fuark, Teddy was so close to breakin a few returns….then kept running into his own players

I live in nc and you guys are way more optimistic then what I was hearing. I work at a store and everyone coming in was yelling about getting rid of cam and the coach lol

Not going to lie, I was like this for about an hour after the game. Once they calm down, they'll realize we had a pretty damn good season. It's disappointing to lose at home like that especially when we can and have played some decent looking football over the season, but our entire team has made a great improvement just over one season.

I still love cammy cam and riverboat ron and we can definitely make some changes over the off season.

I think it's more obvious than ever that we need more firepower on offense.

I think the coaches will try to fix that this off season.

I don't blame this loss on Cam, receivers, RBs, or Rivera. This loss was due to terrible playcalling, on both offense and defense. Blitzing Kaepernick in the first half? Got him flustered a bit? Overthrowing his receivers? Off target? Lets stop blitzing in the 2nd half. Offense is picking up 5-6 yards a carry running out of the shotgun? Lets run it from under center on the 1 yard line four times.

I was fine with the QB sneak call, but don't wait to run it on 4th down, do it all 4 downs if you have to. Either that or snap it to Cam in shotgun and let him dive over the pile like he's done so many times before. It's like Shula went full potato once they got to the 1. So many things they could have done, could have even ran a bootleg, and either Cam keeps it and runs it in or tosses it to Olsen or Lafell. Giving it to Tolbert on the 1 would be great, against any other team, but not against the 49ers. It simply took too long to develop and the O-line wasn't going to get a big enough push.

And then there was the call to pass it on 3rd and 18 while still barely being in field goal range. They should have just ran it and tried to get as close as possible for a field goal. Nope, sack and out of FG range.

Damn, so close yet so far away. Well it was a great season. I do agree we need to get a receiver in the first round, but I'm not as down on our offensive players as much as some of you seem to be. I thought the receivers did a fine job this season. They dropped some passes, but all teams do. Lafell is one of the best blocking receivers, and I believe he statistically had his best season yet. And Olsen is a top 5-10 TE. The way some of you act on here, you'd think we still had Dwayne Jarrett and Jeff King as our starters. It could definitely be a lot worse. But we do still need a new #1 guy. And definitely need some better linemen, plus someone to replace Gross since he's most likely done after next year.

Of our 3 WR, only Ginn ended the regular season with a positive DVOA (and it was barely positive). LaFell's -8% DVOA is downright terrible and he'll probably rate out as one of the 3 worst #2 WR in the league, if not the worst. I like his blocking, but the guy just isn't good at all. I'm not saying we need to go out and spend big money on a WR, but let's not act like we've got even a decent WR corps.

we need weshawn back.

Cam was absolutely gassed at the end of the game, you could tell when he took forever to get the play call in when they were running a no huddle offense with 5 minutes left. Then the play call was a HB draw for 1 yard. That flop was also horrible, could've gotten a free play after Brooks jumped and taken it in with an easy QB sneak.

Fans that want to get rid of a QB and coach after a 12-4 season are crazy.

And Iamgenus I'm on my phone so can't go back and quote but in response to your free agent question.. The only true impact guy(by the I mean someone we cannot afford to lose) is Hardy.

There are a few guys that without question contributed in positive ways that have expiring contracts but they're not irreplaceable IMO. Those guys include:
Ted Ginn - I do hope we re-sign Ginn. He is a nice weapon to have in the return game and he did come up big as a receiver on occasion. He is by no means a legit WR2 but he's worth keeping around as a full time STer and a situational WR.
Mike Mitchell, S - another 'solid' contributor for our defense. Made some big plays and worth bringing back at the right price.
Colin Cole, DT - again, solid situational guy I'd like to bring back
Captain Munnerlyn - my thoughts on Capt are described in my last post. He is NOT a starting CB but he is a sure tackler and consistently average. Nickle/situational dude that def deserves to be on a roster.
Travelle Wharton/Geoff Hangartner - Wharton was in on some big run plays this year and you can never have enough OL depth. Two more right price guys.
Jordan Gross - his contract voids after Feb 7th so we are gonna have to convince him not to retire. He's pretty crucial and should probably not be on this list. If he retires it throws tackle onto our offseason priority list.
Graham Gano - forgot this guy was a FA. Def think he deserves to come back.

Few more guys but non-impact guys IMO. Those include:
Domenik Hixon, Brandon LaFell*, Derek Anderson, Ben Hartsock, Jordan Senn, Jason Williams, Dan Connor, Quintin Mikell*, Drayton Florence*

* folks who had a considerable amount of playing time.

remember when we had moose and smitty.

god I am beginning to forget what 2 good WRs on the field at the same time looks like.

also, we upgrade Oline.

