To Sign or not to Sign - Bridgewater vs Draft. DRAFT

[CPcavedweller]

Everyone other than Tom Brady and Rivers who was in a new system was below their career average. 

If I'm GM, I'm giving Bridgewater one more year with normal off-season workouts that actually include coaching with offensive staff before I'm cutting bait. Our playbook was likely severely limited and what wasn't limited wasn't practiced nearly as much as it otherwise would've been.

 

Id expect nothing less than .500 in games decided by one score or less and actually believe we could be furore effective in those situations with normal practice schedules. 

People need to understand than of the Panthers go 5-3 instead of 0-8 in those games the Panthers are 10-6. If the Panthers break .500 we are 9-7 and in the playoffs.

I blame COVID partially because Bridgewater showed some moxy in leading the team throughout games until closing when you require scripted play calls that require practice and familiarity.

Count me as the oddball here,, but I won't be as upset as most if we don't draft a QB in this draft at all. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Rolling with Teddy again almost certainly puts us right back here again next year - on the heels of a bad season but not quite bad enough to put us in position to land a franchise QB prospect. Improving isn't always "improving". Going 6-10 or 7-9 next year with Teddy is a likely scenario but also a worst case situation. Teddy's gotta go.

[Shocker]

Seeing many of these QBs signing for peanuts elsewhere with total silence from the Panthers is concerning to me.  Especially considering the rumors they had trade offers for Teddy.   

[Pup McBarky]

It's hard to believe, after everything that has been said and done this off-season, that Teddy is part of this team next year, let alone the starting QB. Stranger things have happened, however. I'll defer to the coaches/scouts/GM on this one. That said, if they trot out Teddy as the starter week 1, I'm not gonna have good feelings about our new brain trust.

[mav1234]

I actually do think Bridgewater is good enough to be the QB of a playoff-contending Panthers team.  The problem is, I don't want to just get to the playoffs.  I want to win a Superb Owl, and as much as I like Teddy as a person, and do think he can play better than he did last year, I just don't see us as being able to build the kind of roster around him needed to carry him to a SB victory.  An elite QB can make up for so many deficiencies on a team.

[*FreeFua*]

6 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Our best hope is that we somehow kill the draft with another Chinn and Brown. 

At this point I agree with this. At best we become the Jags the year they nearly beat New England with Bortles as their QB. Maybe we do draft Jaycee Horn or someone who becomes our Jalen Ramsey. Obviously in an ideal world we stink and get a top 5 pick but I think there’s too much talent on this team to happen if things went well with this draft class.
 

The problem with this route however is we could then become the Bears. Where our team is good enough to go 8-8 which make our 1st rounders so less valuable when looking to trade up for a franchise QB. 
 

 

[LinvilleGorge]

20 minutes ago, Shocker said:

Seeing many of these QBs signing for peanuts elsewhere with total silence from the Panthers is concerning to me.  Especially considering the rumors they had trade offers for Teddy.   

If we actually had an offer(s) for Teddy and declined it's a huge red flag. It's a strong indicator that we're very, VERY dumb. Unloading that contract for anything, even a conditional 7th rounder would've been a godsend.

[LinvilleGorge]

6 minutes ago, mav1234 said:

I actually do think Bridgewater is good enough to be the QB of a playoff-contending Panthers team.  The problem is, I don't want to just get to the playoffs.  I want to win a Superb Owl, and as much as I like Teddy as a person, and do think he can play better than he did last year, I just don't see us as being able to build the kind of roster around him needed to carry him to a SB victory.  An elite QB can make up for so many deficiencies on a team.

Of course he is. If CMC has an MVP candidate caliber season and we field a top 5 defense, we can go to the playoffs with Teddy. The problem is that Teddy will be the reason why we can't do much more than simply qualify for the playoffs, not actually contend for a SB.

[LinvilleGorge]

The problem with this thread's theories is that it overlooks a couple of key things.

1. Teddy wasn't below his career average last year in his first year on the team. He had a career year. That's the best he's ever been. That still wasn't even close to good enough.

2. We sucked in one score games in large part because the offense couldn't get a score in key situations. The D would get a stop, give the ball to the offense in a good situation needing a score for the lead or tie and then Teddy would show that he isn't capable of delivering in those situations.

Teddy is a good backup caliber NFL QB. That's just what he is.

[mav1234]

5 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Of course he is. If CMC has an MVP candidate caliber season and we field a top 5 defense, we can go to the playoffs with Teddy. The problem is that Teddy will be the reason why we can't do much more than simply qualify for the playoffs, not actually contend for a SB.

One reason I like going the route of one of the developmental prospects in not-the-first-round is that as painful as it might be to have Teddy as our starter in some respects, knowing there's someone behind him that has a shot at being the QB of the future would at least be nice.

Edited March 28, 2021 by mav1234

[OneBadCat]

This was a winning team if it had a QB with any degree of balls and clutch. TB had 7 opportunities to the lead the team to a W with the ball in his hands and he failed every time. 

That's not a limited playbook, nothing to do with covid. That's an intangible it factor that a starting QB should have which Teddy clearly does not.

He's basically just a Super Saiyan Jimmy Clausen

[mav1234]

Just now, OneBadCat said:

This was a winning team if it had a QB with any degree of balls and clutch. TB had 7 opportunities to the lead the team to a W with the ball in his hands and he failed every time. 

That's not a limited playbook, nothing to do with covid. That's an intangible it factor that a starting QB should have which Teddy clearly does not.

He's basically just a Super Saiyan Jimmy Clausen

he is infinitely better than Clausen.  That still isn't saying much.  lol

right I mean remember, it isn't just our team / our offense impacted by covid, either. even if we assume Teddy does step up a light  bit next year, would it be enough to truly make this team not just competitive but great?  not really.

[OldhamA]

19 minutes ago, stbugs said:

We weren’t 0-8 in one score games. 3 of our wins were 1 score. Also, two of those 8 were 8 point losses, not quite a real one score loss as you’d have to convert a two pointer as well.

In simple one score games (7 points or less), we were 3-6. That’s about right for a 5-11 team.

Even with a bit of improvement we are still a 7-9/8-8 team with a “lucky” ceiling of a wild car team losing 1st round.

Our best hope is that we somehow kill the draft with another Chinn and Brown. YGM looked decent but now he’s behind Reddick but maybe just for a year. We need some real OL in this draft and then find a real QB. I don’t give a crap about CV somehow making Teddy worse, a bit of a stretch. He’s not anywhere near good enough to help us win a SB.

I think YGM will still see a lot of game time - he's got the prototypical 4-3 SDE size that nobody else on our roster does.

 He'll be our best run defender at DE I feel.

[TheRumGone]

12 minutes ago, *FreeFua* said:

At this point I agree with this. At best we become the Jags the year they nearly beat New England with Bortles as their QB. Maybe we do draft Jaycee Horn or someone who becomes our Jalen Ramsey. Obviously in an ideal world we stink and get a top 5 pick but I think there’s too much talent on this team to happen if things went well with this draft class.
 

The problem with this route however is we could then become the Bears. Where our team is good enough to go 8-8 which make our 1st rounders so less valuable when looking to trade up for a franchise QB. 
 

 

At this point, unless something crazy happens in the draft with either fields or Lance dropping to us we’re looking at hopefully building up this team to legit Super Bowl contenders minus a qb and then doing what San Fran did in giving up a fugton of picks to secure the guy we think takes us over the hump in the next 1-3 seasons. 
 

the fear is definitely becoming the bears.