kungfoodude

At 8 is a bit of a reach, IMO. But, that said, while I don't think he ends up being the best pass rusher in this draft, I have very little fear of him being a bust. I suspect he will be very productive in his NFL career.

Well, we need players, that is the bottom line. If you think Warren or Tet are truly elite, I get it. Doesn't mean I have to agree but it damn sure means you better be right at the end of the day. IMO, that is what is so tough about this draft and where we are in it. If you take first guy off the board at WR, TE, DE/EDGE, or OT specifically, you probably are setting yourself up. There are too many guys that could be #1 or #6. It's a dicey draft. Hence why I am beating the table to trade down.

I would say that "weaker competition" is basically laughable. Look at all the not only ACC guys but small school guys that pepper the current and past NFL elite. The only reason the "lesser competition" flag should come up is if you see a guy NOT being dominant at that lower level. Good example being someone like Chase Young from the 2022 draft. He has been dramatically outproduced by Alex Highsmith from Charlotte. Or how Kobe Tuner from Wake Forest has dramatically outproduced Jalen Carter. It's not where you played, it's how you played, and how you project to the NFL. Look at the long line of nothing Georgia, Alabama, Ohio St., etc players. It wasn't that they didn't play the correct level of competition, they just weren't NFL caliber guys. How about this, would you rather have a pass rusher with a far superior pass rushing skillset and was inanely productive in college like DE or would you rather have an underwear Olympics champ like Shemar Stewart that basically had next to zero college production against "better" competition? I know my answer. I would also take Green over a guy like that too. fug the competition, those guys look ready to play in the NFL.

Yeah, hence why I pointed that out. Keep in mind that given the way we are building this defense overall, we very well could end up either being stuck in a 3-4 or needing a retooling on defense to switch. I will say that isn't likely to be a concern after next season. The overwhelming majority of personnel are likely to be jettisoned by future HC/DC/GM's anyway. We only have two core players at the moment, Brown and Horn.

Not to mention that he isn't one of these "generational" tagged pass rushers. He just happens to be the perceived best of a bunch that is lacking in obvious elite prospects. IMO, there is only one guys worth trading up for in this draft(not saying this as a Panthers statement, saying it as a general statement) and that is Travis Hunter. Outside injury, I don't see it being very likely that he does not end up being a top 10 player at CB. For the Panthers, I wouldn't even consider trading up for him. We have too many needs. We need more picks, not less.

I wouldn't be pumped about a "reach" on a guy like DE at #8 but I very much like the player. I will say that he is a 3-4 EDGE only. He's too small to be a 4-3 DE. His pass rush tools are arguably the most advanced but he does have issues with power because of his size. Fantastic athlete, however. Super agile, great bend. Day one he would be our best pass rusher, IMO.

They both could be but this draft is so crazy deep at RB. All it will really take is just 2-3 other guys being in better spots.

Almost guaranteed that Jeanty and Hampton will not end up being the top 2 RB's in this draft. I would honestly be surprised if they were top 5.

I would be very surprised to see us get out of the first round.

If you can't beat this team, I don't know who is left on the schedule you can beat. This is the worst team.

And it's over. What a fuging insanely pathetic fuging BS effort. Shitting our pants headed into the postseason.

This fuging team has lost 10 straight fuging games. There is zero excuse for this BS.

Wow. Pathetic effort in the last minute. fug this.

WTF....leaky goal BS.

Freddie is so clearly the guy for us. IDK what to do about Kochetkov. Also, fug Boston.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/alabama/2021-roster.html Lot of firepower on that roster.

No. I am in the crowd that isn't convinced he is an elite talent. I can be convinced to take him in the second half of the first round but a top 10 pick is not for me. Even that is a bit of a tough sell because of the depth at TE in this class.

The difference is that Sanders has the work ethic and does work. Johnny didn't. Bad comp.

That's why I really stopped caring as much about the draft position at the end of the year. Under Tepper the evaluations have been the issue, not the position. Until we get that fixed, it ain't gonna matter a lick. If we take Stewart at 8....whelp.....drink up, it's gonna be another long season/offseason until we can hope for another purge.

Listen, take solace in the fact that we would inevitably fug up the higher picks anyway.

Yeah, also on the most talented team in the country for the most part. It doesn't matter. We will see what happens.

I mean you are making the Brian Burns argument again. Would you rather have Brian Burns or Trey Hendrickson(taken in the 3rd round) in hindsight? We will see how it all shakes out but don't be surprised if Stewart never really fully develops.

To me this sticks out like a sore thumb and should sound familiar to Panthers fans. This is one thing that has always separated the good pass rushers(Burns) and the elite pass rushers. It is the ability to consistently finish these type of plays. It doesn't mean that there isn't value in creating pressure, there definitely is. However, if you don't have other guys able to clean up those QB's getting flushed out, it doesn't end up amounting to the result you want against elite QB's. I just think Stewart has too many question marks for me to be comfortable with as a 1st round pick. Love the athlete. Definitely love the athlete.

Knowing us, probably trade up to #3 to get him. @LinvilleGorge will delete the forum entirely in a rage fit.

Yeah, I mean, it's fine to bank on youth but it can't outweigh who you are as a prospect. I don't look at a guy and say, "Oh I have an extra two years to develop this guy" on a team that needs a ton of help at every position. If I were an elite team with depth to spare, hey, why not? But those teams also draft in the range I think he should be in, middle of the 1st to end of the 1st. That's fine but I think you are going to struggle pretty heavily to find a guy that WASN'T arguably playing out of position his entire college career that was as unproductive in college as Stewart has been that panned out in the NFL. ESPECIALLY as a top 10 pick. Now, if we are talking a top of the 4th round pick? You run to the podium with that Stewart card and don't look back.