Game overview:
Round two of ‘the god among mortal QBs’, Bryce Young…versus the debut of the Giants’ new copycat KC offense (the cc-KCO).
We got a couple series of the Panthers 1st-team offense and one series of the Giants. After that it devolved into a slog that NYG won because they have the better players/depth, coaching, and energy. I have predicted that Frank Reich would destroy the Panthers’ franchise quickly, but I didn’t think it would be so evident two games into his first preseason.
Let’s look at the player notes, and do note that there is a SUBSCRIBER EXTRA coming from this one…a plan/idea/concept only I could come up with…but I also need to expand on something from this one as well. That S.Ex. (just came up with that acronym on the fly for SUBSCRIBER EXTRA!) will be out later today or wee hours am Sunday. It’s not totally time sensitive.
Scouting Notes from the game:
-- OK, lets start with game two of the Bryce Young (3-6 for 35 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) era…
It’s now becoming painfully obvious that I was right about Young. Was there anyone else willing to take the scouting stand that I did on him? I’m ‘winning’ this projection/scouting, so far. Bryce put up another dud tape here.
Now, I am not ‘winning’ according to the paid shills/parrots of football. The mainstream is circling the wagons here. Real football humans are abandoning the wagons…the odds on everything I’ve been telling the FFM-Bs…FFM bettors…about the Panthers UNDER win total bet and the Bryce TD pass UNDER bet for days/weeks/months -- the odds are changing fast. Hope you got in the past few days and weeks and months at much better odds than what you’ll see now…and another week from now.
So, how did Bryce look in this one from my perspective?
I will give him some minor grace because the Carolina O-Line is so horrific…as is their head coach. That aside, I could name 10 rookie QBs who are under pressure this preseason, because they play with 2nd and 3rd-team O-Lines all the time, and even worse weapons on the 3rd-teams…I could name 10 of them that are handling it all pretty well, and way better than Bryce.
Bryce has no answer for pocket pressure…he doesn’t have the height, he doesn’t have the off-script arm, he doesn’t have the feet to work through it at the highest level…and I have questioned his heart for hanging in the pocket from my studies of him earlier this calendar year. And it’s all playing out in front of our eyes in just the preseason.
EVERY single football analyst was extremely pro-Bryce Young as a no-doubt franchise QB and most had him as the best player in the 2023 NFL Draft, second if not first. And then there was me. All alone on the other side. I’m pretty good at this football stuff for never having played the game at a high level or worked for an NFL team (the #1 thing my critics say about my ‘terrible takes’)!
If everything is perfect (blocking, weapons), Bryce is a decent enough QB…but so are 50+ other QBs walking the NFL planet. But keep in mind what I wrote about all this summer and how it applies universally -- perfect surroundings boost the ‘middle class QBs’ and the opposite surroundings can turn good QBs to mediocre, mediocre to bad. There is a growing middle class of OK/good QBs in the NFL. O-Line is nearly everything for them (as their team’s perpetually draft 19 defensive ends/edge rushers per year).
Bryce is gonna fail for a whole host of reasons in 2023. And the blame will be on everyone else but him…because the media can’t admit to not knowing what they’re doing. He’s got a built-in 2-3 (or more) year ‘pass’ with the mainstream. It’s a special ‘hall pass’ card issued to guys like Sam Darnold and Jameis Winston. I think this ‘pass’ has got like a 4-5 year shelf life…or good until there are three head coaching changes in their career or five offensive coordinator changes…whatever comes first.
Bryce is gonna fail because he’s about the 4th-7th best QB prospect in this draft, talent wise, and he could be a ‘middle class’/solid NFL QB if everything else was great -- but his O-Line and Head Coach will drag him down to the poverty level from the middle class.
And Bryce’s failures, in 2023 (and like for the next 1-2 seasons at a minimum), will drag down the surrounding FF assets at WR/TE and probably RBs too. Maybe garbage time can help one of the assets…but Bryce has a pretty weak group of assets to work with.
Watching this game, an asset review:
Adam Thielen (1-7-0/1) is NOT the guy you remember from the Vikings. He’s lost a step or two. He’s still a viable pro, but he’s not a top guy WR anymore.
D.J. Chark (1-13-0/2) is the wrong WR for Bryce…the deep ball WR for a QB who can’t throw deep unless it’s non-contact 11-on-11 practice. He’s good for decoying.
Jonathan Mingo (1-15-0/2) might actually be their best WR for FF 2023…but that being a WR3/4 for FF. Mingo caught a simple short pass and just mowed over a tackler or two in this game. Actually, they just bounced off of him. Mingo is a grown-ass-man WR. He’s an asset. He’s a possible A.J. Brown-like WR. But he’s stuck with Bryce and Reich too.
