Wednesday practice tweets (joint practice with the Browns!)

[t96]

1 hour ago, ForJimmy said:

If he plays well this year he will be owed a decent contract.  Money is the only thing I could see as a reason for him to leave with XL and TMac on that 1st round contracts.

He's still under contract next year for dirt cheap then becomes either RFA or ERFA and we could keep him 1 more year pretty cheap too. And his role will have a big impact on his production and subsequent contract, and right now he's pretty much set to be no more than our 3rd most targeted wideout. It wouldn't shock me if he overtakes XL at some point but it would take quite some time. And obviously if he performs well, we're not going to cut him. Maybe he could get traded in the future or walk as a UFA once he reaches that status, but my point was just about how secure his roster spot is. He's not getting cut, as some have suggested is a possibility.

Edited August 6 by t96

[Captain Morgan]

sounds like a good day for the Panthers....very encouraging.  And don't anyone make Myles  mad.  

[ForJimmy]

25 minutes ago, t96 said:

He's still under contract next year for dirt cheap then becomes either RFA or ERFA and we could keep him 1 more year pretty cheap too. And his role will have a big impact on his production and subsequent contract, and right now he's pretty much set to be no more than our 3rd most targeted wideout. It wouldn't shock me if he overtakes XL at some point but it would take quite some time. And obviously if he performs well, we're not going to cut him. Maybe he could get traded in the future or walk as a UFA once he reaches that status, but my point was just about how secure his roster spot is. He's not getting cut, as some have suggested is a possibility.

Didn’t realize this but it makes sense. The Niners had a similar situation with Jennings if I remember right. Yeah Coker isn’t going anywhere the next couple years. 

[jb2288]

2 hours ago, flagfootballcoach28 said:

Granted, the ball was thrown a little behind him which makes catching the ball with your hands more difficult, but it’s every clip without exception. True though. T-Mac is a pure WR who plucks the ball out of the air. It’s a pleasure to watch. Young looking his way constantly in the first joint practice says a lot of how it’s going to be this season. Can’t wait. 

Agreed, it’s gonna be real fun to watch that TMac BY9 connection develop.
 

I hope I’m wrong about XL and have been very vocal about how dumb it is to call any rookie a bust after 1 season and give people time to develop but he’s gotta show progress catching the ball and stop being a cradler. I was pretty disappointed we didn’t see him hitting the jugs constantly in the offseason but let’s see how it plays out this year. 

[jb2288]

53 minutes ago, pantherclaw said:

XL has the best day of the receivers, and fans complain that he's not catching it away from his body, with his hands. 

First of, he's catching them. That requires hands.  

Second,  should we ask the QB to not throw the ball less accurately? 

This place just gets so damn insufferable.  

It’s because we saw it was a very real problem last year. One game we lost directly, another he indirectly cost us. It’s not sustainable in the NFL to be an only body catcher

[LinvilleGorge]

40 minutes ago, Tr3ach said:

Qb is a lot harder to learn and a lot bigger jump in difficulty from college to nfl.  Also Bryce had lots of good college seasons to see what he was able to do.  Also a lot of us had these concerns about XL before he was drafted (i have some really big concerns with tmac too) but hopefully he gets it together and is great this season. 

I loudly didn't want either of them, now I'm stuck just hoping for the best and hoping to be proven wrong. At least both guys seem like they'll be fun to root for if they pan out.

[ECHornet]

11 minutes ago, jb2288 said:

Agreed, it’s gonna be real fun to watch that TMac BY9 connection develop.
 

I hope I’m wrong about XL and have been very vocal about how dumb it is to call any rookie a bust after 1 season and give people time to develop but he’s gotta show progress catching the ball and stop being a cradler. I was pretty disappointed we didn’t see him hitting the jugs constantly in the offseason but let’s see how it plays out this year. 

Where are you expecting to ‘see’ him hit the jugs, and if you don’t see it, does it mean it didn’t happen? There were reports that he worked on the jugs machine a lot this offseason. 

