Icege

Some other tidbits regarding the OL improving: The Panthers played 10 different guards last season, started 9. The average pass blocking PFF grade for that group was 36.6. Only two Panthers' iOL had pass blocking grades that were over 50 (Brady Christensen (51.4) and Calvin Throckmorton (57.8)) while they had just as many with sub-10 grades (Chandler Zavala (7.1) and JD DiRenzo (8.1)). Of the ten different guards that the Panthers played last year, only one player took more than 500 snaps and that was Throckmorton who was cut mid-season. Four players had sub-100 snaps (Christensen, DiRenzo, Brett Toth, Justin McCray). Meanwhile, Robert Hunt logged 608 snaps and Damien Lewis logged 926. Sustaining a healthy OL will be vital for the unit as it tries to gel. The Panthers with the highest snap counts were the aforementioned Throckmorton (564), Cade Mays (434), Chandler Zavala (374), and Nash Jensen (302). Cade Mays was the highest graded guard for the Panthers last season with a PFF grade of 58.3. Gabe Jackson was next with 58.1 and he only played 194 snaps. Both of these players also struggled in pass blocking (Mays 43.0, Jackson 48.9) compared to run blocking (Mays 71.2, Jackson 63.1). Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis' overall grades? 76.4 and 59.6, respectively. With no snap minimum, the Panthers essentially went from a tandem with the #64 & #66 best PFF grades to #7 & #55. Hunt (74.4) and Lewis (63.0) both had better pass blocking grades last season than any player on the Panthers roster. Throckmorton (57.8) was the closest. Run-blocking wise, only two players had better grades than Lewis (57.9) and those were Mays (71.2) and Jackson (63.1). Hunt (74.7) had a higher grade than all of them. Chandler Zavala was at the bottom in nearly every category except for one where just one player performed worse: run blocking. Zavala's 41.5 was higher than Nash Jensen's 38.6.

Captain Shaq has always been criminally underappreciated. Was really cool seeing him working out with DB, Bryce, and Chuba two weeks ago. Excited to see him in a Panthers jersey for another season!

If the team was clearly pushing for a deep run into the playoffs it'd be criminal to not explore the cost of a trade at least. Unfortunately, there's a lot of questions right now. New GM, HC, and a QB in their second year after a rough rookie outing. With all of these unknowns, I can understand Panthers' fans not wanting to commit anymore draft capital until they know for sure what the team's current investments will yield. Though if we're talking about 49ers WRs, I'd be excited as Hell to see Deebo Samuel in Carolina across from XL. He's due $25M next season and the 49ers could save $9M by cutting him (doubtful), but then after that he's a free agent. Granted he'll be 30 - 31 by then, but it'd still be fun.

He'll get signed after training camps start and teams have an opportunity to see whether or not they can rely on the new guys.

Could be great value for the Panthers. Chaisson was drafted by Doug Marrone's staff in 2020, the first COVID season. The current DL coach for the Panthers, Todd Wash, was his DC with the Jaguars then. That staff was fired at the end of the season for the Urban Meyer regime. Joe Cullen was the DC under Meyer, and Cullen hadn't been a defensive coordinator since 2004 for the University of Indiana (and never before in the NFL). Since then, he played the last two seasons under Mike Caldwell. Caldwell had been a long time LB coach in the league for over a decade and his only two years as a DC were the previous two seasons. He's now the LB coach/Def Run game coordinator for the Raiders. If there's any team right now who's fanbase can empathize with coaching carousels impacting player development, it's the Panthers. K'Lavon also missed nearly half of the 2022 season and has been playing a rotational role since coming into the league. The Jags had drafted Josh Hines-Allen @ #7 in 2019 and later Travon Walker @ #1 in 2022. The same season that Walker was taken, Chaisson tore his meniscus and went on IR just a few games into the season until week 14. Now that he's (hopefully) fully healthy and has four NFL seasons under his belt, he'll push DJ Johnson (who is a year older with three years less of pro experience). Dane Brugler had Chaisson listed as the #2 EDGE prospect in 2020 between #1 ranked Chase Young and #3 ranked Yetur Gross-Matos (new Panthers' EDGE DJ Wonnum was ranked #17). His leadership skills were hyped and seemingly confirmed by the love he got from Jaguars teammates in the media. If he's still got his explosive, athletic skillset then he might bring a toolkit similar to (not the same as, I repeat, not the same as) Brian Burns. I can see that spot across from Clowney being an open competition between Wonnum, Chaisson, Johnson, and Barno.

