The Darnold Decision

[CPantherKing]

I saw it before. I'll say it again. 

That scouting room is filled with YES men and desperation. They all show doubt in their voices, body language, and rhetoric. They talked themselves into the Darnold acquisition.

No one is filling the role of devils advocate. A championship roster is built on knowing what you don't want, and not by piling up all the potential positives. Anyone who can be drafted or compete for a roster spot has potential.

Not one of them mentioned leadership, competitive nature, or game winning ability at the NFL level.

Fire everyone in that room.

[CPantherKing]

58 minutes ago, SizzleBuzz said:

Where is Darnold? 

Does he spend the off-season in Charlotte working out at team facilities?

He's meditating on the beach in California. He has no drive to be the best of the best. Anyone who did their research on Darnold would have known his goals do not align with a championship organization.

Darnold is looking forward to being a family man and coaching kids in football camps. If anyone thinks taking a 20 year old QB in the draft who has never visualized themselves playing in the league for 20 years is making a huge mistake.

You're better off with an ultra competitive 25 year old who is going to give their everything for 10 years.

Edited February 26, 2022 by CPantherKing

[Sgt Schultz]

22 minutes ago, Call Me James said:

They talked themselves into it. First off, they believed they were better coaches than they are. That led them to believe they could unlock Sam's talent. 

If they succeeded Rhule would have his guy, who he fixed, and wouldn't upset his preferred Rhule centric power structure.

But to be fair, Huddlers convinced themselves of it too. A lot of talk was made about how Tannehil became a better QB, how horrible Gase was, Sam being a better passer than Cam and Teddy, he would be good with the quick short reads and would play well if the pocket broke down because he throws well outside the pocket and anyone who said otherwise was a Cam nut hugger.

Hilarious looking back.

Darnold was a panic move.  They burned the bridge with Teddy publicly (to the applause within the Huddle), swung and missed at a couple of veterans who wanted to win now, and apparently only liked Lawrence and Wilson in the draft class both of whom were going to be long gone by the time the #8 pick came around.    That left very few options.

Tannehill did become better as time went on, and Gase was horrible.  That does not mean Darnold can follow what Tannehill did, and Gase being horrible may have only added to Darnold's deficiencies, not been the root of all of them.  Our coaching staff liked what they saw of his raw talent and had some misguided belief that they were good enough to resurrect him.

The real problem was entering into a pi$$ing contest with Teddy publicly rather than just sticking to the original plan.  The Huddle would have rioted had Teddy been the starter last year, but the Huddle riots over a lot of things.  The Huddle would have turned into Chernobyl had the drafted Jones, too, despite some saying we could have drafted him if we didn't like Fields.

The second problem was thinking we were only a QB away from being a "playah."  OL is also on the list of our worst problems, but that and QB are not our only problems.

The third problem was exercising the 5th year option on Darnold.  This one compounds the other two.

[PNW_PantherMan]

2 minutes ago, Sgt Schultz said:

Darnold was a panic move.  They burned the bridge with Teddy publicly (to the applause within the Huddle), swung and missed at a couple of veterans who wanted to win now, and apparently only liked Lawrence and Wilson in the draft class both of whom were going to be long gone by the time the #8 pick came around.    That left very few options.

I'll admit I was part of that and I was dead wrong.  At that time, I thought Matt Rhule knew what he was doing, and Teddy was a scrub.  It turns out, Teddy knew what he was talking about and Matt Rhule is the scrub.

[jayboogieman]

3 hours ago, frankw said:

Incompetence. The film was there it does not matter what you think he might do. The Jets giving up on him should have been the biggest red flag. All involved should be on the hottest of seats. And I didn't see much love of the game after that awful pick six against the Patriots as he casually walked to the bench and relaxed like nothing happened. That's the guy you guaranteed 19 million dollars to before even seeing him play in person.

If I hated or didn't care about football and was getting paid millions to play it, I'd say I love it too.

[Sgt Schultz]

1 minute ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

I'll admit I was part of that and I was dead wrong.  At that time, I thought Matt Rhule knew what he was doing, and Teddy was a scrub.  It turns out, Teddy knew what he was talking about and Matt Rhule is the scrub.