[Tr3ach]

6 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I loudly didn't want either of them, now I'm stuck just hoping for the best and hoping to be proven wrong. At least both guys seem like they'll be fun to root for if they pan out.

Agreed.   We seem to only prioritize what a player does when the ball gets to them when they are scouting for players in the draft.  I prefer what receivers can do before the ball gets to them,.ie route running, quickness and change of direction.  Every receiver we bring in who is a great route runners eats when we bring them in.  Thielen, Diontae, etc, but we never draft those type of guys.  We focus on contested catch guys when that is the main thing modern defenses try to take away with constant two deep safeties.  I will never understand it.  Every year in the draft they get tunnel vision for big receivers in the first couple rounds, no matter who is in charge.

[flagfootballcoach28]

1 hour ago, pantherclaw said:

XL has the best day of the receivers, and fans complain that he's not catching it away from his body, with his hands. 

First of, he's catching them. That requires hands.  

Second,  should we ask the QB to not throw the ball less accurately? 

This place just gets so damn insufferable.  

Catching the ball with your body in the NFL is not sustainable. Period. Yes, he caught the ball and had a good day, but that doesn’t fix the root of his problem.. EVERY clip I’ve seen of him this TC has been him cradling the ball with his body. What’s going to happen if the DB is riding XL,s back in tight coverage? Multiple times last year the DB got to the ball before XL because he was waiting for the ball instead of attacking/plucking the ball out of the air with his hands. Watch how TMac and Coker catch the ball. It’s night and day. 

[NAS]

25 minutes ago, flagfootballcoach28 said:

Catching the ball with your body in the NFL is not sustainable. Period. Yes, he caught the ball and had a good day, but that doesn’t fix the root of his problem.. EVERY clip I’ve seen of him this TC has been him cradling the ball with his body. What’s going to happen if the DB is riding XL,s back in tight coverage? Multiple times last year the DB got to the ball before XL because he was waiting for the ball instead of attacking/plucking the ball out of the air with his hands. Watch how TMac and Coker catch the ball. It’s night and day. 

I agree, perfect example of a catch like that 

 

 

 

[Navy_football]

31 minutes ago, flagfootballcoach28 said:

Catching the ball with your body in the NFL is not sustainable. Period. Yes, he caught the ball and had a good day, but that doesn’t fix the root of his problem.. EVERY clip I’ve seen of him this TC has been him cradling the ball with his body. What’s going to happen if the DB is riding XL,s back in tight coverage? Multiple times last year the DB got to the ball before XL because he was waiting for the ball instead of attacking/plucking the ball out of the air with his hands. Watch how TMac and Coker catch the ball. It’s night and day. 

He uses his hands well in uncovered drills. I think he just lacks confidence right now. He has good hands, but he doesn't believe he does. Has to be forced to practice only catching with his hands in practice - with a DB covering him. 

[VintagePanther]

1 hour ago, jb2288 said:

It’s because we saw it was a very real problem last year. One game we lost directly, another he indirectly cost us. It’s not sustainable in the NFL to be an only body catcher

Antonio brown was a body catcher i think he had a fine career . Micheal Irvin even broke it down how sometimes it better to body catch but the huddle gonna cry and whine about anything 

[jb2288]

1 hour ago, ECHornet said:

Where are you expecting to ‘see’ him hit the jugs, and if you don’t see it, does it mean it didn’t happen? There were reports that he worked on the jugs machine a lot this offseason. 

Not at all, im just going by info I have. We’re deep into this offseason and he’s still body catching everything. Hopefully it’s cleaned up by regular season 

[jb2288]

12 minutes ago, VintagePanther said:

Antonio brown was a body catcher i think he had a fine career . Micheal Irvin even broke it down how sometimes it better to body catch but the huddle gonna cry and whine about anything 

AB had a historically low drop rate across both a single season and a 5 year period (3.2%). Not sure that’s the hill you want to die on when XL was top 3 in the league at 14%. It was his rookie year and he has plenty of room to improve and work at getting better, but I haven’t seen that in the limited TC clips we’ve seen to date  

that being said I’ve never heard someone describe AB as a body catcher, that’s a new one to me.