. Having multiple attackers really opens up the offense.

Actually an RPO is a hybrid between play action and read option with differences in the keys and the blocking. And you can play action out of other offenses in addition to an RPO so it doesn't really mean they are connected. Play action is about faking run blocking and actually pass blocking not advancing to avoid a penalty versus an RPO which is a running play unless you throw it since you are run blocking and advancing. Passes have to be quick to avoid linemen downfield penalties. The spread works in college but not as well in the pros unless you have guys who routinely win their 1 on 1 matchups on the line. Too much speed in the NFL. Otherwise it puts your QB at risk unless he can get the ball out or scramble and throw on the run. Attributes that made Corral attractive to us since he can do that. But having the ability doesn't make it preferable. I expect we will run a timing passing game with a lot of dumpoffs, triple receiver sets, Throws to get guys open in space one on one and count on yards after the catch to make up the yards. We will run quite a bit likely out of the shotgun and try to use motion and alignments to cause mismatches presnap rather than have to read defenders and then make decisions which may not be our qbs best ability for different reasons. We will likely use play action and some RPO plays, as well as some west coast principles while having big guys up front who can really run block and plow the road.

I should have clarified that we won't be running an rpo spread offense like Corral ran in college. The spread offense puts your QB at risk in the NFL and McAdoo is supposedly good at scheming protections to help the QB while getting it out quickly. How did Corral get 500 yards running the ball in Kiffins RPO spread. I thought you can only key off the linebacker and throw it or hand off to the running back.

The problem with the RPO is exposing your qb to getting hit as a runner which allows a lot more potential for injury. Even Cam got hurt on occasion and he was built like a tight end. Corral isn't that big and got hurt on college running the ball. He would get crunched in the NFL.