If we had another mediocre to bad season I think Gross would be out but hopefully with the run we had he'll be convinced to ride it out another year or two. We need him.

offense needs a lot of upgrades…our passing game was really bland and completely boring and unreliable, and our run game was drastically inflated by Cam…he may be a man child but those hits take a toll over time and that can't be our most reliable way of running or he won't last very long.

i'm probably a little too cynical. this was an amazing season but our defense carried us really, really hard.

amazing how true the saying "don't know what you have till it's gone" is at times

the perfect combo. Smitty was an explosive, intimidating, downfield weapon. a threat to take it for 6 ANY time he got the ball, no matter the situation. then there was Moose who was the definition of mr. reliable/consistency.

Yeah hopefully that's the case. I do not want to see what happens to this OL if we're forced to replace Gross THIS offseason..

nah not cynical. the offense, even during our winning streak, struggled against good teams. can't ride the defense like that. the team could truly be lethal, jump into that elite tier, if we can get some one or two more weapons for Cam. Olsen is fine but it'd be interesting if we went the Pats pre-Hernandez-murder route and looked for a TE to pair with Olsen with one of our top picks, since Olsen is still under contract.. TE's these days can have the same impact any WR1 can have. Just look at Graham.

No matter what though, we need a high point guy for Cam. Having seen Kaep play with Crabtree quite a few games this season Crabs bailed him out of some pretty terrible throws (throws that would have either completely overshot LaFell or been tipped.. potentially for an int..) many times this season.. Obv. can't realistically expect to find a Crabtree level receiver but receiver HAS to be our #1 priority or I'ma flip. Unless a Star-Lotulelei-level-BPA falls in our laps @ pick #28(ouch ) it has to be some kind of receiver.

speaking of that, it's about that time to start looking at draft prospects. if any of y'all have any guys you're specifically interested in post em up. put some raw stats, youtube highlights, actual game film if you've got it(ie full games, not just highlights), projected round/pick, etc.. I'll be looking into damn near every WR/TE avail. over the next several weeks and will post what I like as I see it.

great, great season bros.

Had a crazy thought just now…

What would y'all think about potentially using one of our premium picks(I consider premium rounds 1-3) on a running back? I know I know lemme explain, haha.

On one hand I know using premium picks on a back can be risky or even potato for a variety of reasons..
- short shelf life/lots of guys go down to injury due to the nature of the position. You want your top picks to be long term & safe investments.
- plethora of current starting/stud backs that were drafted late, hell some even undrafted
- officiating, the rules, etc.. all blatantly favor receivers/passing game in general
- drafting/building a good OL can be a better, sometimes even more effective method in creating a good run game
- already have an absurd amount of money invested in our running backs and we are kind of tied down with at least one(about to research the consequences of releasing DWill). I know cutting Stewart is 100% not going to happen.
- you've seen how badly it's bitten teams in the ass after using a high pick on a back

Lol typing those almost talked me outta this idea.. And I know there are even more reasons to go against going big for a back.. But still I'll throw it out there.

You see how big of an impact Lynch, Gore, AP, McCoy, etc. have for their respective teams. Wilson's receiving corps isn't THAT much better than Cam's.. But Lynch opens everything up and has, on multiple occasions, thrown the team on his back to break a game wide open or put a team away. McCoy was a HUGE reason Foles broke out and was actually pretty fukin dominant(as was Philly's offense). He opened up the passing game and he himself also contributed in a major way catching outta the back field. Gore is a guy that will get his yards every play. Softens coverage for the receivers, churns out first downs like it ain't no thang, punishing RB that'll tire teams out and can put em away for good at the end. Does AP really need an explanation?

Now obviously those are the absolute best of the best, elite tier backs in the NFL today and it's unrealistic(read: potato) to think we could find a guy like that easily.. But as much as we need a true WR1 for Cam part of me thinks an actual LEGIT running back(which inconsistent DWill, always injured Stewart, situational Tolbert are NOT ) could have just as big of an impact on offense. And despite all of the changes to help the passing game, you are still seeing year after year the best postseason teams are still putting a heavy load on their run game. Blount/Lynch are just a couple of examples(inb4 a lotta good McCoy did for Philly) in this past weekends games.

What I'm trying to get at I guess is we are built to be a power running, T.O.P. dominating team. Cam is one of the actual legit dual threat QB and he without question adds another dimension to our run game. Kalil is as athletic a lineman as any, always downfield blocking more so than I've ever seen from a center. Silatolu when we get him back is a straight MAULER and is gonna be an incredibly improvement to our run blocking.. Tolbert needs no explanation, and if we keep LaFell he's a beast blocker.

We just don't have the consistent, every down back to go all in on an offense like that.

What do y'all think about that? Given all of our needs I feel kind of potato even suggesting it but I feel compelled to and think it could be some good discussion on a boring Tuesday night/loooooong offseason, haha.

