USA Today on how the Panthers are absolutely dumb for not playing Curtis Samuel

[poorboysrev]

4 minutes ago, CamandLuke159 said:

Anyone else ready for an offensive minded head coach?

I am..I think the best chance to get the most out of Cam is an aggressive, offensive minded coach. Though I do love a lot of what Norv is doing...it looks like he’s helping Cam develop. Obviously norvs not head coach material ha but I honestly don’t think he’s the problem

[DeeJay]

The only smart thing ron has is a hot daughter.

he's an idiot but will be praised for that 15-1 season.... I can see tepper telling him to gtfo if no playoffs

[Paa Langfart]

Pretty damn bad when a national publication is calling Rivera out.  Also makes it much harder for D Tepper to ignore without doing something about it imo.  

[gorillamilitia13]

This is so frustrating/sad. Let him get himself fired from his own stubbornness.

[Shaqil915]

50 minutes ago, rayzor said:

the team sees it (remember luke's comments from his mic'ed up video a couple weeks back?), we see it, now the national media sees it.

Tepper probably sees it as well. I personally don’t think just making the playoffs will save Rons job at this point.

JR might have thought “Fix this or your fired”, but what Tepper might be thinking is “Winning record through 8 seasons with THIS bonehead? Imagine what this talent can do with a HC that wants to win”. At least I hope.

[LinvilleGorge]

23 minutes ago, GRWatcher said:

Good questions. And I do believe that there is something else Rivera is hiding. I'm leaning towards a precautionary health issue. Specifically a heart issue. Samuel's heart is no longer normal. They made it seem like a minor thing but he had heart surgery. Just 7 weeks ago. They may not yet know if it fully fixed his heartbeat and an irregular heartbeat can kill and is nothing to fool around with. Because it is a personal medical issue, Ron can't talk about it either. So we get, "He'll get more opportunities" ..... [unspoken: as we make sure his heart can handle it.]

You're either medically cleared to play or you're not. If Samuel's heart wasn't cleared he wouldn't be playing. The last thing the Panthers and the NFL want is a player dropping dead with a known heart defect on national television. The Samuel family might own the Panthers after that lawsuit.

[trucpfan]

The media basically asking Ron why aren't you letting this guy play his answers are becoming his demise. I love the nation attention Samuel garners he's as advertised but Ron like usual trying to downplay looks idiotic sad sad day

[Paa Langfart]

20 minutes ago, GRWatcher said:

Good questions. And I do believe that there is something else Rivera is hiding. I'm leaning towards a precautionary health issue. Specifically a heart issue. Samuel's heart is no longer normal. They made it seem like a minor thing but he had heart surgery. Just 7 weeks ago. They may not yet know if it fully fixed his heartbeat and an irregular heartbeat can kill and is nothing to fool around with. Because it is a personal medical issue, Ron can't talk about it either. So we get, "He'll get more opportunities" ..... [unspoken: as we make sure his heart can handle it.]

I've seen too many of Rivera's poor decisions as to who suits up and who gets on the field to believe that nonsense.

[Untouchable]

1 hour ago, Saca312 said:

With the Panthers’ season now teetering on the edge after two straight losses, maybe Rivera will come to his senses and start playing his best receiver more than 20 snaps a game. It’s become clear that the Panthers defense isn’t very good, and if this team is going to hang with other playoff contenders, it will have to start scoring more points. Playing the NFL’s most efficient touchdown-scorer should help.

I wish I could find it again, but last year during the Miami game, Matt Harmon was tracking the yards of separation at target of all the Panther's receivers and not only was Samuel the highest but after he left the game with the injury every other receiver's average dropped.  That to me is the most frustrating part.  Just Samuel's presence on the field would open everything up.

[rayzor]

12 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Those TD catches by Moore and Samuel showed the difference between guys like them and guys like Funchess. How they got open, how they climbed the ladder to reel in relatively tough catches. Meanwhile Funchess is dropping balls that hit him right between the numbers when he goes completely uncovered by the defense. Moore and Samuel are playmakers. Funchess is a bum.

Then the difference between guys like Cam and guys like Funchess was on display after the game. Cam stood there after going 25/37 (with his #1 WR dropping 5 passes) for 357 yards and 3 TDs vs. 1 INT and took responsibility for the loss because he threw one errant pass all day on that failed two point conversion. Meanwhile, Funchess claims that this "ain't all on Funch" and how he's just one of 11 out there after dropping five fuging passes. Honest to God, I wouldn't have been opposed to cutting him right there on the spot after that.

even what funchess does in those increasingly rare moments he catches the ball is he goes nowhere. the dude averages 1 YAC (good for 90th in the league).  btw, he now leads the league in drops with 10 and has the highest drop rate of any receiver. I mean just look at this mess. Cam's QB rating when funnomore is targeted is 86.4 (74th in the league...blah)

meanwhile, we are trying to split time between moore  and Samuel. 

now I know that if funchess isn't on the field, the coverage that goes to him will transfer to one of the three WRs who should actually be on the field  the most (moore, Samuel, and wright) but I think those three can handle it and the ball pretty well, esp. when you consider defenses still have to worry about Cam, CMC, Olsen, and (on occasion) Thomas.

go with the guys who are real threats with the ball in their hands and who just happen to be able to keep the ball in their hands instead of funchess who is neither of them.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, rayzor said:

even what funchess does in those increasingly rare moments he catches the ball is he goes nowhere. the dude averages 1 YAC (good for 90th in the league).  btw, he now leads the league in drops with 10 and has the highest drop rate of any receiver. I mean just look at this mess. Cam's QB rating when funnomore is targeted is 86.4 (74th in the league...blah)

meanwhile, we are trying to split time between moore  and Samuel. 

now I know that if funchess isn't on the field, the coverage that goes to him will transfer to one of the three WRs who should actually be on the field  the most (moore, Samuel, and wright) but I think those three can handle it and the ball pretty well, esp. when you consider defenses still have to worry about Cam, CMC, Olsen, and (on occasion) Thomas.

go with the guys who are real threats with the ball in their hands and who just happen to be able to keep the ball in their hands instead of funchess who is neither of them.

Funchess is garbage and his relatively reliable performance last year was a fluke. He's regressed back to his normal this year.

[rayzor]

10 minutes ago, Shaqil915 said:

Tepper probably sees it as well. I personally don’t think just making the playoffs will save Rons job at this point.

JR might have thought “Fix this or your fired”, but what Tepper might be thinking is “Winning record through 8 seasons with THIS bonehead? Imagine what this talent can do with a HC that wants to win”. At least I hope.

that's what i'm hoping as well.

a good businessman like Tepper would see the potential that is there with this squad and the potential that has been there the whole time and see that it's more a matter of management than talent. you won't have to lose out for Tepper to understand that a change must be made to get this team over the hump and into a Lombardi.

[emhoward]

I'm hoping it's just Rivera been wary of the heart condition/scare Samuel had early in the year. Not wanting to press him too much. That's the only logical reason I can think of for him not to be playing more. I mean, Rivera is dumb, but he's not dumb dumb. And even if he is dumb dumb, for him to hold Samuel out without legitimate reason we'd have to believe Turner was dumb dumb too, because we know Rivera respects him and if Turner went to him over and over again about playing Samuel more, Rivera would at some point listen. Right?... Right?

[Green_Tea]

Do you think Samuel is a better route runner and has better hands than Moore?