Jump to content
  • Welcome!

    Register and log in easily with Twitter or Google accounts!

    Or simply create a new Huddle account. 

    Members receive fewer ads , access our dark theme, and the ability to join the discussion!

     

What If... Marty Just Did Something That Will Make You Love Him?


Proudiddy

Recommended Posts

As I've stated previously, ad nauseam, I was never a fan of KB as our first round pick the year we took him.  I preferred smaller, more explosive guys who we could move around and were always a threat wherever they caught the ball, not just running in a straight line, if even then.  I was worried about his dedication, his focus, his conditioning, his hands...  everything.  But, I do feel he was, based on everything coming into this season, our #1 by default.  I haven't believed in Funchess either, but he has flashed a few times this season enough to give hope that maybe with a more diversified group of receivers on the field, he can excel.  

All of that being said, I have also made clear I'm not a Hurney apologist.  He has had his share of F-Ups, and a lot of them.  But, i give him credit for the good moves he has made that built our core we currently have.  So far, since he's been back, the only quality move I can say he made that was universally applauded was signing Jairus Byrd, but that is fairly inconsequential.  He has also rocked the boat several times in the same short span by dumping locker room-favorites Joe Webb and now, KB.  But, after further reflection on the move, and the discussions that have taken place afterwards, I decided to give consideration to a more optimistic outlook of the move...

What have we all virtually been in agreement about this season?  Shula is AWFUL.  Remember Jeremy sharing the story from Shula's TB days under Dungy, and Dungy's solution was to simplify the offense?  Well, what if...  Hurney just made an incredibly ballsy move and we just have no idea how ingenious it is right now, but will see as the season progresses?  What if he just FORCED Shula to "simplify," or more likely in this case, DIVERSIFY the offense, because no one else would?  

My point is, one of the common complaints about our offense was the amount of time routes took to develop.  How much of that was scheme versus personnel?  People werent getting open because the guys we kept forcing out there couldnt.  And with our organization, one that historically will force a guy into a role he hasnt necessarily earned outside of salary or draft status, our staff  just didnt have the gall to bench underperformers or make adjustments to address them.  Per usual, they tried to force a square peg into a round hole.  They kept rolling with KB and Funch despite that it was bogging down the offense and had a negative, domino-style effect on the offense as a whole.  Shula lacks the creativity or innovative disposition to find a compromise in which he can put different packages out there with one big WR, surrounded by several other "speed" options depending on matchups - that would require him to think, to strategize.  He essentially was running on auto-pilot - "these are the guys I have.  I owe it to them to make it work.  And we'll eventuslly break through the wall."  When, in fact, the solution was to move away from that archaic method of sending two big WRs who struggled to create separation...  but, by staying with the status quo, and likely what Ron favored as well by keeping KB and Funch as the 1 and 2, Shula didnt have to think...  he just kept calling the same garbage with the same guys.  Our staff typically doesnt make adjustments.  It has been stated by other players around the league - the Seahawks and Broncos come to mind - that we don't try to out-scheme opponents, we show up and say, "this is what we're doing, and we plan on executing it better than you execute your stuff."  So again, Shula was just coasting.  He didn't need to adjust because Ron fosters that lack of urgency and strategy.

We all know Rivera is loyal to a fault.  He rarely ever benches guys, especially not highly-drafted ones.  He also won't fire coaches, and we don't know that he ever really rips into them for poor decisions or performance either...  so, what if Marty just did what Ron wouldn't do?  He forced Shula to adjust because Ron wouldn't and neither would Shula himself.  Maybe, just maybe, we'll look back on this trade in a few months and realize it was the right one to be made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just going to ignore every thread started here that opens with a self congratulatory sentiment and assume that was the reason the post was made. we should have a sticky thread called "things I was right about" and make it a gigantic circle jerk.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yay back to the days of 'if', the cherry on top of the Panthers are back to bottom dwelling.

What if the Panthers were a good franchise.

