SCO96

If I were a GM, there's no way I'm going to pass on a good to excellent player because he's an inch too short in height(or his arms are an inch too short in length our case). If he can play well enough to be a difference maker on the team than I'd pick him. The Dallas Cowboys were notorious for this back in the Gil Brant/Tex Schram/Tom Landry era. According to the legend, a college coach from Baylor (a Texas University) personally talked to Landry about drafting his star middle linebacker, who was the best LB in the country the last two years of his collegiate career. Landry wouldn't draft the guy despite his excellent on-the-field play. Back then the Cowboys wouldn't draft a linebacker if he wasn't 6 feet tall. Years later this story was confirmed by Cowboy personnel director Gil Brandt when he talked to the guy they passed over in the draft...HALL OF FAME MLB MIKE SINGLETARY, whose childhood dream was to play for his beloved Cowboys. Singletary was only 5'11, therefore that made him an unacceptable draft choice for America's Team.

I heard rumblings about this. You think there's a chance of that actually happening?

If Linderbaum is as good as advertised we need to grab him. A great center makes the entire line better. I didn't even consider using Elflein at LG to start the season (or even for the whole year if he plays well) while another player is groomed. That really could work, especially if Deonte could hold up at RG. I just looked at SPOTRAC and noticed that Norwell is only 30. I wonder if he'd ever consider coming back to Carolina? Thing is, the coaches and front office executives he's familiar with are all in Buffalo and Washington now. I think he'd consider them over us, especially seeing how much the franchise has fallen off since he was last here.

We have less than $25 million in cap space...and part of that needs to be set aside for our rookie class. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/cap/ We don't "lots and lots of money" to pay anyone. And even if we did, we're not the only team who has money to bid on a FA lineman's service this off-season. A lot of other teams are in a better position to offer more money than we could. Plus, we have some FA's that must be paid "if" we want to retain them (Gilmore, Jackson, Reddick) Rhule came here to establish a winning culture and end what Tepper called "sustained mediocrity". The culture here is worse than before they arrived. We've had three straight 5-win seasons. That's worse than sustained mediocrity. And the trades we made in 2021 may set us back even more. I'm telling you, if people have their hopes up of fixing the O-line by signing one or two of the top FA lineman this off-season I expect them to be sorely disappointed.

I agree with everything you said in paragraph 2. You're overly optimistic in paragraph 1. It amazes me that so many people think Carolina is a desirable destination for highly ranked FA offensive lineman. Way too many posters keep saying we can fix the line thru free agency. Well, we're not the only team attempting to upgrade their line this off-season. We are on of the five or sixth worst teams in the NFL with all of the problems you clearly outlined in paragraph two. I don't think ANY good to great lineman would even consider coming here, and the last thing we need are mediocre lineman. Then again mediocre might be an upgrade at the guard and center positions.

Trade with what? We don't have a 2nd or 3rd to offer with our first this year. Which means we'd have to mortgage away most, if not all, of our high picks over the next two season...meaning we won't be able to use the draft to fix the woeful offensive line

I think Russell Wilson is great, but poor roster management and his head coach are holding him back. Why would he come to Charlotte to play under a GM construct the roster that underachieved in Seattle? Wilson’s line in Seattle has been at best mediocre for years. At the current time ours is even worse. MacCaffrey can’t stay on the field. Touting him as a reason to come play for the Panthers isn’t going to be a major selling point. We have one good receiver in DJ Moore. He could start on half of the teams in the NFL. Who else on the roster can we say that about? Wilson is married to Ciara, a B\C level celebrity. I don’t see her getting excited about moving to Charlotte. I can’t even fathom him coming here…but I admit if he did it would get fans excited and make us better overnight.

I agree. You know our organization is in really bad shape when adding Kurt Cousins to your roster as the franchise quarterback is a significant improvement to the position and would be universally applauded by a majority of Panther fans.

