receiving core is an absolute disaster, we'll prob sneak in to a wild card for rivera job security but i don't see us doing much this year

12/3/2017 6:28:52 PM

Matt Kahlil is hot garbage

12/3/2017 6:46:37 PM

So when is Olsen coming back again?

12/3/2017 6:57:10 PM

Can't win a game where you make this many mistakes, especially the two special teams fuck ups.

12/3/2017 7:05:11 PM

hilarious to keep seeing michael palardy's name in the box score next to cam in the passing

[Edited on December 3, 2017 at 7:26 PM. Reason : k]

12/3/2017 7:21:26 PM

Can't even be that mad. We played a decent game all things considered. The 2 special teams fuck ups led directly to 10 points. We lost by 10.

12/3/2017 7:52:39 PM

We shot ourselves so much this game I could swear we signed Plaxico Burress this week.

12/3/2017 7:58:07 PM

^^don't forget the peppers fuck ups. They directly led to points as well

12/3/2017 9:39:03 PM

the blown off sides call could have been big too

12/4/2017 12:27:50 AM

OF COURSE ATLANTA BEATS THE SAINTS

12/7/2017 11:41:45 PM

Isn’t that a good thing?

12/8/2017 8:02:36 AM

probably more of a "we'd be ahead of them now if we'd have beaten them last week" reaction

but I guess it's still good

[Edited on December 8, 2017 at 8:06 AM. Reason : well, a couple games ahead of them]

12/8/2017 8:05:24 AM

Depends what we do I suppose. Puts the division back in play but also lessens our playoff chances overall. There appears to be a 3 team fight for 2 wildcard spots coming down the stretch and we have a few tough games left. Winning this weekend would be pretty big.

12/8/2017 8:09:45 AM

we should’ve been pulling for the Saints

they already own all of the tiebreakers. the more the Falcons lose, the easier it is for us to make the playoffs.

12/8/2017 9:49:46 AM

^Agreed, but injuries are starting to pile up for the Saints so who knows, they could drop a couple more. Ultimately it means the game this weekend is a must win. We'll have our complete starting offensive line and Olsen back for the first time since Week 2, so hopefully it all comes together.

12/8/2017 11:17:50 AM

come on Ron, one of the perks of having cam is being able to go for those

12/10/2017 1:52:54 PM

from your own territory when your defense has been playing well? nah

12/10/2017 2:02:35 PM

Devin Funchess= New Terrell Owens

12/10/2017 3:05:03 PM

Cam still can't throw a pass with touch and we still can't tackle.

12/10/2017 3:49:59 PM

luckily he can bust off 60+ yard runs

12/10/2017 3:57:23 PM

Clutch stop by the defense after that turnover and a ridiculous run by Cam to put us in scoring position. Vikings are a scary good team.

12/10/2017 4:53:56 PM

this might be my favorite

12/10/2017 8:49:56 PM

welp nfc a lot more wide open now with wentz injury, somehow i still think a lot depends on olsen getting healthy for us and I'm not sure that will happen this year

12/10/2017 9:01:55 PM

Don't need Olsen when we have Plaxico Burress 2.0

12/11/2017 12:14:25 AM

Yeah, gotta give Hurney credit, he kept the right wide receiver. Funchess is turning into a legit WR1 and he's only 23 years old, younger than a lot of rookies.

12/11/2017 10:11:45 AM

One win against the Saints and we would be sitting as the #2 seed right now with a serious look at the #1 seed seeing Wentz go down in LA yesterday. What could have been.

12/11/2017 10:45:00 AM

23 is not younger than a lot of rookies.

12/11/2017 11:12:08 AM

I suppose it depends on your definition of "a lot" but he's younger than 3 rookie WRs, including Cooper Kupp for the Vikings. Just look here and sort by age, you'll see a lot of 23-24,

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2017/draft.htm

What a dumb point to argue.

12/11/2017 11:33:32 AM

It's dumb that you brought it up because it's not true. Unless you consider less than 10% to be a lot.

12/11/2017 11:48:31 AM

It's a good point just worded poorly.
Jaelen Strong and Amari Cooper are the only other 3rd year WRs that young.

12/11/2017 11:56:32 AM

basically yes ^

12/11/2017 1:00:54 PM

amobi okoye is 30 and hasnt played in the nfl for 5 years

12/12/2017 1:42:18 AM

Devin funchess seriously looks look he could be a Panthers great.

Big Body (and Lean muscle, unlike Benjamin), and able to get separation on routes (doesn't have to rely on his big body to bully corners like benjamin).... and now his hands seem to have come along, which was the big knock on him coming into NFL.

If we want to compare him to panthers historic receivers, he's like a more athletic Musin Muhammad, or a young Keyshawn Johnson.

[Edited on December 12, 2017 at 3:23 PM. Reason : .]

