Icege

I'm in the same boat re: Williams. He underwhelmed last season, even considering the ankle issue... but if the team makes him the pick, while I'll be disappointed for a moment, he'll be a Panther and have my backing. Would rather see the team try to move back and pick up an extra second rounder that they could package together with their other one to slide back up.

Kind of makes you wonder how some of those guys would've panned out with actual coaching.

Maaaan... if there was a draft to just ride it out with BPA, this year's feels like the one. Great depth without a bunch of top end talent. Just go get some good players and find ways to get them on the field.

Link to the article Level of need for each position group according to Joe Person: Low: QB, RB, OL, DL Moderate: WR, TE, ILB, CB, ST High: OLB, S Joe writes that he hears the Panthers have real interest in Mykel Williams (UGA) and that they should add another safety during the second wave of FA with guys like Marcus Williams, Julian Blackmon, and Justin Simmons still available. For the moderate groups: CB needs comp at nickel for Chau, could see more movement at ILB if there's concerns about Wallace's shoulder, WR needs another piece tho Tet might be a stretch at #8, and need at least one maybe two TEs but isn't convinced Morgan would take Warren if available.

ngl... it is funny af seeing the same people that swear a competent GM can find an RB at a gas station in Round O insisting that the Panthers take one in back-to-back drafts.

I cannot agree that a pick is bad just because a player gets hurt. That would imply that people should know that a career ending injury will happen which just isn't rational. There have been plenty of players that have torn their ACL and come back the following season and go on to have successful careers. Hell, this is the same team that believed in Thomas Davis after his third tear. Way, way, way too early to declare the pick good/bad.

I can't call drafting JB a mistake. Did the move work out? Not yet, and it's reasonable to be concerned that it won't pan out due to the re-injury. However, the team had zero RBs under contract for 2025 and Canales' offense leans heavily on the position. They also needed to give the young QB the team just made a heavy investment in a run game to help take some pressure off of him (especially after the previous season's poo show). Jumping ahead of the Giants who had just lost Saquon to take RB1 was the right move on paper. Sure, Frazier was there, but Mays handled things well (and posted a better PFF pass blocking grade) and JB looked like he belonged on the field until the re-tear. Sometimes, bad luck just happens. The team having not gone out and picked up an RB3 has me thinking that they're going to take one from this deep draft class. It will give them competition for RB2 if JB comes back the following year while giving the team a true three-headed monster in the backfield. Chuba's contract is also set up to allow for his release following this season (2026: $2M saved, 2027: $6M saved, 2028: $9M saved), so there's some moneyball that can be played as well by drafting another RB.

EJ Snyder's five gems: Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State Jonah Savaiinaea, OT/OG, Arizona Kaleb Johnson, RB, Iowa Tyler Warren, TE, Penn State Omarion Hampton, RB, UNC Brett Kollman's five gems: Tre Harris, WR, Ole Miss Charles Grant, OT, William & Mary RJ Harvey, RB, UCF Grey Zabel, OL, North Dakota State Jayden Higgins, WR, Iowa State Honorable Mentions: (Brett) Jaylin Noel, WR, Iowa State (Brett) Logan Brown, OT, Kansas (Brett) Tate Ratledge, iOL, Georgia (Brett) Elijah Arroyo, TE, Miami (Brett) Woody Marks, RB, UC (EJ) Devin Neal, RB, Kansas (EJ) Jack Bech, WR, TCU (EJ) Jordan James, RB, Oregon (EJ) Moliki Matavao, TE, UCLA They said that Ashton Jeanty isn't listed because he's a bit of a superhero and they're going to be creating plenty of draft highlighting him leading up to the draft. Also said that there is an embarrassing amount of riches at the RB position this year.

Surprised it took as long as it did tbh. Decent vet depth that's familiar with the system and can play ST.

Good listen. I appreciate Mike pointing out that the Milton Williams situation wasn't a debacle but instead overzealous reporting. I also appreciate him pointing out that the HC and OC are both former WR coaches. If we don't believe they can develop WRs then what are we doing? Also lots of cold water being dumped on having to get a WR1 this year.