This sounds good on paper, but it highly unlikely to occur. An awful lot has to go right for this to work. When a franchise is as bad as Carolina you just can’t assume you can plug a major hole with a FA and here’s why. There’s no guarantee the available FA you target will want to come here. You’re entire scenario depends on two FA’s leaving their playoff bound teams and coaches (Belichik and McVey) to come play for MATT RHULE. . It ain’t happening . Those teams may want those guys back for one. And two, 30 other teams may want a shot at them. Why would they willingly want to play for the 5th or 6th worst team in the NFL if there are better options availabile? Then, you’re assuming Denver wants to trade up for a QB. What if Denver (or another team) thinks the price is too steep or they think this years’s QB class is weak? If no team wants to trade up then what? If someone wants to make a deal, then great. But, we need to go into the draft with the mindset of maximizing our available picks. There is no guarantee we’ll be able to acquire extra draft choices. We also need to seriously look at the small schools and under the radar players and hope to find on or two gems among the Undrafted free agents…and even the waiver wire.

Of course not. But, we may have to for one more season. Then again if Sam actually had time to set his feet and not have to run for his life after 2 seconds, I'm not so sure Darnold couldn't at least become a mid-level starter in the NFL. One of reasons I went my route was to save money so if a good QB option was available in Free Agency we may have a chance to get one. I looked at the Rhule hiring as a 3 year rebuild. This year was terrible so we are a year behind schedule. I don't think any rookie from the 2022 draft class can come to this present team and light things up. So, I say address a major weakness and go all in for our QB in the 2023 draft or free agency.

I discussed this in an earlier post, but I'll jump in. Keep Brady at LT. Draft Linderbaum at CENTER with our 6th pick. Start Deonte at RG. Moton is already a fixture at RT. Draft the best G on the board in the 4th round. Now, if we could trade down in the first and still get Linderbaum, then I'd draft the best guard on the board with our acquired pick, probably a 2nd or 3rd. This would address all the spots and it wouldn't cost us a lot money. We could use the available money to retain our FA' or acquire some. Of course if Brady and Deonte don't pan out, we'll be screwed

I agree. Can anyone on this forum name 5 teams worse than we are at the present time? JAX, DET, HOU, NYJ, and NYG are in front of us in the draft. We beat two of them to start the season, but both teams got better as the season progressed. The Giants handed us one of our worst defeats of the year. I honestly don't think we'd beat any of them if had to play them this Sunday.

You know, if he turns out to be solid at a CB spot, that is actually a good way to look at the deal.

https://www.derp/2022/1/11/22876716/nfl-power-rankings-media-dishes-out-season-ending-pain-for-panthers "Aggregating several rankings, the Panthers come out to an average of No. 27 (last week: No. 27) in the 32-team NFL." ----- I didn't post much from the article. Feel free to click on it to view the entire thing. No one had us ranked higher than 26 (CBS.com) on the power poll. We received our lowest grade (30) from NFL.com. We averaged out as the 6th worst team in the the NFL. Based on the way last season ended, I'm not so sure we'd beat any of the 5 teams below us if we played today. I know we just have to be patient and realize that Rhule's process is working, we just don't see the results yet.

https://www.derp/2022/1/11/22877328/big-mo-how-the-buccaneers-pillaged-the-panthers-in-week-18 With essentially all of the Panthers starting secondary missing this game, CJ Henderson was tasked with playing 100% of the team’s defensive snaps against a motivated Tom Brady. Henderson had four tackles on the day, but was largely invisible, which is exactly what you want to see from a cornerback. An invisible corner often means he’s locking up his man and the quarterback has to look elsewhere. Per PFF, Henderson played 40 coverage snaps and was targeted seven times. Those targets yielded just 34 yards and a passer rating of 81.2. The three other Panthers defensive backs who were targeted each surrendered passer ratings over 100. Let’s hope Henderson can build on this outing and justify the 2022 third round pick the Panthers traded to land him. ------ We now that it is highly unlikely that we will be able to retain both Donte and Stephon as cornerbacks for the 2022 season. We may not be able to retian either one of them depending on their contract demands. Jaycee should be back next year. Keith Taylor has shown some promise. I know we have to account for Brady not having AB or Chris Godwin in the Tampa game, but if CJ lived up to his original draft slot (Top 10 pick in 2019), Could we ride with those guys as our top 3 corners next year and use the money we'd need or Gilmore and/or Jackson to fix up the line, address some other weak areas, and resign a valuable like FA like Reddick? Could this team succeed without either Donte or Stephon in 2022? Note: On the record, I'd really like to keep Gilmore...but I realize it may not be possible, especially if he want to play for a contender during the final years of his career.

