Icege

The dichotomy of Panthers fans watching Bryce Young

Rams CB Derion Kendrick tore his ACL. Might be targeting Gilly.

From earlier this morning...

https://www.twitter.com/joshkleinrules/status/1816121962592154105?t=SEt_ElJDohDb-NcGfBdkIA&s=19 DE Popo Aumavae out for the season with a torn Achilles

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.