Edit - Sorry I know I always ramble off these random, massive TLDR, bipolar ass posts outta nowhere lulz. Dat late shift insomniac boredom offseason also doesn't help rofl

no to rb ^ rbs are cheaper then ever in the NFL and we are drowning in them.

If our first 3 rounds need to be wr, oline and secondary is some form or order. I am fine geting 2 of each and then whatever on the last one.

I think I have seen a few mocks where we get the guy that won the bilentkof award last year………forget his name……….but if you look at the guys to win that award…….not a bust among them.

we may have a lot of RB's but:
DWill is probably going to get release. Even if he stays he is very meh. Can't even count the amount of drives he killed last year with his waste-of-a-down rushes for 2 yards or worse. Yeah he broke a few big plays but those were very rare.. and he had some pretty fuking crucial fumbles(one costing us a game).. and he was virtually invisible in the playoff game.
Stewart can't stay on the field
Tolbert is not an every down back. He is a great situational guy without question.
Barner is nothing to get excited about

it is sad how many rbs we can have and yet not have a rb.

Williams and the run game in general would have been a lot better if the O-line wasn't in such bad shape this year. Combined with the fact that Shula always ran him up the middle, when Williams is a lot more effective outside the tackles. Wasn't his fault really. Also, Gettleman and Rivera did a press conference yesterday and Gettleman said he was happy with the group of backs we have.

I agree we could benefit from a better runningback, but the way the panthers are set up its not a dire need. They like the timeshare at running back especially since cam and tolbert will see a good bit of carries throughout the season, so a number 1 running back isnt looking at more than 10-15 carries per game IMO. Jstew might still have some left in the tank if he can get healthy..hes a physical freak. Dwill showed some life on a few big plays he had throughout the season but the old Dwill would have housed the ball on a few occasions where he got ran down and then fumbled. I do like that they opened up the screen game more this season and let dwill run. However alot of the plays where he would pound it up the gut for no yardage was just miserable to watch.

someone on the huddle mocked Lache Seastrunk to us in the 3rd. wouldn't mind that, but he's been pretty injury prone

dropping some lulz in here for my Panthers brethren. not sure how many of you are familiar with Jon Reep, but this video is pretty damn funny

Barnwell's latest column has a blurb about Hardy:

Full article here: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nf...stock-watch-2/

It probably links back to what he wrote about the cap situation about halfway through the year. Basically we are still in bad shape with the cap for 2 more years and even then will need to pay Cam and Luke. Luckily we have some young, cheap talent (Cam next year, Luke 2 years, Short and Star 3 years) and draft picks moving forward.

Another Grantland article, this time from Robert Mays, starts off like this

You can read the whole thing here: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nf...-playoff-team/

He basically profiles the free agency situation for each of the playoff teams that have been eliminated so far.

What kind of mocks are you guys seeing?

The more I think about it the more I am pretty sure that corner will be our 3rd priority unless someone amazing falls to us. The defense held up incredibly well without one and these windows don't last forever in the NFL so really I think our immediate success all falls on the offense.

That and I've got a gut feeling that tells me Ginn won't be back. Having a resurgence (in a way) like he did will probably have him asking for more money than we'll be able to offer him and someone else will probably be willing to throw him some coin since he flashed some legit potential in some pretty big situations this year.

What kind of mocks are you guys seeing? Walter Football has us picking Allen Robinson from Penn State and his highlight tape was pretty nice as all highlight tapes tend to be. As long as we take a WR with size who doesn't drop the ball I will be content regardless of 40 times and everything else that comes along with it.

I wouldn't put any confidence in a mock past the first round (and I wouldn't put much faith in any past the first few picks). Our 1st rounder is going to be so dependent on who is left. And Gettleman has been so quiet about his plans that anyone's guess is about equal. I want a WR in the first, don't care if he's big, fast, whatever. Just want him to be good.

Two words: hog mollies :-/

Draft game to kill time for the next 3 months
http://first-pick.com/NFL/DraftGame.aspx


Your score is: 3974 (Drafting Ability: A-, Player Quality A-, Future Draft Picks: N/A)

Your Picks:
Round 1 Pick 28: Eric Ebron, TE, North Carolina (A)
Round 2 Pick 28: Jordan Matthews, WR, Vanderbilt (A)
Round 3 Pick 31 (DEN): Morgan Moses, OT, Virginia (A)
Round 4 Pick 28: Bashaud Breeland, CB, Clemson (A)
Round 4 Pick 30 (N.E.): Andre Williams, RB, Boston College (A)
Round 4 Pick 31 (DEN): Jaylen Watkins, CB, Florida (B-)
Round 5 Pick 28: DeVante Parker, WR, Louisville (A)
Round 6 Pick 28: Stephen Morris, QB, Miami (Fla.) (B)

Would be happy is hell if that panned out, assuming Gross returns.