Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! Let’s dive right in to all your questions!
@WTMealey: Imagine a Canales Rivera and Fox Venn diagram.
What’s in the middle?
What’s in Rivera and Canales crossover section?
Rivera and Fox section is it just took Panthers to SB?
Fox and Canales section?
What’s unique about each coach that’s not in any crossover?
I would say all three coaching groups got their teams to play above their talent at points, though I’d
argue John Fox and Ron Rivera did that more with the defense than anything. Rivera and Fox both seemed stubborn in their ways where Dave Canales does seem open to changing things up a lot quicker (example, passing off play calling duties only two full seasons in). I’m curious to see what happens at defensive coordinator when Ejiro Evero inevitably moves on, whether that be to jump to a head coaching spot or if the Panthers simply make a change. Rivera was big on promoting from within for these scenarios, I’m curious to see how Dave Canales will handle that since he very much has delegated things on that side of the ball to Evero.
RobHolland211: Would you rather:
We have an injury plagued season where we lose a lot of close games and end up with a top 5 pick?
Or
We make a historic run and win the Super Bowl which leads to us signing Bryce Young* to a long term deal?
I’m taking the Super Bowl every time. And as a friendly reminder, I often ignore questions with negative nicknames for players. So if you ever wonder why your question didn’t get answered, that’s why.
KSUDD: Now that Sorsby is hitting the supplemental draft do you think teams will have serious interest, or will the gambling issue scare away teams from making any major investment? I personally don’t think any team gives up a premium draft pick for someone with his baggage.
Do you think the Panthers will have any interest? They explicitly expressed interest in having a younger backup to Bryce, and its hard to find Sorsby’s talent with a lower tier draft pick. That said they also emphasize character and have steered clear from other prospects with character concerns.
gsbshsb: Sorsby?
To address the general questions around Sorsby and the NFL, I do think some team is going to bid a draft pick. The QB position is just too important and someone is going to be willing to take that gamble. I’m not sure if it’ll be a higher draft pick like a 2nd or even 3rd, but I’d imagine there will be a team that will bid a day 3 pick in order to secure his services, because if he ends up going undrafted he can sign anywhere he wants.
As far as the Panthers in particular are concerned, Jon wrote his take on bidding a draft pick for Brendan Sorsby in the Supplemental Draft this week, and he brought up a lot of very good points. He believes the Panthers should. I don’t necessarily DISAGREE, but there are a few reasons I am hesitant about it. For starters, whichever team takes him is likely going to be welcoming the biggest media storm to follow a backup quarterback since Tim Tebow, at least for a few years. The head coach will face constant questions about Sorsby, likely even on gamee days, even if he’s riding the bench for his first season. The NFL will also be highly scrutinizing him, and if he messes up again, I’d expect him to get a lifetime ban. Taking all of that aside, the Panthers seem to be giving this season to Bryce Young, and are going to make their long term decision following the 2026 season. Spending a draft pick on Sorsby doesn’t preclude them from this necessarily, but every step they’ve taken this off-season seems to indicate Bryce is the guy for 2026.
I’m not entirely against it, but I do see the drama that will follow that decision being a distraction.
Mozzie11: Saw a chart showing the 36 qb’s who have started 20 games or more since 2015. BY ranks next to last in games producing a QBR of 75 or better. Thank you Jacoby Brissett.
It is hard enough to win a SB or more with an elite QB – Marino, Manning, Rodgers, Josh A, etc. It gets to be almost impossible when the QB starts hitting 2nd and 3rd contracts. I don’t see BY ever being in the group expected to compete for a SB when counting on him and the team to be built/play like every other team.
So what is one thing (or more) the Panthers should do that is out of the box from what everyone is doing to create some separation and possibly minimize the qb position. It is easy to say build the D which is isn’t wrong per say but multiple teams are trying to do that.
The Panthers are doing what I think makes sense, which is building around the quarterback and letting the Bryce Young situation figure itself out. They’ve added pieces around him and built up the defense so that if he’s going to succeed, he will. If it isn’t meant to be, they can move on once it has become clear its never going to happen. Look at a team like Seattle, for example. They went and won with Sam Darnold, who did play extremely good football this season, but I think we all know he’s very streaky. Finding a new QB isn’t going to be easy, but this team will be in a good position if needed.
As far as things they can do to minimize the position, I think they’ve started doing some of that already. The RPOs they started running for Bryce Young were things he’s comfortable with, and he was effective. So I’d say continuing to sprinkle in those layup plays for him would be good. I know, simplifying the offense isn’t exactly a new idea, but they can’t really just take the ball out of his hands if things aren’t going in the right direction. But mixing in those one read type passes just to get an easy completion will help him get into a groove, which seems to be how it has been with him.
Revshawn: BW what does your gambling account look like!? Is it something you tap into when the NFL starts up? And what kind of plays do you make?
I don’t do a whole lot of gambling. If there’s a prime time game I’m looking to watch I might throw down a parlay just for kicks. Usually all on one side of the ball, things like over or under on yardage etc. I don’t really bet on the Panthers because they always do the opposite of what I expect if I put money on them!
aaroningreensboro: Assuming he’s 100% healthy, how good is Jonathan Brooks?
There’s a very real chance Brooks ends up taking the RB1 role from Chuba Hubbard if he returns to his pre-injuries form. I don’t think he’d phase Hubbard out of the offense entirely, but he would bring an explosive presence at running back this team hasn’t seen in a very long time. I’ll definitely be on the hype train if he continues to progress.
Coach_K: i was in Charlotte recently and saw that Leggette was one of the city’s favorite “celebrities”. Is that true? Does he have like a huge following over there? I really had no idea. I doubt it’s like what Cam brought to the city, but are there just a buncha ppl that love Leggette in the city?
I can’t really answer this because I’ve only been to Charlotte a couple of times, and it hasn’t been recently. So any of our fellow residents should comment down below about Xavier Legette’s following there. But he’s an objectively likeable guy, so I could totally see it even if he gets a lot of heat from the internet for his onfield production.
JakeNCVA: What do you think about the level of QB play across the league today – compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago? Sometimes I feel like we are grading a on curve today, but it could just be me looking at the past through nostalgic rose-colored glasses.
QBs are definitely coming into the league significantly more raw than they were in the past. A lot of that has to do with the simplification of many college offenses, and the fact that so many of the higher end guys are moving around schools a lot with the NIL deals and transfer portal stuff, so they often don’t have as solid a foundation for the NFL baked in like we saw in the past couple of decades. But by the same token, the athleticism is though the roof with way more of these guys as well.
Mozzie11: Years ago UGA talked publicly about academically becoming the Harvard of the south. It brought a good bit of derision and comments that maybe they should strive to become an equal to Vanderbilt first.
Applying that to the Panthers, we all want playoff and SB success, but what is the indicator that the Panthers have actually taken a step forward long term. My quick thought would be that we actually have back to back winning seasons for the first time in our history. A step toward sustained success to springboard toward playoff success maybe.
The back to back winning seasons would be a huge start. Winning a playoff game with this current regime would be another. I do think the continued focus on sticking to their methodology with the draft and the off-season is already showing they have taken a step forward long term, however. Just needs to continue, I don’t want to see any desperation plays with their current direction.
That’s all for this week Panthers fans! Join us next week for another edition of the weekly mailbag!