I understand the logic. That would be an even more ideal scenario than the one I proposed. Here are my fears about your suggestion. 1) Is there anyone on the draft board that you think another teams values enough to trade up for and give up later draft choices? 2) Are we expecting a first round pick next years draft in return for the trade? I'd be cool if we could get a #2 and a #3 or even a #2 and a #4 after moving down a few slots. I think a lot of Huddlers feel we shouldn't make a deal unless we got a #1 in the 2022 draft. 3) How far back can we afford to trade back and be assured he'll still be on the board when we pick? Knowing our luck someone will snag Linderbaum a pick or two before us (like Justin Herbert in 2020 and Penei Sewell last year). Are there any teams out there who could use Linderbaum as much (if not more) than us? If so, we've got to account for them wanting to trade up or us going too far down and losing out on him.

The fat lady is singing

In an ideal scenario, Brady and Deonte would become solid starters at the LT and RG spots. Moron would continue to hold the RT position. We could draft Tyler Linderbaum at number 6 and watch him become the top center in the league for the rest of the decade, and then snag a high quality LG that drops to the 4th round and start him in 2022. PRESTO...a rebuilt offensive line with 4 new starters for the 2021-2022 season with very little damage to our salary cap.

Hey, you left out a few : Ryan Leaf, Demarcus Russel, Andre Ware, EJ Manual, Todd Maronivich, Johnny Manzel, Tim Couch, Cade McNown, Akili Smith. The last 3 all came from the class of 1999 which had 5 QB's taken in the 1st round, which means you had a 60% bust rate that year. Never draft a questionable QB in the 1st round out of desperation. Everyone one of those teams experienced a setback for years after making poor draft decisions.

Take a look below at a definition I found on the web for the term "mediocre" "The definition of mediocrity is the quality or state of being just average. When you are in the middle of your class and don't really do anything to stand out or do better, this is an example of mediocrity." --- Given the sorry football we've been subject to since the hiring of Mr. Rhule, a mediocre offense would a significant improvement from the garbage we saw for most of the 2021 season. Our offense is several rungs below mediocrity. It was a hard and unpleasant experience to watch Carolina's offensive performance week in and week out this year.

After our 1st pick at #6 in round one, we don't pick again until Day 3. We don't have much opportunity to add any top OL (or any players) after the 1st round. I could see taking a risk on a QB if we had 2nd and 3rd round draft choices. Rhule's "brilliant" trades have left the team with very little draft choices this off season.

We'd be all in on a QB if you had a great prospect in the 1st round this year. However, almost every pundit feels that none of the guys in this year's draft is worthy of a top 10 draft spot. If we draft a below average talent out of desperation it'll only set us back more. This team is now a year behind on the rebuild due to our terrible 2021 season. If we can fix the O-line in 2022, any QB we acquire afterwards (draft or FA) should be in a good position to succeed. No one is going to thrive behind out current line.

I think a lot of us see it from an opposing view. I don't think you can properly assess a QB on your roster if he has a crap offensive line in front of him. We couldn't have had a good feel for what Fields or Jones could do if we had drafted either of them this year. If you put any of the QB's in the class of 2022 behind our current OL they will all look like busts. Just look at how up and down Trevor Lawrence's first year went in Jacksonville. He's considered a once in a generation talent. He didn't look like one this past season because of a woeful OL and a team with limited roster talent. It's time we fixed the line. Ironically, if we hadn't traded down twice in the 2nd round, or given away our 2nd and 3rd rounders this year, we'd probably be set at OL after the 2022 draft and heading into the regular season.

Deangelo is right. We just can't assume we can just trade down to acquire more picks. In order to move down, someone needs to be willing to move up. I don't see anyone coming out of this years class who is so great that a team is going to want to give swap place in the first round, lose a high draft choice in round 2 (or 3) and give up a 1st next season. Personally, I'm not a fan of the Jimmy Johnson draft chart. I understand why he and the Cowboys developed it to gauge the value each draft choice. The problem is that the whole NFL decided to use it as a guideline for every team and every trade. Those first 5-10 picks are overvalued in comparison to the other 1st round slots. No one should "have to give up a first round choice" the next season to move up in the draft. If you swap picks voluntarily and receive a two or three high picks in the same draft that should be enough. If I were a GM I'd NEVER trade up into the top 10 for anyone unless I had a glaring weakness and was literally one person/one person away from competing for a Super Bowl title.

What draft slot we have now?