Lowest Yards Per Completion...All Time.

[SmokinwithWilly]

5 hours ago, MechaZain said:

Or if you're going to bet the farm on a small guy who will get rocked by NFL players on a regular basis he better be special. That's what I heard.

Regardless, him being vague about it is kind of my point. Few in the media raised any concerns about Bryce's game outright. His passing ability was highly praised across the board even after Stroud had the more impressive Pro Day. There was the dumb debate around batted balls that eventually got squashed and I remember some game tape blogger types talking about his poor footwork, but even that was hand-waved away because he was a "dynamic playmaker" and we had a respected coaching staff that could fix him.

There was also a ridiculous amount of stock put into the S2 test and Bryce's results were off the chart and Stroud's private results were "leaked" and he was called an imbecile, one of the nicer thing said about him. The caveat though was that you could practice for the S2 and Bryce had been taking it for a long time. The hype machine was fueled and Tepper along with Fitts & co bought it hook line and sinker. 

[Jackie Lee]

28 minutes ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

There was also a ridiculous amount of stock put into the S2 test and Bryce's results were off the chart and Stroud's private results were "leaked" and he was called an imbecile, one of the nicer thing said about him. The caveat though was that you could practice for the S2 and Bryce had been taking it for a long time. The hype machine was fueled and Tepper along with Fitts & co bought it hook line and sinker. 

That test sure did drop off the face of the earth immediately after that season lol. 

[OneBadCat]

I think Bryce is probably a very smart QB and understands the game well. But we’ve only had a few games where it felt like he took over. For the #1 pick it looks like he needs a lot of support to get going and for that reason I’m not sure he’ll ever meet that investment. If he could be top 10 at this point it would be a W. 
 

I also can’t gauge if his problems are purely physical or confidence driven due to perceived limitations. 
 

Against Tampa in the bank it looked Bama Bryce is coming on, then last week the passing game is abysmal. 

[electro's horse]

10 minutes ago, OneBadCat said:

I think Bryce is probably a very smart QB and understands the game well.

What has made you think that?

if anything he’s asked to do less and less each season. The playbook is getting smaller 

[Martin]

1 hour ago, electro's horse said:

What has made you think that?

if anything he’s asked to do less and less each season. The playbook is getting smaller 

Agree, I think he’s probably great at the whiteboard and talking about it, but it is not translating to actual play on the field.

[Martin]

And on this whole “Bama Bryce” thing. He lived off out of structure, when things break down, vs. lesser athletes in College. That has proven to not work in the NFL and was the concern for a lot of us from the get go, in addition to lack of arm strength and size.

[SmokinwithWilly]

1 hour ago, Jackie Lee said:

That test sure did drop off the face of the earth immediately after that season lol. 

I know it's conspiracy theory but part of this has always felt by design as part of the entertainment aspect of the NFL since the team was forced to be sold.

Enter Tepper as the narcissist, impulsive hedge fund owner relying on analytics over an ownership group. His impulsive actions on full display the first 5 years burning through multiple QBs, 4 HCs, 2 GMs. Everything trying to find the newest shortcut to success. 

Houston needed a new image quickly after the Watson debacle, and Carolina has an owner willing to ignore football guys and go with his analytics. Here comes the S2, along with tons of media coverage that the Holy Grail for finding QBs has been found and Bryce with a damn near perfect score. Then Bryce goes 1st overall, has one of, if not the worst rookie QB seasons ever, and the S2 all but disappears from being mentioned again. It’s all just a bit too convenient for my liking. 

[TLGPanthersFan]

2 hours ago, OneBadCat said:

I think Bryce is probably a very smart QB and understands the game well. But we’ve only had a few games where it felt like he took over. For the #1 pick it looks like he needs a lot of support to get going. 

I think it is obvious at this point that even with support, which he definitely has at this point, he will never get going. Dude is who he is.

If Bryce was just consistently average this is a 10+ win team and easily in the playoffs.

But at this point he is just below average and that is never going to change.

[TLGPanthersFan]

53 minutes ago, Martin said:

Agree, I think he’s probably great at the whiteboard and talking about it, but it is not translating to actual play on the field.

So you are saying he will probably make a good coach when he is out of the league.

[X-Clown]

3 hours ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

I know it's conspiracy theory but part of this has always felt by design as part of the entertainment aspect of the NFL since the team was forced to be sold.

Enter Tepper as the narcissist, impulsive hedge fund owner relying on analytics over an ownership group. His impulsive actions on full display the first 5 years burning through multiple QBs, 4 HCs, 2 GMs. Everything trying to find the newest shortcut to success. 

Houston needed a new image quickly after the Watson debacle, and Carolina has an owner willing to ignore football guys and go with his analytics. Here comes the S2, along with tons of media coverage that the Holy Grail for finding QBs has been found and Bryce with a damn near perfect score. Then Bryce goes 1st overall, has one of, if not the worst rookie QB seasons ever, and the S2 all but disappears from being mentioned again. It’s all just a bit too convenient for my liking. 

The way I remember the whole S2 thing coming up was that Brock Purdy scored a really high score on it when he had that rookie season that came out of nowhere. His score was in the mid 90s. The guys who developed the test then started pushing the narrative that mahomes, Allen, and burrow all had really high scores when they took it too so there’s something to it. They said something like mid 80s and up was elite processing. Then it blew up in their face after Bryce scored a 98 and CJ Stroud scored an 18 and how differently their rookie years turned out. Now it looks even funnier because here were the other scores of guys from that class:

Jake Haener 96

Will Levis 93

Jaren Hall 93

Clayton Tune 84

Anthony Richardson 79

Hendon Hooker 48

IIRC, agents started telling QBs not to take the test after CJs experience. 

[raleigh-panther]

On 12/30/2025 at 8:43 AM, The Lobo said:

Saw this on X 

Wow

that is depressing 

[Jackie Lee]

4 minutes ago, raleigh-panther said:

Wow

that is depressing 

The Bears moved on no problem and Trubisky had to sign a $2m backup deal. Here we are talking about picking up a 5th year option lol. 

[SmokinwithWilly]

1 hour ago, X-Clown said:

The way I remember the whole S2 thing coming up was that Brock Purdy scored a really high score on it when he had that rookie season that came out of nowhere. His score was in the mid 90s. The guys who developed the test then started pushing the narrative that mahomes, Allen, and burrow all had really high scores when they took it too so there’s something to it. They said something like mid 80s and up was elite processing. Then it blew up in their face after Bryce scored a 98 and CJ Stroud scored an 18 and how differently their rookie years turned out. Now it looks even funnier because here were the other scores of guys from that class:

Jake Haener 96

Will Levis 93

Jaren Hall 93

Clayton Tune 84

Anthony Richardson 79

Hendon Hooker 48

IIRC, agents started telling QBs not to take the test after CJs experience. 

I remember that too. Brock Purdy really ignited the idea that test could tell all but I have never seen so many experts dry hump an unproven narrative, and basically an infomercial at that point, like that. I also remember Stroud saying watch me play football. 

Edited 1 hour ago by SmokinwithWilly

[Jackie Lee]

22 minutes ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

I remember that too. Brock Purdy really ignited the idea that test could tell all but I have never seen so many experts dry hump an unproven narrative, and basically an infomercial at that point, like that. I also remember Stroud saying watch me play football. 

I also remember the S2 guy doing some interviews and he was like, don't take this too seriously! It's just one of a handful of a things to use during an evaluation, I'm not liable if your qb sucks! Basically. But the media made it a huge deal anyway