12/12/2017 3:22:20 PM

This is complete speculation (is that allowed here?) but I always felt like KB was a bad influence on Cam. I dont think Cam needs much of a distraction to get lead astray, and KB played a roll in that. Felt like the trade had something to do with that.

12/12/2017 4:43:29 PM

I don't think it had anything to do with that. I think they looked at his cap hit next year, how Funchess has developed, and decided that the money would be better spent elsewhere. It's not like he was a bad player and our passing game has gotten statistically worse since his departure. There's also the reason cited by Rivera and offensive coaching staff: they wanted to put more speed on the field so defenses couldn't crowd the line of scrimmage. We've had three 200+ yard rushing games since the KB trade so you could say that plan has worked.

12/12/2017 5:27:42 PM

Some of the local media guys seemed to agree at the time that getting rid of Cam's bff would be a wakeup call that the early season offense wasn't working. Cam is obviously better when he is spreading the ball around rather than trying to force it to Benji or Smitty, so I think there is something to the move given how close he and Cam were off the field

[Edited on December 12, 2017 at 5:34 PM. Reason : .]

12/12/2017 5:33:04 PM

^^It absolutely has to deal with that. Cam spreads the ball so much better w/o KB.

12/12/2017 6:44:09 PM

I mean, that's a fun narrative to parrot for a lazy analyst because it sounds good, but the stats don't really bear that out. Both Funchess and McCaffrey had more targets than KB before he was traded. Like I said, this had more to do with the run game than the passing game. Our passing game has gotten marginally worse since we traded KB, while the run game has gotten much better.

The Panthers use either 12 or 21 personnel the majority of the time, which means there's only 2 WRs in the formation. When it was KB and Funch, that meant there wasn't anyone on the field that threatened the defense deep, so teams could keep their safeties near the line of scrimmage. Now we can pair Funchess with a faster receiver like Samuel(before he got injured), Byrd or Clay. That means we're seeing a lot less Cover 0/1 so there's less defenders near the line scrimmage. I'm not making any deep insights here, this is almost word for word what Rivera/Shula said they wanted to do.

Beyond that Benjamin's main strength was in/near the redzone where we didn't really need much help. We were 2015's best redzone offense when he missed the entire season. With Funchess developing into more of an all-around receiving threat, KB became expendable, especially considering we would have had to pay him $8 million next year. He's a good player but no longer made much sense in our offense which is predicated on running the ball and taking deep shots off play-action.

12/12/2017 7:26:03 PM

Yeah, people whose job it is to cover the team are just being lazy, it's not possible that there actually were locker room issues. I'm sure him not being able to stay in shape during offseasons, or walking out of practice, or pouting and shouting when he didn't get the ball was just a fun narrative.

12/12/2017 7:45:23 PM

He showed up to training camp in great shape, I never heard of any locker room issues, he walked out of practice because his surgically repaired knee was hurting, and practically every star receiver bitches when they don't get the ball. You can believe some unsourced reports from random reporters if you want, I'll take official team statements that are actually backed up by facts and numbers.

The whole idea that we traded an otherwise good receiver primarily because he was too friendly with the quarterback is ridiculous on it's face.

12/12/2017 8:19:10 PM

Quote :

"I dont think Cam needs much of a distraction to get lead astray, and KB played a roll in that."

what in the hell is this supposed to mean?

if that’s the basis of your thesis...

12/12/2017 9:27:13 PM

Funchess is like a more muscular, faster, less agile, slightly taller Ed McCaffrey. Also kind of like a taller Mike alstott.

12/12/2017 9:36:27 PM

^^clearly Benjamin played a dinner roll in a team play.

12/12/2017 10:25:52 PM

Funchess is like Reggie White if he was thinner, faster, weaker, younger, played a different position, and was still alive.

12/12/2017 10:47:56 PM

only difference between them is the ownership of a CPAP machine

12/12/2017 11:21:31 PM

Looks like Rogers is coming back just in time for the game with the Panthers.

Hopefully it goes about as well for him as Romo's triumphant return against us 2 years ago.

[Edited on December 13, 2017 at 12:47 AM. Reason : ]

12/13/2017 12:42:52 AM

KB's knees fucking suck and that's why we gave him away for nothing, plain and simple. Not that complicated. Guarantee we were angling for a trade since the first Saints game when he went off. Great front office move imo

[Edited on December 13, 2017 at 1:04 AM. Reason : .]

12/13/2017 1:00:36 AM

Saw that the fan who was video'd punching the guy at the Iggles game plead guilty and got 10 days + anger management.

Also, we opened as a -1 vs Green Bay and the line is up to -3 with Rogers return.

12/13/2017 11:33:46 AM

Trai Turner in concussion protocol. Maybe we'll have a healthy o-line one of these weeks.

12/13/2017 3:31:21 PM

Quote :

"Jim Trotter @JimTrotter_NFL FILED TO ESPN: Panthers owner Jerry Richardson being investigated for alleged workplace misconduct."

12/15/2017 6:04:07 PM