That was completely understandable mistake.  The Panthers overperformed in 2020, despite only having 5 wins.  2 would have been about what most of us expected.

What none of us knew was that Rhule chiming in was not about sticking up for Brady, but his own insecurity or narcissism. 

[PNW_PantherMan]

2 minutes ago, Sgt Schultz said:

That was completely understandable mistake.  The Panthers overperformed in 2020, despite only having 5 wins.  2 would have been about what most of us expected.

What none of us knew was that Rhule chiming in was not about sticking up for Brady, but his own insecurity or narcissism. 

I really believed Matt Rhule was a good hire in year 1, but this was basically me watching the team this year during the Giants game.

[CPantherKing]

2 minutes ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

I'll admit I was part of that and I was dead wrong.  At that time, I thought Matt Rhule knew what he was doing, and Teddy was a scrub.  It turns out, Teddy knew what he was talking about and Matt Rhule is the scrub.

Teddy is good enough to build a team around. His problem is the clutch game winning drives, but he will be solid for a team with a great defense.

I group Teddy with QBs like Kerry Collins, Trent Dilfer, Ryan Tannehill, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.

You can win with them, but you won't win because of them. So, coaches who play for the final drive of a game will never be a fit for these QBs.

Darnold is a potential project with no known upside and an inability to keep his poise in the pocket, which leads to the team doubting his every throw and adjustment.

Teddy was the Panthers Goff/Garoppolo. Not their fault coaches would put them in a situation for a game winning drive which they have proven they can't do. Build the team around them and then find the rare QB that can will their team with precision on the final drive of the game.

Teddy will be in the league for some time if he stays healthy. Darnold will retire early.

[pantherj]

Teddy will get a very good team into the playoffs, and then get bounced. That's his ceiling. He can game manage and beat bad teams, but don't ask him to beat a top QB on a good team.

Sam doesn't see open receivers, often the first read, and so he shouldn't be able to ever help a team to a winning season. Not to mention his deep ball just sails off to nowhere, or into the hands of the defense.

Cousins and Jimmy G can make the SB if you drag them there with MEGA-teams loaded at nearly every position. You need a once per decade type WONDER team with the best roster in the NFL for Jimmy and Cousins to try and win it all.

We already know what is out there in free agency, and the instant we land a new QB we'll know our fate. That's how heavily QBs decide the outcomes in the NFL.

[trueblade]

1 hour ago, CPantherKing said:

I saw it before. I'll say it again. 

That scouting room is filled with YES men and desperation. They all show doubt in their voices, body language, and rhetoric. They talked themselves into the Darnold acquisition.

No one is filling the role of devils advocate. A championship roster is built on knowing what you don't want, and not by piling up all the potential positives. Anyone who can be drafted or compete for a roster spot has potential.

Not one of them mentioned leadership, competitive nature, or game winning ability at the NFL level.

Fire everyone in that room.

The video is edited. Any of those Devil's advocate comments wouldn't have been included.

Rhule has final say. He said go get Darnold. The video was made to hype the move to the fans.

Edited February 26, 2022 by trueblade

[ThPantherFan]

4 hours ago, DaveThePanther2008 said:

Run with Darnold and hope we fix our line.  

That is what I believe we should do.  If we don't fix the line no one will be great.  Maybe mediocre at the best.

[Sgt Schultz]

1 hour ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

I really believed Matt Rhule was a good hire in year 1, but this was basically me watching the team this year during the Giants game.

Most of us did, me included.  He was a breath of fresh air after seeing the same game plans every week and speeches about missed opportunities. 

[TLGPanthersFan]

1 hour ago, CPantherKing said:

Teddy is good enough to build a team around. His problem is the clutch game winning drives, but he will be solid for a team with a great defense.

Broncos had a great defense and Teddy still failed. He is not a player "you can build a team around". He is a backup not a starter, but people in the NFL keep making him a starter. You can't win with a QB like him in todays NFL unless you have a historically great defense. Like the 2015 Broncos.

[stirs]

A far better trade would have been for a LT and Center.

Screwing around with all the middle of the road QB's in the league is useless until we get the Oline established