What if Marty Hurney wasn't the GM still

What if Marty Hurney WAS a good GM

What if the Panthers never have back to back winning seasons

What if

What if
What if

What if

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m sure Hurney has been told he can’t fire coaches so he is doing the only thing he can do to help this team. 

Call me crazy but I’m actually surprised we got a 3rd for Kelvin. I don’t think his value around the league is very high.

Funch is younger and cheaper and you only need one of him on the team. The team is tight on cap space and Hurney surprisingly made a move that helps the cap.

If you can’t fire your coaches and they are being stubborn, you do what you have to do to force their hand. 

At least with Hurney we know our first rounder will be a beast if he doesn’t trade the pick away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • PMH4OWPW7JD2TDGWZKTOYL2T3E.jpg

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • What's up gents, the OGs remember me, the guy who single-handedly gave the Panthers the greatest uniform in history moniker. Not too long after that I got involved with Pro Football Focus (pre-Collinsworth acquisition) and ended up taking backseat here to preserve some objectivity. But from a distance I noticed a lot. After the end of the Cam era this place devolved into the most un-fun, petty, negative cesspool of whining and bitching that has ever graced the internet. The worst part of it all is that the level of discussion turned into the most ill-informed, hot-take, unnuanced crap, rife with people talking out of their posteriors as if they have any clue about what they are watching. Once you get into the professional side of the sport and actual film rooms, you start to understand there's an absurd number of moving parts to pretty much every snap and the details you are privy to are truly only half the picture. The absolute most important thing I learned from being part of professional level football analysis is that quarterbacking is literally the most intricate and difficult position in all of professional sports, and that the NFL itself is struggling to develop any workable model that allows them to understand what makes one succeed vs what makes one fail. Because of this paradox it has also made the quarterback position itself grossly overvalued from a fan and media standpoint, creating an absurd fixation on the results delivered by a single player who has to rely on the contributions of everyone around them. This also drives the dreaded inflation of QB salaries that inevitably cause even elite teams to lose key talent all to pour cash into the one player supposed to be able to single-handedly elevate the entire team (and defense and special teams and coaching and ownership by some mysterious proxy), yet without those same players even talented teams can wander the wilderness searching for the right guy to take advantage of their talent window. The discussions the last few years around Bryce has personified this insanity, as this board has devolved into some sort of electronic civil war between the hyperbolic Young supporters and the vitriolic Bryce haters. The reality, like practically everything in this world, is somewhere in the middle. He has traits that can absolutely elevate a team with creativity, play recognition, off-arm angle throws, mental toughness, etc. He's also physically limited, with mostly "good-enough" qualities for most situations that a professional quarterback is asked to do, and will never be an overpowering physical force like pre-injury Cam. But "good-enough" physicality represents a large majority of championship-winning quarterbacks, even in the modern era. There's a reason the corpse of Peyton Manning took the chip from elite physical specimen Cam, because the team surrounding him was talented enough to get him there, while we all know Cam was the driving force of that 2015 team. That's no knock on him, that's just how the game of football tends to work: the more complete team usually wins. The summary is this: if this team lives or dies solely on the performance of its quarterback, then it is absolutely a paper tiger even if he plays brilliantly week in and out. There are no superheroes in this sport, there are only conduits that proxy the collective efforts of much of the team around them. And no one alive can tell you how the position is played perfectly, it's all a confluence of circumstance and what unique collection of traits each player brings to the position, which can never be truly recreated season after season, even for the same player on the same team. If this place remains a raging hellscape of idiotic hot takes I will happily remove myself again and do something more productive for yet another decade, but maybe's there hope that we can all get back to the old adage, and keep pounding.
    • Really impressed how the bottom six have looked the past couple games
    • 1st ⭐️ Big Bussi - 17 saves, .941 save % 2nd ⭐️ Logan Dankoven - 2 assists, 3 SOG, +3, 16:25 TOI 3rd ⭐️ Ghost Bear - 1 goal, 3 blocked shots, +2, 18:48 TOI
×
×
  • Create New...