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Because he played LT at Georgia. He played 28 games for Georgia. All were at LT.

Open your eyes.

They would have picked the safety I think

Im seeing posts here say he can play LT but from what Im reading, he is a raw RT. What is the assumption he would be good at LT coming from?

You dont pass up LT's.

The two recent examples returned to play 13 to 14 months later. That does not put Ikem on the field this year

I don't love the pick, but I don't hate it either. It's a position that's going to start collapsing for the Panthers in the next few seasons, so not a bad idea to start investing now. That said, this was NOT the season we needed a tackle. It was going to be the following. We are still rebuilding. Taking a tackle when you don't need one is something teams at the top do. The pick should have been Lemon or Thieneman, both players who can fill positions of need right now.

You can hear his passion in the phone call. That drive to be great is what's been missing in the team culture. We have talent on the roster but I think Dan's finally finding dogs with guys like Freeling and Phillips.

That was awesome! Brought tears to my eyes.

OT is not the "sexy" pick for a reason, but it's necessary and still gets you to where you want to go.

I mean, it appears that way, but positional value and potential will always be taken into account. For me, OT (especially LT) just naturally has that time built into it. One day we'll look up and Freeling will be doing his job to great effect. Morgan and Canales were full of sh¡t a little bit, but no one's gonna care once Freeling really gets going.

And I have to assume we arent getting accurate prospect meetings info. Morgan specifically mentioned the interactions with him and how his love for the game and being the best as an influence in their decision.

This is based on a curve. He is the most pro-ready to be an LT out of the whole draft class. Yes, he'll need to refine his game, but all of the upside is there. He's going to compete right away. Two years? Nah. Utwont take him that long to become the elite LT that is in him.

Yeah I mean at the end of the day if you have a LT and S equally ranked you’re taking the LT 100/100 times

It’s an 11 month median for athletes with some as back as 7 months so it isn’t impossible to see him this year even though I agree he takes a full redshirt for 2026

Yeah? I wuz never good at math. You are right though 2,3,4,5x2,6

We have 6 more

To me it is the opposite of a luxury pick. The WR or S would have been a luxury pick. This was like a.bill that you have to use your fun money to pay. No new toy but the lights stay on.

I really like this. Now we can see how Ickey bounces back and we have an insurance policy cooking in the meantime. It’s great sign to me that some media are calling this a “luxury pick” as if there isn’t uncertainty around our LT.

I might look at it differently. Like ask myself are we SB contenders this season? And does not having this guy ready week one put us out of contention? Would taking Lemon or the S instead of Freelibg put us in contention? To me the answer to these questions is mostly no. Across the board.

That's short-sighted, doesn't count for the fact that most drafts have somewhere between 14-16 players with real first round grades, doesn't account for the fact that some positions take longer than others for prospects to adapt to the NFL, doesn't account for the low hit rate of draft picks in general including the first round.

The other reason I like the pick is this is a weak draft first round talent wise. "What I mean is actual prospects with a true first round grade, it's usually around 14-16, this draft is closer to 10-12." There probably wasn't another player on the Panthers board that any where close to a first round grade besides for Freeling.

Thieneman went 6 spots later after another OT. So that tells you something about perceived value

If he was their BPA, then he was the right pick. I just don't agree that he was BPA or would have the most impact this season.

I would have been very happy with Thieneman too and one of the receivers could have been a great addition as well. Im just happy that they value OL. Nothing is worse than OL hell we went through