kungfoodude

In fairness, most of those positions are basically open. The only one of those that wouldn't be a surprise is Marshall. He seems like a pretty solid favorite to be our #3 WR.

IMO, the biggest thing he needs to clean up is the missed tackles and the mental errors. Other than that, he consistently improved as the season progressed. Why do you say YGM? He really didn't produce at a high level so a slump for him would be pretty bad.

I don't think he is gonna get nearly the playing time in 2021. People forget, he actually started 8 games in 2020 and played 50% of all our defensive snaps. We are a lot deeper in that position this season. I don't think he is exactly a shoe in for that #4 CB spot, either.

If you look at him on film he was actually in good postion more often than not, he just wasn't making plays on the ball. It might be a stretch but if he can improve that, he could be a solid CB. He wasn't get toasted all the time, just wasn't completing plays. That's what I saw, anyway.

He also may have some time adjusting to safety. I think it is possible he struggles a lot more with the big increase in coverage duties. But I am also not necessarily using "slump" as a strictly negative term. I am not using slump as a strictly negative term for the purposes of the post, but it does typically have a negative connotation. Brown is a good candidate but I genuinely expect him to improve in 2021 as he gets more experience. Plus, I think his 2021 line-mates are better suited to help him shine. If he has a slump from 2020, I would be pretty disappointed.

I think we are just using the term "slump" a little differently. I am being a little more broad with my use of it. I expect to see an obvious production loss in 2021. To me the biggest thing to actually worry about is that Chinn wasn't terribly good in coverage in 2020. I do have a little bit of concern that he might get picked on while he is learning.

Exactly. It would be interesting to see what the sweet spot is for different positions and see if there is an obvious trend. And, yeah, ultimately it is just about making the right decisions the majority of the time. Historically the Panthers have leaned fairly heavily towards paying players at exactly the wrong time or just plain paying the wrong players. That's something I hope we will get a lot better with under this new regime.

It isn't uncommon to see a rookie have a slight or major dip in production during their second NFL season, for a variety of reasons. Which of our 2020 rookies do you think will see a slump in production and/or PT in 2021 and why? For reference: Derrick Brown Yetur Gross-Matos Jeremy Chinn Troy Pride Jr. Kenny Robinson Bravvion Roy Stanley Thomas Oliver My picks: Jeremy Chinn(INB4 incoming stream of illogical and irrational hate. In 2020, Chinn put up exceptional numbers including making the NFL record books(back-to-back TO's returned for TD). However, he did rack up gaudy tackling statistics at a position where you would expect that, linebacker. In 2021, we expect to see him shift to playing in the secondary and we also improved our front seven. I suspect we will see his numbers fall almost across the board with this position change and less opportunities for tackles at the second level with our offseason roster changes. Troy Pride Jr. The 2020 Carolina Panthers defensive backfield roster was thin and lacking in overall talent. This allowed one of our more "boom or bust" picks in Troy Pride to get ample playing time during the season. As a raw rookie being forced into early and often action, Pride Jr. was a mixed bag in 2020 but showed some occasional flashes of solid play. Enter 2021 and the CB roster is much deeper and more talented. This could lead to Pride Jr. being forced down the depth chart as more talented or more experienced players ascend the depth chart. I expect he will get SIGNIFICANTLY less playing time in 2021. Bravvion Roy See Troy Pride Jr. Stanley Thomas Oliver See Troy Pride Jr.

I think it's just a much more interesting article if you eliminate the guys on rookie deals. It also requires a lot more effort to write. Then you get to get into guys who are outperforming their current deals, cheap free agent signings, etc.

https://www.footballdb.com/leaders/season-passing-tdintratio

Agreed. I think that is probably a much more interesting thing to break down than basically just a list of rookies. He kind of missed the mark on that article in general. Reddick was the guy I had in mind, as well.

Pretty cool analysis of the data. Makes me wonder what the data would look like crunched in a different way. Say, average "peak" performance age for players in specific positions. Or if that data changed significantly based on round drafted.

I don't really think you are understanding what I am saying. It's a little bit of a lazy take by the author because it should largely be expected that the majority of the players on an unfiltered "best contract" list for the NFL would be pretty heavily weighted towards rookie contracts. It just basically becomes a "who is your best player on a rookie contract list." He is just sort of ignoring the obvious general NFL knowledge that your best bang for the buck is almost always going to be a rookie contract.

I honestly believe Panther fans in general don't completely appreciate how good Moton is, only because he isn't a LT.

It's highly unlikely we hit on more than about 3. If we get something like a 50+% hit rate, that would be best draft class in franchise history discussion.

Using rookie contracts in that list feels like cheating. Excluding rookie contracts would be a more interesting list.

That meaningless stat is how we have only 7 winning seasons in franchise history. That is precisely why that stat isn't meaningless.

Sounds like it will be a rib cook off this weekend. Elk ribs, wild boar ribs, beef ribs and pork ribs.

I don't think the new staff is really very interested in veteran players. Honestly, it seems to be a general philosophy that they don't want players older than 30 on the roster. Not sure if that is a long term strategy as much as they seem to want young players to be with this young staff.

He may not be done but his time as an elite QB in the league likely is. It's a very sad thing to see because the Carolina Panthers were in part responsible.

It's gonna be an interesting couple of years with our young core all coming to the end of their rookie deals. Some tough decisions are gonna be made.

Yeah, I am pretty down on drafting a UDFA but I agree that you are down in the area of the draft where it's mostly misses anyway, so it isn't as relevant.

Well, Fitterer also used a draft pick on a LS who would have been a UDFA.