David Tepper is going to be known as the single worst owner in the NFL in another year. He doesn’t even see it coming because he’s being fed such football garbage by his ‘team’.
-- Frank Reich is really using Laviska Shenault (0-0-0/2) in radical ways. Two games…no catches on 3 targets.
Don’t wanna give that big secret away! No one would ever suspect Shenault is going to get a jet sweep or bubble screen in Week 1. So coy, Reich is.
-- Let’s talk about something good: The Giants 1st-team offense for their one series…
The big takeaway is: Darren Waller (3-38-0/4)…he got the first three targets of the game, which comes off of all the camp reports of him getting all the targets in practice. So, now it is established = Waller is going to get 10-15-20+ targets per game…that’s the current thinking in the FF marketplace. He’s the white-hot FF player of the day/next week. All those seeking ‘their Kelce’ in FF are washing to the shores of Waller NOW.
…as I wrote about was coming…back to the Spring of 2023.
‘We’re here’.
I have more to discuss about Waller’s showing here, his current valuation (hot), and what to do about it -- and that will be in the S.Ex. (Subscriber Extra) to come within 24 hours of this game report. I have a lot of thoughts on this to flesh out, as the world’s foremost expert on Waller going back to calling his breakout 2020 season and actually back to his Baltimore WR and TE conversion days. You’ll wanna see what I have to say…especially those in Dynasty leagues.
That’s a tease, sorry. But isn’t anticipation fun? No? Me torturing you is just fun for me? That’s a fair call. But there’s a bonus S.Ex about another player from Carolina I’ll throw in for free, too. You’re lucky I don’t call the segment ‘Let’s talk about S.Ex.’ Don;t tempt me.
Daniel Jones (8-9 for 69 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) led the first series drive giving a glimpse of the new quick hitter cc-KCO (copycat KC offense) style and it looked good, but Carolina wasn’t necessarily prepared for it or playing to it. DJ is up for a fringe QB1 season if he keeps running the ball and running this CC-KCO…until it gets adjusted to/figured out after a while.
-- If rookie Jalin Hyatt (4-35-1/5) starts or plays a ton of snaps in games, rotating in-out, then Daniel Jones has a shot at a QB1 season (because of his numbers bolstered by his running). Hyatt is potentially what mainstream people THINK Quintin Johnston is going to be.
Hyatt has elite speed…and that speed is going to stretch the field and work as a decoy but also the occasional bombs away wide-open. Hyatt is seriously already one of the fastest WRs in the NFL. You can’t take him lightly when he runs his deep routes. He looked nice here and used his speed to roast Eric Rowe for a TD in this game.
-- Parris Campbell (3-23-0/3) also looks great in this cc-KCO offense. The slot, quick hitter WR with size and speed. He might finally be used the way God had always intended.
Think about what NYG has done here…
They re-signed/retained the 2022 team’s WR group, sans Richie James. And then upgraded the slot from James to Parris, drafted a supreme homerun hitter in Hyatt, and then added one of the best TE weapons in the game.
While the Dallas Cowboys added Brandin Cooks and replaced Dalton Schultz with Jake Ferguson.
Philadelphia…the Giants, not Cowboys, are coming for you. Daniel Jones is the biggest issue for NYG to complete the mission (it’s true, Andrew…it’s damn true!). https://youtu.be/E6xdV-jACvY?t=1
-- RB reviews…
NYG
The Giants needed to do at RB, this offseason, what they did at WR/TE -- upgrade, add depth smartly. If anything, they are botching this…but RB is where you can botch for a moment and fix easily, in the NFL and FF.
Rookie Eric Gray (5-16-1) stinks…so far that I can tell.
James Robinson’s (4-10-0) career is all but over. Sadly. Damn Lisfranc.
Jashuan Corbin (7-5-0, 3-22-0/3) is promising but still needs to bake in the oven and isn’t/shouldn’t be in play for a real playoff team right now. If it comes down to a Saquon injury, NYG will just go find an RB…or hope to…to go with Matt Brieda.
CAR
Chuba Hubbard (8-30-0) stinks and has a bad O-Line regardless.
Raheem Blackshear (8-31-1) is a handy 3rd-down back who got no targets this game. Great prep work, Frank.
Spencer Brown (10-26-0, 1-4-0/1) is a gritty, tough RB who the Panthers will cut.
The yards per carry for each CAR RB: Chuba 3.9, Blackshear 3.8, Brown 2.6. They’re all dead because of the O-Line, as Miles Sanders may soon find out.
-- Final note about the DSTs here…
Carolina has some defensive talent and a solid D-C, but their offense is not going to support this defense.
The Giants defense is really improving, and has moved past Carolina’s defense…and the G-Men DO have an offense that can help support the defense. Dak-McCoy-Purdy? Weeks 1-2-3…might actually be a nice set up for NYG.