Throughout his entire career? Every player is hurt by the end of the season. You have the fact that he suited up for a meaningless all-star game sitting right there but you still doubt he'd have suited up for the postseason? That's not exactly rational. He played all of last season and was shutdown in preparation to make sure he'd be healthy for this season when he costs the team $25M. Holding that against him isn't rational. We can hold the totality of it against him, sure. Having two seasons where he missed over 50% of the games is something that needs to be paid attention to. To sit here though and point at last season as a knock against him? Nonsensical.

You're assuming that he shouldn't get credit for being shut down out of an abundance of caution when he participated in the relay race (1/30/25) + flag football (2/2/25) at the Pro Bowl? He was inactive for the Panthers' last two games on 12/29/24 and 1/5/25. He most definitely would have suited up if there was a postseason run coming. They also shut Josey Jewell down for the final two weeks along with Jaycee Horn. Robert Hunt was also out for week 18. Was it because they're injury prone and need special treatment too? That's ridiculous to assume. This isn't something uncommon for a team with a losing record to do. Hurney especially was notorious for it.

Missing LaBryan Ray (DE), Claudin Cherelus (MLB), Dan Chisena (WR), and Jordan Matthews (TE). DJ Johnson and Amare Barno are swapped based on where they lined up last season.

The "Horn has never finished a season" narrative is ignorant at best, willfully misleading at worst. He would've finished last season had the team been playing into the postseason. He got shut down out an abundance of caution, likely a lesson learned after losing Corbett at the end of the prior season.

I took a look at last year's visits/meetings and noticed a couple of things: Of the seven players selected, the first four had all met with the team at some point during the draft process. Ainias Smith, WR, Texas A&M was the last player the Panthers interviewed to be drafted. He went #152 to the Eagles. The Panthers took Chau Smith-Wade just five selections later at #157. Blake Larson, OT, Augustana (SD) was the only player that the team interviewed and wasn't drafted. He was interviewed at an all-star game (ie: Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl, etc). Brooks, Wallace, and Sanders were all top-30 visits. XL the team met at an all-star game as well as had a local visit with him.

This is one of the many reasons for the 3yr rule. Average career is slightly over 3yrs, so at this point teams will know a player's contributions. Year One is getting acclimated as a rookie. Year Two is the dreaded sophomore slump. Year Three is the prove it year to see if they'll see Year Four. If they've made it to Year Four but haven't impressed, they're basically trying out for next season to be on ANY team. That's why all of the tit pinching over XL and Bryce has been so ridiculous to me. It's not like players developing isn’t normal.

The Giants were picking #47 and had just lost Saquon. Dan jumped to #46 to pick RB1 before them since the Panthers didn't have an RB under contract for 2025 at the time (Chuba wasn't extended until November 2024). Canales is big on having two capable starting backs for his offense (and it's best for Bryce imo to have a strong run game). Not defending it, just explaining the reasoning from how I understand it.

The very first highlight in this video is him taking it to the house from the wildcat, but what really highlights his speed is #10 from Purdue. That's Kyndrich Breedlove, a track athlete that clocked multiple sub-4.5 40s as a high schooler back in 2019. I'm not claiming that Warren is running a 4.4, but pulling away from a track guy as a TE is impressive. Austin Abbott on X Tyler Warren TE1 in the 2025 Rookie Class 104.mp4

The league year officially started less than 72hrs ago, so thankfully there's still a looooot of offseason left to go. 40 days left until the draft to sign one of the current FA WRs.