Gonna be in Vegas the week leading up to the game for a conference and am turning over every stone to make it possible to go

It's finals day!!!

Copa America and Euro 2024 have both been a lot of fun this year. The Netherlands vs. Turkey has probably been my favorite game between the two events so far.

Woot, there's the formatting that it wanted.

four* groups

https://twitter.com/ProFootballHOF/status/1811425289731195187

Who/what are y'all focusing on during this upcoming college season to be a potential Panther? Personally, I'm keying in on the following three groups: centers, edge rushers, cornerbacks, and wide receivers. I'm especially paying attention to the centers though (for those that I've spent the last few years armchair scouting with... I know... Centers? Me? Never! :P) My current five favorite center prospects: Seth McLaughlin (Ohio State) - Fifth-year senior that transferred from Alabama where he was Bryce's center. Will be snapping for the Buckeyes after DeBoer brought over his starting center, Parker Brailsford, from Washington. Bryce Foster (Texas A&M) - Potential #1 center in this draft class. BIG BOI. Eli Cox (Kentucky) - Will Levis' center with experience in a pro-style offense. Experienced college lineman that's strong as an oxe. Cooper Mays (Tennessee) - Cade Mays' little brother, who is also an interior offensive lineman. Cade was surprisingly one of the better graded guards on last year's offensive line for the Panthers, so maybe the give Cooper a looksie as well. Logan Jones (Iowa) - I've always had a soft spot for trench guys coming out of Iowa. Jones had a down year last season, so I'm looking to see how he responds to it. While they're not draft eligible, I'll also be keeping an eye on Parker Brailsford (Alabama), the aforementioned Washington transfer, and the other two Ohio State interior linemen: Donovan Jackson (who is draft eligible for next year) and Carson Hinzman. What about y'all? Who/what are you looking at going into this coming season?

It's David Tepper's fault. He's rich.

Nah... funny enough, they've already blamed the consequences of their own actions on the Teppers. ngl, it was nice to see that the board collectively seems to be done with the constant toxicity of a few posters. A lot more folks were still lurking than I realized after taking my break.

Ooh wee mayne.

Well then... this thread will be an interesting re-read.

From the article: Just after 6 a.m. on June 1, Wilson was arrested at his home and charged with assault, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, a Scottsdale police spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday. All three charges are misdemeanors. Wilson’s next court date is a case management conference on July 16, according to online court records. Wilson did not immediately respond to a voice message left on his phone.

The video was fairly clear in stating that Bryant reached out for the meeting and that the Panthers are not interested in adding another WR. I can understand frustration over the last 8yrs of losing, but this was just sports media trying to ragebait.

Looks like he just mentioned a conversation with Jim Caldwell. There's nothing of substance otherwise. But hey, don't let that stop the misery! Some of y'all do realize that just clicking and reading will save you more time than immediately having an emotional response... right?

Having to get to page two and get passed anti-Bryce/Morgan/Tepper posts just to get meaningful info is dumb as poo. Thank you so much for doing the legwork and finding out who the replacement is. For those that are also interested in looking further into Winston's background instead of crying, here:

Yes, they do. https://giantswire.usatoday.com/2024/06/21/nfl-films-granting-new-york-giants-final-say-all-hard-knocks-edits/

