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Yeah Thieneman has grown on me - definitely the ball hawking safety we need. McCoy can be really good as our nickel (if his medicals check out). Size will probably prevent him from ever playing on the outside, but he has great ball skills, can press pretty well, and moves very quickly and fluidly in zone. Freeling and Fano are probably my preferred LTs if we can grab them. Mauigoa's pass blocking has me a bit concerned for being our LT. Lemon would be a great RAC guy for us that seems to know how to read zones (works well for out quick pass offense). Would have said 100% no to WR prior to day 1 of free agency because of all the needs we had on D, but now we can if he is the best player available at 19. Allen I would prefer to trade down for, but I can see teams in the 20s valuing him, so I'm not sure he would make it much longer after our pick. The dude will be an immediate 3 down LB for us week 1

Kenny Pickett didn’t play for UNC.

A career backup coming off of a major injury, I can't imagine his value is much if anything over vet min. For vet min or not much more I'd be all for bringing him back. He knows the system, he's familiar with his OL teammates, and he's well acclimated to being that versatile OL backup. We shouldn't be counting on him to return to form but I'd be all for giving him that opportunity at a value contract.

You’re by far my favorite journalist.

Been a while. LT RT is fine too.

If he comes back from injury same as pre and can stay healthy all year (both huge ifs) I’d be happy rolling with him at LT

Honestly, I would rather overpay day 1 of free agency for a high end player (Phillips) than lose out on them and then overpay for a mid-level player. Seems like we learned from missing out on Milton Williams last year

waste of resources- i'd rather swing on a UDFA

There's really only 2 among the group that I would be interested in. That's Freeling and Thieneman. My dream would be Thieneman because I think he is going to be a stud and would make a defense next level good.

Mmm yes, the mythical Sam Howell. The guy that 32 teams passed up for 5 rounds. The guy that then couldn’t beat out Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke. The guy that when given the keys to the car, got benched multiple times in games for Jacoby Brissett. The guy that Seattle loved so much they never considered him for a second after moving on from Geno Smith and traded for a loss to roll with Drew Lock as a backup. The guy that Minnesota then traded for a loss to roll with Max Brosmer and Carson Wentz as backups. The guy who then could not supplant Tanner McKee as a backup despite McKee being injured. The guy who hasn’t logged a snap since 2024 despite being healthy. This is the guy you are using to say the FO isn’t serious about winning. Well, at least it’s not quite as bad as Trey Lance. Consider for a moment that the FO may possibly think more of Kenny Pickett than Sam Howell (it seems like most of the league does), and they’re paying Pickett pretty much top of the market for backups. I get it, he’s not my first choice either, but to go all in on the no competition narrative just because he’s not your favorite “what if” is a bit much.

The #Panthers have re-signed DE LaBryan Ray ahead of restricted free agency, the team announced. My understanding is they'd like to have the bulk of their restricted free agents back. https://x.com/mike_e_kaye/status/2031366843886108788?s=46&t=xeIgh_-Vr2aKxBkBJdfnKA

Ummmmm, no. Plenty of centers will be around in rounds 3 and 4. Unless one of the stud LB or edges drop (or Downs), it is hopefully one of the following: OT (Mauigoa, Freeling, Fano) DB/S (McCoy, Thieneman) WR (Lemon) LB (Allen)

I'll withhold judgment for another couple of seasons.

there’s an interesting line of thinking that we could take Fano at 19 and work him at LT until Ekwonu returns. If he pans out, wonderful, if not, kick him into center unless Samac has been a revelation there. i think it’s more fantasy than reality though. It’s a lot to ask of a rookie, especially one whose arms are shorter than Will Campbell’s are. it also means you’re using a 1st round pick on a probable Center. I don’t see them going this route but it’s a nice fairy tale that would really work for us.

When did LOT become a thing? It's surely always been LT.

They were really interested in talking to one of the oline players from duke during the combine. I thought I heard someone on nfl network say he could play guard and center. That caught my attention.

Wouldn't hurt my feelings at all to see Scott hit the trail

I'll give him credit for finally letting his GM actually make football decisions.

He has to be a fallback option for us at either LT or C. Or both depending on how the draft goes.

Just win. It's gonna be hard as long as we remain steadfastly committed to Bryce. Signing another noodle armed QB and seemingly zeroing in on another noodle armed late rounder is not encouraging. I don't know why we seem obsessed with QBs who lack an NFL arm. The only way I can make it make sense is we don't want someone in camp making Bryce's arm look bad in comparison. I just don't get it. When Jake was our starter if you didn't know any better and just went to watch a camp practice you would've tabbed Wienke as our starter ten times out of ten. He was the one who looked the part and was slinging frozen rope tight spirals all over the field but come game day Jake was that dude. Dude's are gonna dude. Stop being afraid to hurt Bryce's fee fees.

Can any of the top guard prospects also play center? Because the pure centers in this class aren't exactly screaming day one starter to me.

I think there is a plan for both tackle and center in the draft. But it's not the folks you guys are thinking about.

What we need are two decent (at minimum) fallback options at LT and center. That could mean we bring back Brady Christensen (which we should anyway for depth purposes) and possibly Austin Corbett. I feel like OT is now the clear favorite to be our 1st round pick, so we should get a starter there but I don't love our chances of landing a day one starting center in this class. Jenkins from Green Bay is available but he's had injury issues and would probably be quite a bit more expensive than Corbett, who has also had injury issues but at least should come relatively cheap.

I'd honestly plan for Ekwonu to be a LG moving forward. Try to find his replacement asap.