He was a top CB. Other NFL CBs agree that he is a top guy. His stats last season were due to the team running zone a LOT. This was likely due to losing DB + Shaq + Wonnum to at the start of the season and trying to bend but not break. This meant that Jaycee would more or less lock down his third of the field instead of the team's opposing WR1. I just watched all 37 of his pass defense snaps vs. KC because insomnia is real and can definitively say that not only was he in zone most of the time, he also did not lose the day to Nuk. I'm not sure who is telling you that, but they're wrong. Of those 37 snaps, Jaycee was targeted just seven times. These were the four to DHop with Horn in coverage: 12yds on an out route vs. cover 6 blitz with Jaycee being one of the deep cover-4 guys. 8yds on a curl route vs. cover 6. Jaycee immediately secured the tackle. 5yds on a curl route vs. cover 1 with Jaycee immediately securing the tackle again. 7yds on a rub route where JuJu picks Jaycee pretty good. Josey is fortunately right there for the stop. So... yea... just four plays with one being a rub route, one being a 5yd gain vs. man, and two underneath routes vs. Jaycee having to drop into deep coverage. I wouldn't exactly call that losing the day. Btw, the other plays where Jaycee was targeted: Flat defender in Cover 2 zone. JuJu drops it setting into the soft spot between Jaycee and Trevin. 6yds to Worthy on a curl route vs. man coverage. Stopped Noah Gray over the middle for 7yds while trailing a different player.

Going to be interesting how they work this considering Bobby Brown III was upset that the Rams weren't letting him rush the passer. I think that you're exactly right: Robinson on run downs and Wharton otherwise. I also think Robinson is gone after this season. He's gonna run the team $9.5M this season and $10M next season, but the team saves $8M cutting him after this year. Hard to not see the team drafting a DT or two this year and next.

$6.5M this season (tied for 39th w/ Shy Tuttle), $19M next season (14th highest salary for a DT). Can save $15M cutting him in 2027. Looks like a lot of the defensive contracts handed out are getting guys on the cheap this season while being just slightly more expensive than the yearly avg in year two, but with plenty of room to wiggle out in year three.

1yr rental on a 1000yd rusher that also has blocking + pass catching skills coming out of the backfield? On a position that is notoriously beaten up over the course of the season? That allows us to take a day 3 RB, of which there are apparently many potential starters in this class, and let JB redshirt for the year to get healthy? The only downside to this move is that it doesn't give doomers anything to doom over.

To further my point, that all came together over the course of 20min by just opening a couple of extra tabs to look up and/or verify information. These chucklefugs couldn't even do that.

Yea... hard for me to take these guys seriously. The extent of their prep is just eyeballing a stat sheet and then criticizing based off of whatever ranking system they want to use in the moment. Calling Wharton the fifth best DL on the Chiefs when he led the team in sacks last season and was the starting DT next to Chris Jones shows how little prep they put in. Bobby Brown III was the starting NT for the Rams. Yea, there is likely an overpay if we look just at the possible total value of the contracts given out but once we get the details we'll have a better idea of what to expect. Take Brown III, for example, who at first glance signed a 3yr/$21M. Most folks will do the quick maths and come away with one of two responses: a) "We're paying somebody else's back-up $21M" OR b) "We're paying another team's rotational guy $7M a year." However, looking at the details of the contract below, we see a few things: Brown III's cap hit for 2025 is just $3M. The hit jumps to $8M for 2026. His dead cap for 2026 is only $2.8M, so cutting him saves $5M. And then jumps again to $10M for 2027. His dead cap for 2027 is only $1.8M, so cutting him saves $8M. The only way Brown gets the full amount of the contract is if he plays the entirety of it, but as fans we are also aware that the only way he's seeing year three of that deal is if he's balling out. More than likely, he plays just the first two years of the deal which ends up being a 2yr/$13M (including the 2027 dead cap) for an average salary of $6.5M... which again, he's only getting paid $3M this upcoming season. Brown III's contract has me looking at this year as a tryout for him to see the rest of the deal. If he puts together two solid seasons, he'll see year three. The $6.5M/yr average that the numbers worked out to make Brown III's average salary the same as Shy Tuttle's (39th highest avg salary). Both NTs having such low numbers tell me that the Panthers are keeping their eyes peeled in the draft for the position group still. Once we get the details of Trevon Moehrig, Patrick Jones II, and Tershawn Wharton's deals we'll have a better idea of what the team has in mind for them. Wharton seemed to be the biggest signing of the linemen based on the reactions from fanbases that we signed guys away from as many in KC were complimentary of him. Everybody also said they wouldn't have paid as much for any of the FAs brought in, but that's the curse of a team trying to change its culture. Wharton's average salary ties him for 17th highest avg salary for DTs, but those contract details might tell a different story.