After overperforming in 2023, the Carolina Panthers' defense is once again being asked to do more with seemingly less. The same defense that was ranked #4 in average yards allowed per game (293.9) also happened to be ranked dead last in sacks (27) and hurries (18). How did the new front office decide to approach this group? By trading away the defense's best player (who also accounted for a third of the team's sacks), opting to not bring back a second rounder they had developed, and also didn't retain a veteran day three selection that had been with the team since 2018. To fill the voids created on the edges the team went and signed a pair of former Gamecocks (one of them being a former #1 overall pick) and a former first rounder that hasn't caught on yet in the league. On paper, it's understandably difficult for Panthers' faithful to believe that the names being brought in are going to be an improvement over what just left. However, on that piece of paper is a few data points that show that the team just might have improved the pass rush. Below are two tables: one showing how many snaps a player averaged before registering the corresponding stat, and the other showing a comparison between two starter groups. Before we leap right into the starters, let's take a quick glance at the rotation. DJ Johnson and Amare Barno are returning depth pieces that are still developing. Johnson was likely going to be a three-year project, regardless of his age, and Barno was going to have to make an impact on special teams if he wanted to maintain a roster spot. Both showed minor flashes last season, Johnson with his play strength and ability to set the edge while Barno showed his speed and motor. The veteran rotational piece from last season's unit, Panthers' former fourth-rounder Marquis Haynes Jr, has been replaced by K'Lavon Chaisson who the Jaguars took at #20 in the 2020 draft. The 30yr old Haynes was oft-injured in 2023 with back and hip issues until a scary head injury in late December 2023. In his place the Panthers are hoping that the 24yr old LSU-product with an elite athletic profile will be able to provide some extra burst. Haynes was productive against the run, tackling runners behind the line almost twice as often as Chaisson, but in 142 snaps he failed to register a single hurry while Chaisson ironically averaged a hurry every 142 snaps. Chaisson also hit the QB nearly twice as often as Haynes did, and perhaps most importantly to Dan Morgan (who talked about needing to get opposing QBs on the ground), he knocked the QB down more often than any of the six players that we're looking at while not missing a tackle. We can see pretty clearly here that the pass rush numbers for Chaisson are better than Haynes', but Haynes was solid against the run. Chaisson not missing any tackles provides some relief/hope that he can improve there. I think that at this point, we're all expecting the Jadaveon Clowney vs. Brian Burns comparison along with DJ Wonnum vs. Yetur Gross-Matos, but I'm going to do something a little bit different and compare them together (Clowney/Wonnum vs. Burns/YGM). With that said... a lot of the numbers look to be essentially the same. The biggest differences we see immediately is that Burns + YGM were getting ballcarriers down behind the line almost twice as often, but otherwise like the Chaisson vs. Haynes comparison we can see that these guys appear to perform mostly the same against the run. Where we do see the improvement though is in the pass rush numbers. Not only did Clowney/Wonnum sack the QB more often, they hurried opposing teams' passers much more often Burns/YGM. We can also see a relevant difference between pass deflections and forced fumbles as well. This is going to be very important for Evero's defense that uses disguised coverages to buy the rush an extra half of a second to get there. More PDs, sacks, and hurries means more forced throws. More forced throws means less accurate throws and more hurried decisions... two important ingredients for creating interceptions. Perhaps the biggest question mark this upcoming season is whether or not these guys can stay healthy. Clowney is getting longer in the tooth, Wonnum is coming off of a torn quadricep that has kept him sidelined during the offseason, and Chaisson has lost two of the previous four seasons to injuries (torn ACL in 2021, torn meniscus in 2022). At least they won't withhold effort because they're afraid of getting hurt? Clowney and Wonnum are both signed through 2025, but both deals are set-up to allow the Panthers' to not be tied down to them should their performance this season lead to concerns for 2025. tldr; the pass rush statistically improved by swapping Burns/Gross-Matos/Haynes for Clowney/Wonnum/Chaisson. Hurray!

Surprised that there was so much discussion about the Teppers but nothing about Morgan saying when the DBs started coming off of the board that they had to shift strategies. This was between the Brooks + Wallace selections. The DBs that went between Brooks + Wallace were... 2.15 (#47) - NYG - Tyler Nubin, S, Minnesota 2.18 (#50) - WAS - Mike Sainristil, CB, Michigan 2.26 (#58) - GB - Javon Bullard, S, Georgia 2.28 (#60) - BUF - Cole Bishop, S, Utah 2.29 (#61) - DET - Ennis Rakestraw Jr, CB, Missouri 2.32 (#64) - SF - Renardo Green, CB, Florida State 3.6 (#70) - NYG - Andru Phillips, CB, Kentucky I think that the team was targeting Sainristil or Phillips based off of pre-draft chatter + scouting profiles. The fact that they got Chau Smith-Wade later on and not a safety leads me to believe that it was definitely a CB, likely a nickel. Sainristil especially fits that mold, plus him saying that the Panthers said they might take him in the second round.

But Ricky... that 12sec of Nicole Tepper idly chit-chatting with Dan Morgan was really her meddling so that they'd draft the player she thinks gives the best hugs!! le sigh

Forgot the table showing the mean, median, and mode for each stat along with Bryce's and where it ranks compared to the other 18 QBs.