Rico Dowdle sounds like he’s gone

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, NAS said:

Agreed.  He's vastly overpaid - not sure if they can restructure him or release him after next year if we can draft his replacement  I thought Cade Mays did a solid job at guard.  

Mays I view like BC. He can do an admirable job as a starter but he will never be anything other than a bottom third starter. He is a top shelf, critical backup.

Hunt would be a net negative salary cap impact to cut/trade this offseason. He also has a $9 mil guarantee that gets triggered on March 13. He would be easier to move in 2027 but I am not sure there will be many takers at his salary.

We need to start getting serious about drafting a real C, some interior depth/starters and at least one starting caliber OT.

As much as a strength as that unit has been, we are over invested monetarily and the returns have been underwhelming. 

[CanadianCat]

1 minute ago, NAS said:

It's concerning that Canales isn't an offensive genius he was sold to be.  He's a good motivator and manager of the locker room, but in today's NFL you need your head coach to be more than that.  Otherwise, he needs to relinquish his play calling duties to someone who is. 

I dont think he was ever sold as a offensive genius. 

He was sold as the QB 'fixer'. 

I would say that the jury is still out on that. He has this next year to make BY a top 15 QB. If he does that then I think he earns that title considering that last year BY was talked about being the biggest draft bust ever. 

[CanadianCat]

3 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Mays I view like BC. He can do an admirable job as a starter but he will never be anything other than a bottom third starter. He is a top shelf, critical backup.

Hunt would be a net negative salary cap impact to cut/trade this offseason. He also has a $9 mil guarantee that gets triggered on March 13. He would be easier to move in 2027 but I am not sure there will be many takers at his salary.

We need to start getting serious about drafting a real C, some interior depth/starters and at least one starting caliber OT.

As much as a strength as that unit has been, we are over invested monetarily and the returns have been underwhelming. 

Yeah Icky getting hurt really messes with what we need to do. I think we could go OT this draft as a result of that injury. 

But we have cap space and I have enough trust in the FO to fill the holes prior to the draft at this point.

[KillaCamNewton]

move ickey to guard next year and find out what to do with hunt. can he play RT?

[KillaCamNewton]

13 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Mays I view like BC. He can do an admirable job as a starter but he will never be anything other than a bottom third starter. He is a top shelf, critical backup.

Hunt would be a net negative salary cap impact to cut/trade this offseason. He also has a $9 mil guarantee that gets triggered on March 13. He would be easier to move in 2027 but I am not sure there will be many takers at his salary.

We need to start getting serious about drafting a real C, some interior depth/starters and at least one starting caliber OT.

As much as a strength as that unit has been, we are over invested monetarily and the returns have been underwhelming. 

to be fair how many games did the unit play fully together?

[kungfoodude]

17 minutes ago, CanadianCat said:

Yeah Icky getting hurt really messes with what we need to do. I think we could go OT this draft as a result of that injury. 

But we have cap space and I have enough trust in the FO to fill the holes prior to the draft at this point.

We could sign a stop gap LT in free agency too. We might have to dramatically overpay but there are a couple of older, solid guys coming available that might be into a one year cash grab.

[kungfoodude]

9 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

to be fair how many games did the unit play fully together?

That is a valid point.

15 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

move ickey to guard next year and find out what to do with hunt. can he play RT?

Brother, he is a below average pass blocker in a phone booth. He would get decimated on the edge.

[Khyber53]

Rico got an opportunity here and he really made the most of it. For a few weeks there he was rightfully the talk of the league. There's a very good chance he is going to get a nice, not great, contract out there from some team. 

And don't be surprised if Johnathon Brooks can't answer the bell and Rico is still out there, that we don't offer a modest two year contract to Rico. He's a really good guy, great team guy and when he's on, he's a force to be reckoned with. 

 

[TheMaulClaw]

I say we draft another back. We could use a dynamic back. Rico was okay but I thought his success was more due to the Online in those games. I didn't really see him overpowering and hitting home runs at the second level.

[MHS831]

A contract is likely to be based on the past 2 year's production and will probably be for 3 years or so.  This chart tells you why we should move on: he has peaked, in all likelihood.  Rico will be 28, I believe, this summer.   If you had to put a pin in thehear RBs start to decline sharply, it would be 28 or 29.  It is smart to let him go and ride Chuba, Brooks, and Etienne, using the $$ to sign an edge or LB.

 

http://www.rotopicks.com/images/nfl/ppg-of-rbs.jpg

[strato]

2 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

Rico got an opportunity here and he really made the most of it. For a few weeks there he was rightfully the talk of the league. There's a very good chance he is going to get a nice, not great, contract out there from some team. 

And don't be surprised if Johnathon Brooks can't answer the bell and Rico is still out there, that we don't offer a modest two year contract to Rico. He's a really good guy, great team guy and when he's on, he's a force to be reckoned with. 

 

I didn’t get any kind of vibe off of Rico that he wanted to come back and play for Idzik and Canales and split time like he did this year. 

[hepcat]

4 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

Mays I view like BC. He can do an admirable job as a starter but he will never be anything other than a bottom third starter. He is a top shelf, critical backup.

Hunt would be a net negative salary cap impact to cut/trade this offseason. He also has a $9 mil guarantee that gets triggered on March 13. He would be easier to move in 2027 but I am not sure there will be many takers at his salary.

We need to start getting serious about drafting a real C, some interior depth/starters and at least one starting caliber OT.

As much as a strength as that unit has been, we are over invested monetarily and the returns have been underwhelming. 

There are much bigger needs than Cade Mays right now. He has performed well and I think he'll be an affordable starting center option. He looks wildly better than the previous starting center Bradley Bozeman who got beaten like a ragdoll against the Patriots last Sunday. 

But in retrospect the Panthers have had so many opportunities to draft a legit second round center in the last 5 years it's ridiculous. 

 

[DeadpoolPanther]

I like Rico and appreciate his season but he’s def hitting the market.

Roll with Chuba and Etienne and draft a later rb or get a decent vet. I still have a little faith in Etienne that he can be a solid back just don’t let him field punts my goodness.

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, hepcat said:

There are much bigger needs than Cade Mays right now. He has performed well and I think he'll be an affordable starting center option. He looks wildly better than the previous starting center Bradley Bozeman who got beaten like a ragdoll against the Patriots last Sunday. 

But in retrospect the Panthers have had so many opportunities to draft a legit second round center in the last 5 years it's ridiculous. 

 

The issue is that Mays isn't appreciably better than Bozeman. It won't take much in terms of resources to find a solution there. We just keep ignoring it, which is somewhat understandable given what we have invested in the RG and LG.

Linderbaum is a free agent. If he doesn't sign with Baltimore, throwing money his way would definitely improve the OL unit tremendously. In the 2027 offseason, there will likely have to be a wholesale overhaul of the OL unit anyway.